Our latest animation project was for a three-hour series on nuclear submarine accidents as part of the Discovery Channel’s new series called “On the Inside”. The USS Scorpion episode first aired on 4 January 1999 and will be rebroadcast throughout the coming months. (Check your local listings for rebroadcast information in your area.) The series involves some of the most complex forensic engineering analysis work we’ve done so far, made more difficult by government secrecy. The program includes details regarding the search and eventual discovery of Scorpion’s wreckage in October 1968 and its re-examination in 1984. Most of the material in the program has never been revealed on TV, or for that matter anywhere else.

This fast attack submarine was lost with a crew of 99 when she suffered, what most experts believe was, an internal explosion. She sank to the Atlantic sea floor, where she lies in three major pieces, 11,000ft down. Detailed computer models of the sub were developed to illustrate her design as well as to recreate what happened after the explosion. JMS simulated the sinking and “break-up” sequence the sub experienced during her decent to the bottom. By studying her design, and debris field photographs, taken from submersibles that searched the wreck, JMS was able to create the first 3-dimensional reconstruction of the debris field scene.