An official announcement was made by rescuers confirming that the Titan submersible that was exploring the Titanic shipwreck had tragically 'imploded'.
Search robots found debris of the missing submarine strewn across the ocean floor on Thursday, as the five people onboard are now confirmed to be dead, reports the Mirror.
According to National World, an implosion "could occur if any part of the submersible's carbon fibre and titanium hull has suffered a small crack or fault". The implosion typically looks like a bubble created by the water's weight.
Dr David Gallo, who is a senior advisor with RMS Titanic Inc - the people who own the rights to the original underwater gravesite - has said that the timeline of the journey suggests that something happened "mid-water" that caused the submarine to lose touch with their radio, whether it be power or something else.
So, what actually happens to a submersible when it implodes? Read on below to find out more.
What happens to a submarine when it implodes?
An implosion is the opposite of an explosion, so the two events look extremely different.
While during an explosion, the pressure rushes out of the area and into the atmosphere, an implosion means that the pressure comes rushing in - crushing everything inside.
Similar to an explosion, there is unlikely to be much left of the vessel and its cargo.
This video published on social media was a damning explanation of what could've happened to the Titan submersible - as a carriage on a train implodes under one atmospheric pressure.
The then-missing submarine could have imploded under around 375 atmospheric pressure according to this tweet, but the poster said: "A picture is worth a thousand words".
What happens to the human body when a submarine implodes underwater?
If a submarine implodes with people inside, it will collapse in on itself, as a result of the high water pressure, reports HITC.
The event would be catastrophic to those on board, and no one would be able to survive.
How did this tragic event even happen?
Officials are unsure on how quickly this vessel imploded into its journey - it could have happened immediately and could be the reason why the submarine never appeared again.
However, it also could've happened after the submersible lost connection with the radio, and ended up floating in the water.
Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate, explained in a haunting interview: "As you’re descending, you’ve got your depth and altitude… that’s pretty critical.
"When you get close to the bottom, you have to be ready to drop some weight so you don’t go crashing into it, or thrust.
"So getting that notification 200 metres above the bottom is pretty critical.
"And then when we use our laser scanning system, we need correction data for through water speed currents and the light to keep the errors down, and that’s it, that’s the element of adding [coms] on the sub."
Other people have speculated that the material that the sub was made out of wasn't meant to last, as Stockton admitted to taking shortcuts there too.
Mr Rush said: "This Carbon fibre hull is a huge thing. Carbon fibre has been used for autonomous underwater vehicles before, but never anything as large as what we’re doing.
"Some work was done by the Navy decades ago, but it was determined that you can’t use it."
Rush added to the statement that now seems poignant: "A lot of arguments about using carbon fibre in submersibles were the same as using [carbon fibre] in aircraft.
"And having built my own fibreglass plane 30 years ago, I’m still flying it, you can do it, you just have to do it right."
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