An ex-US Navy veteran has stated that the five men stuck inside a submarine heading down to inspect the Titanic’s wreckage could be suffering from a slew of health issues.
With time running out and investigators picking up on a “banging” noise near the site and conjecture over “signs of life” near the Titanic’s wreckage, the passengers imprisoned in the OceanGate vessel could face a slew of health issues.
It comes after Dr. Dale Molé issued a warning about the health risks of being stuck within a submarine, with the US Navy veteran writing his personal experience of being confined inside a submarine terror.
According to Dr. Molé, the submarine passengers are fighting a “hostile internal submarine environment” ranging from toxic gas to hypothermia due to low temperatures.
Dr. Molé told the Daily Mail, “When humans are confined in an airtight space, most people think of oxygen, but carbon dioxide is actually a bigger concern.”
“They’ll have some kind of carbon dioxide scrubbing system in a submersible.” If the batteries died, the system would no longer function.”
Passengers aboard the Titan submarine were confined within with 17 bolts that could only be opened from the outside.
Those within confront “physiological challenges, such as toxic gases, exposure to elevated ambient pressures, and hypothermia,” according to the expert.
According to Dr. Molé, passengers will gradually begin to convert breathable oxygen into carbon dioxide, making it “difficult to breathe.”
“The people inside will find it difficult to breathe, and their depth of respiration will increase,” he continued. They will get headaches and eventually pass out.
“When people are trapped in an airtight environment, it is the rising level of carbon dioxide, not the level of oxygen, that kills them first.”
Breathing difficulties will be like “putting a bag over your head,” while hypothermia poses the risk of attempting to “generate heat,” which “uses up more oxygen.”
He also mentioned how panic attacks and hyperventilation caused by panic would deplete oxygen.
The announcement comes after “signs of life” have reportedly been discovered in the area where Titan went missing.
The Explorers Club’s President, Richard Garriot de Cayeux, said in a statement today (Wednesday, June 21), “there is cause for hope” because “we understand that likely signs of life have been detected at the site.”
