It is a race against time. Search teams for the mysteriously missing submarine in Atlantic waters, with five people on board, they have the hours counted to find them. Because the little ‘Titan’, from the Ocean Gate company, He only had 96 hours of oxygen reserves, that is, four days. And they are running out. The expedition left Newfoundland, in Canada, last Sunday.
What could be living in there? How can you try to survive an extreme situation like this? Little is known about it, because few people have been in such a situation.
But if we look back, we find a precedent with certain similarities. It happened 50 years ago. The rescue of the two British crew members of the submersible Pisces III, in 1973, after spending more than 84 hours trapped inside. It was the deepest underwater rescue in history. Until now.
The rescue of Pisces III in memory: an example to follow?
Saber how was your experience It may be useful to give us an idea of what the five people trapped now may be going through. In that case, it was a small Canadian commercial submersible. AND its dimensions are very similar to those of the now missing submarine.
- He Pisces III half 6 meters long, 2 meters wide and 3 meters high
- He Titan stomach 6.70 meters long, 2.80 wide and 2.50 high
On board the Pisces III only two people were traveling: Pilot Roger Chapman, 28, a former Royal Navy submariner, and engineer and pilot Roger Mallinson, 35. His mission was work and routine: lay telephone cable on the seabed.
But they had an accident and they spent three days trapped in the small submersible. When they were rescued alive, they only had 12 minutes of oxygen left.. How did they manage until then to survive?
Oxygen reserves declining: every hour counts
On August 29, 1973, Chapman and Mallinson began the dive with a full oxygen tank. And they knew that, as important as their job laying cable, it was take care of the life support in the submersible. That’s why, as both remember in this BBC report, every 40 minutes they turned on a lithium hydroxide fan to absorb the carbon dioxide (CO2) they exhaled. Then they injected a small amount of oxygen.
But when they finished their work and were starting the return to the mother ship, the submersible struck and sank. she plummeted, at 65 kilometers per hour, to the seabed. When they were aware that they were alive, the two crew members established contact with the base and They began to organize to survive.
The submarine had 72 hours of oxygen in case of accident. That is, oxygen for three days. But they had already used eight hours in the immersion They had 66 left.
In the case of titan submarinewe remember, they carry oxygen reserves for 96 hours and five people. But the days go by, and every hour counts. The submarine lost contact on Sunday, 1 hour and 45 minutes after its dive.as explained by the US Coast Guard. At that time is when it is estimated that they had 96 hours of life support. This Tuesday, the Coast Guard warned that the submarine had “about 40 hours of breathable air” left.
Not talking, not moving, very cold and headache
the first thing they did Chapman y Mallinson was to shut down the electrical systems and turn everything off. Did you know, to conserve oxygen, the less physical exertion they did, the better. “If you turn everything off, you use a quarter of the oxygen. You don’t speak or move”, they explain on the BBC. Furthermore, the two men they positioned themselves as high as possible in the submarinebecause they explain that the stale and heavy air settles below, at the bottom.
We are talking about a cabin 6 meters long, very small, so they had very little space. It must be taken into account that the dimensions of the Titan are almost the same (6.70), but three more people are in it.
Mallinson recalls on the BBC that they they barely spoke. “We just held hands and gave each other a squeeze to show each other that we were okay. It was very cold, we were wet. It is incredible how intensely cold you can feel”. and they began to suffer Severe headaches, as they ran out of oxygen. “But our job was to stay alive“, they remember.
So is that of Titan crew. All of them, however, they have signed a document, before the expedition, in which they clearly accepted that they were at risk of dying.
Sign that you accept death as a result
What the document you sign before traveling on the commercial submersible Titan says is exactly this: “A trip on an experimental submersible craft, not approved by any regulatory body, which can result in physical harm, disability, emotional trauma, or death.”. We see it in this video, shared on Twitter by CNN contributor Frida Ghitis.
“The word ‘death’ is mentioned three times on the first page of the document, you never get it out of your head”remember the writer Mike Reiss, screenwriter and producer The Simpson, in statements to the BBC. “You sign a disclaimer that lists one after another the ways you could die on the journey,” he explains. Reiss made the same trip last year. “You know perfectly well what you’re getting yourself into,” he says.
Also traveled last year was CBS correspondent David Pogue. Speaking to the BBC’s ‘The Context’ programme, Pogue explains that the submarine has up to seven different functions to allow it to return to the surface and that it is “really worrying” that none of them have worked so far.
and warns that returning to the surface is the only option. If the sub had been caught in something or had no chance to maneuver, there would be none. “There is no backup, there is no escape pod. You have to get to the surface or die.”
The same warns Reiss. “If it’s in the background, I don’t know how anyone is going to be able to access it.let alone bring it back.”
Oxygen that is running out: how to extend it?
The fact is that these hours are crucial. And as they pass by, the five people trapped inside may be experiencing something similar to what Chapman and Mallinson experienced. Dosing the oxygen was key, in his case, and it can be so now as well.
The oceanographer explains it Eugenio Fraile, from the IEO, in statements to the Cuatro program ‘Everything is a lie’. The Titan “disappeared on Sunday at 9:00 p.m.,” so “that’s day one, he would have another 3 days of life support left.” If they had about 40 hours left this Tuesday afternoon, according to the US Coast Guard, Today they can have oxygen left for a little more than a day.
Chapman and Mallinson had a 72-hour supply of oxygen, but they managed to lengthen them much more. As? Because they decided to allow carbon dioxide to accumulate in the submarine a little longer, beyond those stipulated 40 minutes, in order to conserve more oxygen. That It caused lethargy and drowsiness. When they were rescued, the British had been inside for 84 and a half hours. “We had 72 hours of life support when we started the dive, so we managed to hold out another 12.5 hours”, recalls Chapman on the BBC.
excess CO2 “is what kills first”
The increase in CO2 in the environment is as important as the lack of oxygen. This was recently described in an article by Dr. Dale Molé, from the US Navy, who assured in an interview with the Daily Mail that carbon dioxide “is actually a bigger concern.” Explain that when the amount of oxygen in the air you breathe is reduced, CO2 reaches toxic levels. Those who are locked up start breathing hard, headaches start and little by little they lose consciousness.
“The increase in the level of CO2 It’s what kills people first, not the oxygen level,” ensures. “It’s like putting a bag on your head, they will have a feeling of needing air and after that comes unconsciousness.”
Cold
But oxygen is not the only thing. Fraile also mentions another important factor: the cold, the temperature at which they are. “We are talking about the fact that they are at a depth of 3,800 meters and at that depth, the ocean water is about 2 degrees.”
The electrical systems of the bathyscaphe and the presence of five people in a small space will generate some heat, but as the cold progresses “passengers will start shivering to generate heat and that consumes more oxygen,” says Dalé, who also mentions the psychological challenge that such a situation entails, in which it is difficult to avoid moments in which the breathing rate accelerates or even hyperventilation.
In these conditions, it is also likely that they do not carry many provisions on the Titan. It is not usual. “They don’t usually take a lot of food on board, because the dives are usually relatively short, 8 or 12 hours”Friar explains.
Neither optimism nor security
Neither Reiss, nor Pogue, nor Fraile are very optimistic about the outcome of this expedition. Reiss confesses that he himself thought he could die when he made his last year. “When I was getting into the submarine, my thought was that this could be the end.” “Nobody can be caught off guard,” acknowledges the writer. This expedition “it’s not vacationnor a search for emotions ”, he explains. “It’s exploration, they are explorers.”
As an oceanographer, Fraile warns that “any action at sea is really complex”, and if it is under the sea, even more. “Any little thing we want to do on the surface of the ocean, Under the sea it is complicated 4, 5 and 6 times more”.
And furthermore, he explains that in the case of these commercial submarines that make this type of expeditions, security is not the same than in normal submarines. “Their security systems are totally different.” And he also warns that “The people on board are wealthy who want an unattainable tourism. On many occasions, it is worth more to be able to reach a place where no one has been than their own safety. They are not conditions to put someone into the sea ”.
The GPS does not work underwater, nor does the radio, which means there is “no way” to communicate with the vessel, And that’s what complicates everything the most: not even know where they are. “It’s looking for a needle in a haystack. He doesn’t look good at all, ”concludes Fraile.
