Titan Debris Search: Viral Image Of Logitech Controller Used To Steer Submersible Found To Be Fake 

Authors

Kushel HM

Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.

Claim
The Logitech gaming controller that was used to pilot the Titan submersible survived the implosion fully intact.

Fact
No official images of the Titan debris have been released, the controller would most likely have been destroyed.

Several social media users are circulating a photo of what appears to be some debris on the ocean floor, claiming that the Logitech gaming controller used to pilot the ill-fated Titan submersible survived the implosion, while staying intact. The tourist submersible on June 22 imploded during its descent to the shipwreck site of the Titanic, killing all five men on board, bringing a grim end to a frenzied five-day search.

The archived versions of the tweet can be seen here.

Also Read: Video Of Protesters Garlanding PM’s Effigy With Shoes In The US Is From 2019

The Submersible Used A Video Game Controller

The 21-foot submersible was reportedly made with a handful of off-the-shelf components, including scaffolding poles for the sub’s ballast and a video game controller in place of a steering wheel. More specifically, a repurposed $30 Logitech F710 wireless controller was used to operate the $250,000-a-seat vessel, which OceanGate has been operating since 2021. According to a DW report, the CBS reporter had explored the sub with OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush last year, who says “We run the whole thing with this game controller.”  

The revelation sparked speculation about whether the controller had anything to do with the disaster, which saw the Amazon page for the controller bombarded with troll reviews. However, we learnt that gaming controllers are already being widely used across various fields in different applications, such as robots, laser weapons, drones, and even medtech.

Fact Check

Newshecker ran a keyword search for “Titan debris Logitech”, which led us to multiple reports about the detection of the submersible’s debris by a remote-operated vehicle. The images of the search vehicle have been released, however, at the time of publishing this article, no photos of the debris had been issued by the authorities concerned or any credible news outlets, indicating that the viral image is fake.

A reverse image search of the viral photo led us to this tweet, dated June 23, 2023. The community note, attached to the tweet, states that the image is altered and that the Logitech F710 would not be able to withstand the pressure of being over 10,000 feet below sea level, citing a study. “The pressure increases about one atmosphere for every 10m of water depth. At a depth of 5,000m, the pressure will be approximately 500 atmospheres or 500 times greater than the pressure at sea level,” read the study.

We learnt that the Titan submersible suffered a “catastrophic implosion” (a violent collapse inwards), instantly killing all five passengers on board. According to a BBC report, Titan is believed to have been 3,500m below sea level when contact was lost, adding that the vessel was so deep that the amount of water on it would have been equivalent to the weight of the Eiffel Tower, tens of thousands of tonnes.

When a submarine hull collapses, it moves inward at about 1,500mph (2,414km/h) – that’s 2,200ft (671m) per second, Dave Corley, a former US nuclear submarine officer, told BBC. “The time required for complete collapse is about one millisecond, or one thousandth of a second,” read the report. According to Corley, when the hull collapses, the air auto-ignites and an explosion follows the initial rapid implosion, which confirms that the controller would have most likely been incinerated or crushed in the explosion.

Also Read: Fake Image Of Titan Submersible Debris Goes Viral

Conclusion

Viral image claimed to show a fully intact Logitech gaming controller as part of the debris field of the Titan submersible was found to be fake.

Result: False

Sources
Tweet and community note, June 23, 2023
BBC report, June 23, 2023

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Authors

Kushel HM

Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.