Barely 6m long tube, one button and steering controller

The Titan Fist is not for those with claustrophobia. The entire submarine is 6.7 meters long, 2.8 meters wide and 2.5 meters high, but the space in which the pilot and four passengers sit takes up only a fraction of that. Submarine photos show that you can only sit, not stand.

There is exactly one button on the panel: the button to turn the device on and off. Moreover, the control is done using the converted game console. According to CEO Stockton Rush of diving company OceanGate Expeditions – which is believed to be among the missing five – it was made by Swiss hardware manufacturer Logitech. “It’s basically a Sony Playstation-style game console,” he told the BBC. “If you want to go forward, press forward, if you want to go backward, press backward and the same with left and right.”

Speed

The device reaches a speed of 5.5 kilometers per hour, or the walking speed of a trainer. The descent of 4000 meters to the wreck of the Titanic takes about two hours and back. You can look out through a small window in the back. You can do this from an improvised toilet, read: a hole in the bottom of the submarine has a bottle in which to put urine.

The vehicle weighs 10 tons and is made of carbon fiber and titanium, which is not a luxury if you know that it can descend to a depth of 4,000 meters. The pressure there is 380 times greater than the pressure at the surface of the water.

Outside there are four electric motors, lights, cameras, sonar and a scanner. Images can be viewed directly on the on-board digital screen. There is no GPS. The text messages that are exchanged are communicated via Very short baselineUnderwater acoustic positioning system.

If there are five people on board, oxygen will be available for 96 hours. Under normal circumstances, that is. If someone panics or if the crew moves more than usual, they will use more oxygen and have less time to reach the surface.

And even if they do make it to the surface, they have to keep hoping they’ll be found in time. Because the heavy duty access hatch cannot be opened from the inside. An outside team is needed to open the behemoth and let the crew out.