I don’t think there were any cracks. Most probably it was, one second there is a submersible and everything seems fine, and the next second there is no submersible. And everything is still fine because we just got rid of a few billionaires for free, and didn’t even have to use a guillotine.
That theory doesn’t explain why they suddenly dropped ballast and attempted an ascension prior to implosion, though.
E. After doing some digging, the comments about the Titan having dropped weights and was ascending during implosion came from James Cameron. Not sure if that makes it more or less trustworthy…
The linked article quotes somebody as saying the dropped weights were most likely to slow the descent as they approached the ocean floor. They just dropped a little weight, but not enough to start ascending again.
I think that’s a fair assessment, mine isn’t all that dissimilar.
My understanding is there were only a few meters between the weight drop and complete communication loss, so either something went wrong directly related to dropping ballast, which caused the implosion, or perhaps cues the sub was in peril were ignored/misinterpreted by the captain, and the weight drop was his ineffective corrective measure.
From what I’ve read about the captian, I think his hubris would have never allowed him to fully consider they might be in real danger.
I agree that we’re talking milliseconds between the first crack and full implosion. Any cracks in carbon fiber will act as a stress concentrator which will cause more cracking in a rapid exponential process. There’s a reason everyone else doing this said you can’t use that material. Metal has some ductility so a very tiny crack normally won’t cascade like that instantly.
