The five people trapped inside the Titanic-bound tourist sub could find their bodies turned into “mummies” due to frigid underwater temperatures and the lack of oxygen in the pressurized vessel, experts said.
Nicholas Passalacqua, a director of forensic anthropology at Western Carolina University, surmised that if the five passengers died aboard the Titan, their bodies would be oddly preserved inside the submersible.
“Generally in an environment without oxygen, remains will not decompose much because the micro and macro organisms that would work to consume and decompose the tissues will be unable to survive,” Passalacqua told Insider.
Melissa Connors, a director for the Forensic Investigation Research Station at Colorado Mesa University, agreed with the assessment, noting that the cold temperatures of the Atlantic would help dry the bodies if the sub’s heating system were to fail as well.
“So you might end up with mummies,” she told the outlet.
In general, higher temperatures and the presence of bacteria lead to a faster body decomposition rate.
And while bacteria typically require oxygen to thrive, anaerobic bacteria that can operate without oxygen can still decompose the bodies of the dead.
Tourist submersible exploring Titanic wreckage disappears in Atlantic Ocean
What we know
A submersible on a pricey tourist expedition to the Titanic shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean has vanished with likely only four days’ worth of oxygen. The US Coast Guard said the small submarine began its journey underwater with five passengers Sunday morning, and the Canadian research vessel that it was working with lost contact with the crew about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.
It was later found that a top-secret team with the US Navy detected the implosion of the Titan submersible on Sunday, but did not stop search efforts due because the evidence was “not definitive” and a decision was made to “make every effort to save the lives on board.”
Who was on board?
The family of world explorer Hamish Harding confirmed on Facebook that he was among the five traveling in the missing submarine. Harding, a British businessman who previously paid for a space ride aboard the Blue Origin rocket last year, shared a photo of himself on Sunday signing a banner for OceanGate’s latest voyage to the shipwreck.
Also onboard were Pakistani energy and tech mogul Shanzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman, 19; famed French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush.
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- Coast Guard knew Titan sub imploded Sunday, but continued search anyway — here’s why
What’s next?
“We’re doing everything we can do to locate the submersible and rescue those on board,” Rear Adm. John Mauger told reporters. “In terms of the hours, we understood that was 96 hours of emergency capability from the operator.
Coast Guard officials said they are currently focusing all their efforts on locating the sub first before deploying any vessel capable of reaching as far below as 12,500 feet where the Titanic wreck is located.
Mauger, first district commander and leader of the search-and-rescue mission, said the US was coordinating with Canada on the operation.
The debris recovered from the US Coast Guard’s Titan submersible search site early Thursday included “a landing frame and a rear cover from the submersible.”
After search efforts to recover the stranded passengers proved futile, and bits of debris from the submersible were found, it was decided that the sub imploded, which correlated with an anomaly picked up by the US Navy in the same area.
The Coast Guard later reported that all 5 passengers were confirmed dead, and rescue efforts were halted.
There is very little research and precedent on bodies that have been found in highly pressurized, underwater vessels.
The decomposition of a normal corpse can take anywhere from weeks to years, depending on the environment.
The morbid outcome stands as one of three major likely possibilities as OceanGate Expeditions’ Titan remains lost less than two hours after submerging into the Atlantic on Sunday morning.
With its oxygen supply forecast to have run out Thursday morning, the five passengers face dwindling hopes of being rescued alive, although the search-and-rescue teams have repeatedly said they’re not giving up hope despite the 96-hour window closing.
The US Coast Guard said it was possible Titan resurfaced but lacked the means to communicate its location.
“If it’s on the surface, we’re fairly sure we’re going to be able to find it,” Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick assured reporters Tuesday.
It’s unclear how long the passengers would be able to survive adrift in the ocean.
Experts have also suggested that the Titan suffered a breach in its hull, which has long been criticized as part of an “experimental design” that diving experts warned would have “catastrophic” impacts on the industry.
A breach would result in the sub likely imploding from the intense pressure of the Atlantic’s depths.
