OceanGate, whose bathyscaphe sank while diving into the wreckage of the Titanic in the North Atlantic, announced the suspension of all its “intelligence and commercial” activities. This message appears on the company’s website when you access page with information about her and her expeditions. The page itself gives a 404 error.
Until recently, OceanGate Expeditions advertised its services extensively. The company’s new promotional video, which was six minutes long, was released 10 weeks before the Titan died. The narration repeated the word “safety” over and over, and the dive itself was called “a journey Jules Verne could only dream of”.
“It’s not a tourist attraction, it’s something more,” said the announcer in voiceover, adding that after each dive, a thorough technical check of the underwater vehicle is carried out in view of the next descent. NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski participated in the filming. In the video, he says the Titan is “very well designed and very safe” and “the team puts safety first.”
death of the titan
The OceanGate Expeditions submersible dived over the wreck of the Titanic which sank in 1912 to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. According to the Wall Street Journal, during the dive of the bathyscaphe, it was planned to take DNA samples near the hull of the sunken liner. On the morning of June 18, communication with the device was cut off and the bathyscaphe itself disappeared from the radar.
On June 22, the U.S. Coast Guard reported that unidentified wreckage had been found in the submarine’s search area. A few hours later, bathyscaphe operator OceanGate Expeditions reports that his crew is pronounced dead. On June 29, the wreckage of the bathyscaphe and, presumably, the remains of the people in it were lifted from the bottom, which must be subjected to a medical examination.
British billionaire businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleiman, OceanGate founder Stockton Rush and French explorer Paul-Henri Narjolet were in the bathyscaphe. Among them could be a Las Vegas businessman, Jay Bloom, whom Rush persuaded to join the dive and promised to give a $100,000 discount, but the American refused.
Later, the late Suleiman Davud’s mother told the BBC that she had given up her place to her son so that he could set a Rubik’s cube record by swimming. According to her, the husband and son were obsessed with the upcoming dive, and it had been talked about in the family for several years. However, the show had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to this, Suleman, in principle, could not participate in the expedition, since no one under the age of 18 was taken there.
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