The only other carbon fiber pressure vessel I can recall failing in a spectacularly public way is SpaceX's AMOS-6 static fire, where the COPV on the second stage evidently had a design defect where liquid oxygen could embed between the fibers of the CF overwrap, and the shift/flex of the COPV as it reacted to the insanely hot pressurized helium inside it versus the insanely cold LOX all around it allowed for a carbon-oxygen energetic event which cascaded into an explosion, destroying the rocket and its payload during the static fire.
Are there any other high profile CF structure failures that would give indication to the mechanism of failure here?
I'm curious exactly what these people experienced at the point of failure. Was it like being inside a large grenade, shredded before even knowing it? Cut in half by a high pressure water jet as a crack spread across the hull? Some other method?
Grizzly speculation, but I can't get it out of my mind. Mostly I'm just hoping that they didn't slowly fill with water and drown. Seems like one of the worst ways to go, in my mind. Clawing at each other for the final air pocket in the dark.