Yeah, I’ve read how experts stated that the point where the dissimilar materials meet would be the most likely location of the failure. Titanium and carbon fiber will certainly behave differently under that pressure.

I think it’s far less likely to be the root cause, but I do wonder if the 380mm acrylic viewport had anything to do with the failure. It wasn’t rated for anywhere near that depth.

At the meeting Lochridge discovered why he had been denied access to the viewport information from the Engineering department—the viewport at the forward of the submersible was only built to a certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate intended to take passengers down to depths of 4,000 meters. Lochridge learned that the viewport manufacturer would only certify to a depth of 1,300 meters due to experimental design of the viewport supplied by OceanGate, which was out of the Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy (“PVHO”) standards. OceanGate refused to pay for the manufacturer to build a viewport that would meet the required depth of 4,000 meters.