(MENAFN- The Arabian Post)

Investigators have recovered an intact consumer-grade memory card from the wreckage of the submersible Titan operated by OceanGate, showing that even amid catastrophic failure some components survived. The 512 GB card, believed to be a SanDisk Extreme Pro model normally priced at around US $62, was installed in a deep-sea camera found among the debris. Despite the extreme underwater environment, the card yielded twelve still photographs and nine 4K video clips - none of which document the implosion or final moments of the dive.

The camera in question is identified as a SubC Rayfin Mk2 Benthic, rated for depths up to 6,000 metres. Investigators reported that while the camera's housing and lens suffered damage, the compartment containing the SD card remained sealed and the card itself showed no visible physical damage. Forensic teams created a bit-for-bit clone of the card and successfully extracted media from it.

The retrieved content was limited in scope: the stills and video were taken near the logistical base at the Marine Institute in Newfoundland, rather than during any deep-sea mission. According to the investigation, the Lundy-based camera system had been configured to record directly to an external device aboard the Titan, with the onboard card acting only as a backup or preliminary storage medium - explaining the absence of footage from the accident dive.

While the implosion-investigation team focused much of its attention on the heavily crushed mission-computer cluster and the composite hull failure, this peripheral finding draws attention to how some components of the system fared differently. A separate technical review of the Titan's computer systems identified a large mass of compressed electronic components weighing approximately 45 kg; the mass consisted of three Nuvo-5000LP fanless PCs that logged vessel monitoring data, and investigators found no recoverable data from those modules.

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This SD-card discovery has triggered debate among incident analysts and deep-sea-engineering experts. Some note the irony that a low-cost commercial storage medium outlasted mission-critical computer hardware under extreme conditions. Others emphasise that the SD card's intact state owes in large part to its protective housing and the fact it was not exposed in the pressure chamber at the moment of implosion. One tech-observing analyst commented:“The camera + card assembly was encased in a separate titanium-and-sapphire enclosure, and did not seem to be exposed to the full implosion pressure.”

The broader investigation into the Titan tragedy, in which all five aboard the vessel perished, found the composite pressure hull failed while flying to view the RMS Titanic wreck site in the North Atlantic in June 2023. A subsequent report by the National Transportation Safety Board pointed to design, testing and certification lapses. The survival of the SD card, while tangential to causation, underscores how forensic data recovery in extreme maritime incidents can yield unexpected results.

For the manufacturers of underwater hardware and data-storage systems, the tale offers practical lessons. The camera manufacturer had reportedly redacted trade-secret components in the images supplied to investigators, yet the fact remains that the media card survived intact. At the same time, the lack of material from the dive drives home how data-routing decisions can render embedded devices moot in the event of structural failure.

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