fittings were connectors and devices that are basically breachable from the immense pressure. so at that pressure, like you said, probably around 4,000 or 5,000 pounds per square inch, over 350 times the pressure on earth, any small leak could cause an immediate implosion, which would destroy the craft. so when we see parts of the craft, i am just amazed they were able to that quickly locate some of this debris. what they would do now is go back to that site and like cookie crumbs try to find a trail as to where that would lead because even though there was an explosion or implosion at that point the parts could be scattered and some of them could still be slightly buoyant to the fact that tides and currents could have drifted them away. so the big project right now is going to be trying to collect those parts. they won t just go randomly collect them. they ll mark them. they ll indicate where they were. and they ll lay out a map of where those parts were found.
instant, catastrophic failure. and we all know that it s a risk. a risk that has been talked about by those on board. now we have an answer that so many were asking, what happened. but again, there were a lot of questions as to now why it happened, jake, and could it have been avoided. jason carroll in boston for us. thank you so much. some of the debris that was found include the tail cone of the titan submersible, that piece along with any other evidence that was found will most certainly be looked at as officials try and figure out what exactly caused this vessel to implode. joining us now cnn s tom foreman. tom, show us where these discovered parts used to be on the titan. reporter: this is really important to the investigation here. first piece they found was this, this sort of tail cone that sticks out here that says oceangate on it. then if you take that part away they also found the nose cone over here, which contains that window up front that we ve seen so many pictures
potential human remains. reporter: quite right. exactly, jake. and also questions about whether or not something like this could have been prevented. again, this all happening this morning when these officials who were running this massive search, at the time search and rescue operation, the remote operated vehicle that was down on the ocean floor early this morning at 8:55 a.m. came across that debris field. right now what they are doing is the r.o.v.s are still there on the ocean floor, still trying to map the ocean floor, still trying to figure out exactly what is down there in terms of debris. the coast guard earlier today, the rear admiral gave his assessment of exactly what happened and in addition to that a deep sea expert weighed in on exactly what was found. we found five different major
pieces of debris that told us that it was the remains of the titan. the initial thing we found was the nose cone, which was outside of the pressure hull. we then found a large debris field. within that large debris field we found the front end bell of the pressure hull. the debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber. upon this determination, we immediately notified the families. reporter: and jake, i know you mentioned there at the top in terms of timing when this may have happened. i actually asked the rear admiral about that, given that the titan lost communication with the ship on the surface about an hour and 45 minutes into its descent. the rear admiral could not give
mystery and put a puzzle together to tell us what happened. so no one knows for sure exactly why the vessel imploded? some of the debris that was found includes the tail cone of the titan. what do you make of what was found? obviously, we know nothing for sure. but do you have a best guess as to what might have happened based on what was found and the condition it was found in? well, sure, we don t have any facts now, anything that i state would be total speculation. but my theory at this point was that there was some type of catastrophic failure on the descent, as was mentioned, and as believed by a lot of experts. that catastrophic failure probably was instantaneous. there are two ways that could happen in that water column. one is there could be an explosion, which could be an internal explosion, the atmosphere inside a sub is oxygenated and that could be highly explosive. so that could happen. but there are also through hull