The recent news of the tragic implosion of the Titan submersible, claiming the lives of all five travelers during a deep-sea expedition, brought back haunting memories for Ramachandran Kallazhy (Rama). Hailing from Kottayi in Palakkad and working as an expert with a Singapore-based firm involved in laying deep-sea cables, Rama had witnessed a similar disaster thirty-seven years ago.
During that time, the technology in the underwater cable sector was not as advanced. Workers had to enter a special chamber submerged into the ocean floor from a ship for welding and cable maintenance. The chamber was connected to the ship’s oxygen plant through a pipe, ensuring the workers could breathe.
These workers would spend up to seven days underwater, followed by additional days in the chamber for acclimatization upon resurfacing. On that fateful incident, Rama’s ship received storm warnings and returned to shore two days before. The warnings continued the following day, prompting the ship to head back to the coast. However, both days passed without any severe storm.
When the third warning arrived, the ship’s captain chose to remain in the sea. Unfortunately, the cyclone struck during the night. While three workers were brought back to the ship from the seafloor chamber, they couldn’t open the chamber immediately due to the perilous pressure difference.
As weather conditions worsened, authorities decided to evacuate the ship’s occupants to land via helicopter. Rama boarded the chopper along with others, but the chamber with the three workers couldn’t be loaded. A heart-wrenching decision was made to abandon the chamber along with the ship.
In a poignant gesture, the trapped workers wrote a message on paper and affixed it to the chamber’s glass walls. It conveyed their love for their wives and children, expressing faith in divine guidance for their kids. Meanwhile, the ship, along with the chamber, sank the next day, leading to an irretrievable loss.
Despite the harrowing experience, Ramachandran Kallazhy continues to work in the same profession. However, he points out that humans no longer dive to the ocean floor in glass chambers for cable laying. The work is now performed by robots, eliminating the risks involved in such treacherous endeavors.
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