A specialist says the lethality of the cases can be explained by the fact that water is not a “common medium for humans”.
The OceanGate Titan submarine implosion is the latest incident of the 21st century involving submersible vessels. However, a further six incidents have been recorded since 2000, with almost all of the cases having no survivors.
The most famous and deadly case happened in 2000 with the Kursk submarine from Russia. The accident killed 118 crew members on board the ship. The second largest accident occurred in 2017. Argentina lost contact with the ARA San Juan vehicle, which sank after an explosion. 44 people died in the incident.
Before Titan, the last episode happened in 2021 with the Indonesian submarine Kri Nanggala402.
Read below about the most important accidents:
Russian submarine Kursk in 2000
It is one of the deadliest submarine accidents. The Kursk nuclear submarine was conducting naval exercise SummerX in the Arctic Circle when it sank on August 12, 2000 in the Barents Sea off Russia’s Arctic coast. A day later it was at a depth of 108 meters. The vehicle’s 118 crew members perished.
The Kursk was armed with 24 Granit cruise missiles. According to the Russian Navy, it carried no nuclear warheads, so there was no risk of radiation leaks.
Reproduction/English Russia Pictured is the wreck of the Russian submarine Kursk, which sank in the Barents Sea on August 12, 2000
The Russian investigation concluded that a torpedo explosion was likely the cause of the crash. There was also a second explosion that ripped a hole in the bow and likely killed most of the crew instantly.
Later, Russian officials announced that the liquid fuel they used in their rockets was known to be unstable under various temperature and pressure conditions.
The case was registered four months after Vladimir Putin took over the presidency of Russia. Putin was on vacation at the time and did not return to Moscow on the day of the incident. The Russian leader visited the rescue site just nine days later. The way he dealt with his first major crisis during his tenure was widely criticized.
Submarine 361 from China in 2003
The vehicle, also known as the Great Wall or Ming 3, was conducting a military exercise in the Yellow Sea between North Korea and China’s Shandong province on April 16, 2003 when it suffered a mechanical failure. The accident was caused by the submarine’s diesel fuel engine, which was improperly shut off, ran out of oxygen while the ship was submerged. All 70 crew members suffocated.
The sub is believed to have surfaced at some point because the craft was found nine days later (on April 25) by Chinese fishermen who noticed the ship’s periscope (observing instrument) above the water’s surface.
Russian submarine Nerpa in 2008
Also known as the K152, the submarine was conducting tests in the Sea of Japan when the fire suppression system was accidentally activated on November 8, 2008. part of the taxpayer.
In the test phase, the Nerpa had 208 people on board, 81 military and 127 civilians, including engineers. 20 people suffocated in the incident. Another 41 were injured. Many suffered burns from the cooling effects of the gas.
India’s submarine Sindhurakshak in 2013
An explosion in the vehicle’s battery compartment killed 18 Indian Navy personnel on August 14, 2013.
The ship, renovated in Russia, was in the port of Mumbai, India. Therefore, other crew members managed to escape by jumping from the submarine. The explosion caused the vehicle to sink even after the fire was brought under control.
Disclosure/Wikimedia Commons 24.Feb.2013 The Sindhurakshak submarine after refurbishment by Russia
According to a preliminary report by the Indian Navy, “accident or accidental handling of ammunition” was the cause of the explosions. However, the investigations were not completed until after the submarine was rescued on June 6, 2014. The final analysis concluded that the cause of the disaster was human error caused by crew fatigue.
Submarine San Juan from Argentina in 2017
During a routine exercise off the coast of Argentina, the ARA San Juan submarine disappeared on November 15, 2017. The craft was not found until about a year later, on November 17, 2018, at a depth of 907 meters in the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean. All 44 people on board the ship perished.
Juan Kulichevsky/Wikimedia Commons May 14, 2017 The submarine Ara San Juan at the Naval Station in Buenos Aires
Investigations revealed that the accident was caused by a vehicle implosion. However, authorities still do not know what caused the incident.
Indonesia’s submarine Kri Nanggala402 in 2021
The vehicle was conducting training maneuvers at sea north of the island of Bali when it lost contact with the Indonesian Navy on April 21, 2021. The disappearance happened after the ship received permission to dive.
Kri Nanggala402 was found split in three parts due to pressure 4 days later on April 25, 2021. All 53 crew members died.
Press release/Wikimedia Commons 8 Aug 2015 The Kri Nanggala402 submarine during an exercise in the Java Sea in the Pacific Ocean in 2015
Investigations revealed that the submarine gradually cracked as it sank. The process began when he was at a depth of 300500 meters. The structure of the vehicle is designed to withstand pressures of up to 200 meters depth. After that, he was threatened with collapse. Scans performed with sonar detected objects in regions up to 850 meters.
The lethality of submarines
When a submarine or submersible crashes to the bottom of the sea, the chances of surviving are slim to zero. According to the director of the Institute of Oceanography at USP, the main explanation for this low survival rate is that water is “not a common environment for humans.”
“For example, a plane crashes, but you are in the terrestrial environment. If you survived you can breathe, you can at least try to survive. In an aquatic environment where the submersible is on the seabed, if the submersible breaks up or something happens, the chance of surviving is minimal. Except for the pressure, which is very high.”
Sumida explains that the deeper the vessel is in the sea, the greater the pressure exerted on it. The wreck of the Titanic, for example, lies at 3,800 meters, where the pressure is almost 400 times higher than the environment in which we live.
“In the air environment, we are exposed to a pressurized atmosphere that is actually equal to the weight of the column of air above us. When I go into the sea, water is much denser than air. So every 10 meters [de profundidade] it adds to the atmosphere,” he said.
This seabed pressure acts on the hull of the craft. The interior of the container is under the action of an atmosphere. “When the hull ruptured, the submersible imploded, meaning it was crushed because all the air that was in the hull was compressed to a minimal volume,” he said.
Read more about the Titan case: