On the evening of June 22, the US Coast Guard announced that unidentified wreckage had been found in the search area for the bathyscaphe of the Titanic, which disappeared in the Atlantic four days ago as it plunged towards the Titanic ocean liner that sank 111 years ago. A few hours later, the submarine’s operating company, OceanGate Expeditions, announced that its crew had been pronounced dead. Russian media has gathered everything that is known about the situation around the underwater vehicle at the moment.
Find the wreckage and admit the loss of the crew
On the evening of June 22, the Northeast Division of the United States Coast Guard announced on Twitter that it had found a site with debris near the search area for the missing Titan submersible in the Atlantic Ocean. A few hours later, the expedition organizer OceanGate Expeditions declared that the submarine’s crew is dead.
“These men were true explorers who shared a special spirit of adventure and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. Our hearts are with these five souls and each member of their families at this tragic time. We mourn the loss of life and the joy it brought to everyone we knew,” the post read.
The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the deaths of all on board. Fragments found from the submarine “indicate a catastrophic loss of pressure” and “a directed explosion inside” the vessel, the organization said.
Fragments of the bathyscaphe, which dived over the wreck of the Titanic, were found by an unmanned offshore robot from a Canadian ship. The landing frame (chassis) and the rear cover were located about 488 meters from the bow of the sunken liner, towards which the expedition was heading, at a depth of about 4 kilometers.
Earlier, an expert and acquaintance of the two expedition members, David Mearns, explained on Sky News that implosion in the case of an offshore vehicle is an instantaneous collapse (compression) of the structure equivalent to an explosion.
Responding to a question about the chances of finding the remains of the dead, a Coast Guard representative noted that the environment at the bottom of the ocean is “harsh” and it’s impossible to talk about the outlook at this time.
Excursions to the depths of the ocean
OceanGate Expeditions is one of the few private companies operating commercial voyages to the depths of the ocean. She Was found in 2009 by American entrepreneur Stockton Rush. The launch of expeditions to the Titanic was preceded by lengthy tests of structural strength and reliability of electronics, and the launch itself postponed Many times.
First dive on the wreck of the Titanic arrived in July 2021, when the Titan sank 3800 meters deep and writing unique images of the wrecked ship. In September 2022, OceanGate researchers, as part of a new expedition, manage for the first time to register the liner on video in 8K format.
Calculate the risks
OceanGate sent an expedition to the Titanic again in 2023. The Wall Street Journal, citing company emails writing that its specialists planned to take DNA samples from the wreckage of the infamous ship – “to study the bacteria associated with the growths <…> on the wreck, as well as the animals that live in the nearby bottom mud”.
British businessman Chris Brown, who refused to dive on the Titanic due to doubts about the quality of OceanGate technology, said The Sun newspaper that the ship is controlled from the inside by a Logitech game controller with two joysticks and four colored buttons. Additionally, according to Brown, he became aware of the use of old scaffolding as ballast for the submarine.
Aboard the Titan was five people: the founder of OceanGate Stockton Rush himself, the French professional aquanaut Paul-Henri Nargeole, as well as the British businessman of Pakistani origin Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleiman. Later, The New York Times Understood that Wendy Rush, wife of the founder of OceanGate, is the great-great-granddaughter of Titanic passengers Isidore and Ida Strauss, who died in the liner’s crash in 1912.
How writing The WSJ, which interviewed other OceanGate customers, mentions the risk of death at least three times in the waiver signed by all travelers before diving. Former tourists who paid $250,000 for deep-sea tours told the publication the risks were obvious.
Former bathyscaphe passenger and CBS Sunday Morning reporter David Pogue said the company warned him of “eight different ways to be killed or permanently disabled”. For example, part of the document stated that immersion “could result in physical injury, disability, emotional injury, or death.”
air inlet
Bathyscaphe “Titan” disappeared in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean on the morning of June 18. US Coast Guard predicted that the ship’s oxygen supply will run out at 7:08 a.m. ET (1408 GMT) on June 22, as the ship is only equipped with 96 hours of oxygen. At the same time, Jules Jeff, oceanographer-researcher at the University of California at San Diego, in conversation with NBC suggested that travelers can conserve oxygen by being aware of the need to procrastinate while research is underway.
The search and rescue operation involves ships and aircraft from the US Coast Guard and the Canadian Department of Defense. in place arrived ships “Scandi Vinland”, “Atlantic Merlin” and “John Cabot”. The latter is equipped with a sonar. US Coast Guard informed that the Canadian aircraft recorded underwater sounds in the search area of the bathyscaphe. CNN television channel argued that rescuers, using hydroacoustic devices, heard a sound similar to a bang. The sound was heard approximately once every 30 minutes for at least four hours.
Jason Frederick, U.S. Coast Guard Spokesman said , that there are still chances to save the crew members of the missing bathyscaphe, but the deputy head of the BARS design bureau, the captain of manned underwater vehicles, Ivan Konik, in a conversation with Russian media, said said it was unlikely the vessel would be found. “It is very difficult to find such a small object at such depth. That’s all <…> If they do not surface on their own and do not act in depth, then the prognosis is extremely unfavorable,” Konik said.
The prognosis of the director of the film “Titanic” James Cameron was also unfavorable: on June 21, he expressed his condolences to the Russian scientist Anatoly Sagalevich, knowing about his friendship with Paul Narzheola. “He already thinks that in general it’s over, I think so” said June 21 Sagalevich to RIA Novosti. In a conversation with Forbes Russia Sagalevich noted that the deep submersible may be at the bottom due to a technical malfunction, and also noted the need for action by the ship’s pilot.
As Reuters notes, questions about the safety of scuba diving on the bathyscaphe Titan, which the American company OceanGate Expeditions used for expeditions to the wreckage of the Titanic, arose at least in 2018. In particular, some Industry experts were troubled by OceanGate Expeditions’ decision to circumvent the industry-established process for certifying the design, manufacture and testing of submarines. The company has certified the Titan through “third parties”.
Security
Doubts about the security of the Titan have also surfaced within OceanGate itself. In early 2018, his employee David Lochridge sent a self-authored technical report to management in which he criticized the research and development process for the offshore vehicle. In particular, Lochridge was concerned about the materials used in the construction of the hull and the lack of testing of this hull to measure its ability to withstand high pressures at depth.
The day after the report was filed, OceanGate called a meeting to discuss Loughridge’s concerns. Following this meeting, he stated that he could not endorse the company’s design decisions and allow possible Titan dives with the crew without further testing.
As a result, Lochridge was fired, and in the summer of 2018 OceanGate sued him, accusing him of discussing confidential company information with strangers. Lochridge quickly filed a countersuit, claiming his former employer was trying to intimidate him to prevent his quality control and safety issues with the submersible being “threatened to the lives of innocent passengers” from being exposed. The case did not reach the hearing, as the parties settled their mutual claims out of court.
Learn more about how owners of the Titan bathyscaphe have been able to hide its unreliability since 2018 here.
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