Underwater expert and engineer Jose Luis Martin said that the passengers on the doomed Titan submersible probably had just enough time to realize what was happening before the unthinkable occurred.

Martin likened the scene to something out of a “horror movie,” saying that he believed the craft probably nose-dived after an electrical fault, causing them to plummet — in complete darkness – toward the sea floor. During that time, The New York Post reported, the passengers would have been thrown against each other — in free fall for 48-71 seconds before the submersible could no longer withstand the pressure.

“During the controlled immersion of the Titan, there must have been an electrical fault, which left the craft without thrust,” Martin told Spanish news outlet NIUS. “Without thrust, the weight of the passengers and the pilot (about 400 kilograms), which was focused on the front end close to the view port, would have disrupted the Titan’s longitudinal stability.”

[That’s one theory. There have been indications that the submersible had disconnected from its weights and had been *ascending* rather than plummeting, which would also indicate that they knew they had a problem. Without having the telemetry data, it’s impossible to know the answer to this, but the fact that the locator was independent of the communications and powered separately, and yet still failed in the same instant, suggests a more immediate and catastrophic failure. At least, that’s what we hope. — Ed]