As a huge search and rescue operation continues for a missing submersible in the Atlantic one thing has become apparent, that the vessel was not as “obscenely safe” as the company’s CEO had promised.
Stockton Rush, founder of Titanic exploration company OceanGate, is one of the five people on board the Titan, which disappeared while heading to the wreckage on Monday.
Titan has allegedly not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and didn’t require its passengers to have any diving experience, despite OceanGate offering the activity on its eight day voyages.
Even more eyebrow-raising are the components used to control the vessel, which includes a Logitech video game controller to manoeuvre the sub, no GPS system and single button that supposedly helps the vessel descend like an “elevator”.
There is also apparently no way out of the submersible aside from a hatch, which is bolted shut from its exterior. Not even an escape pod exists.
The entire vessel – which costs passengers more than $320,000 per head to travel on – is no bigger than a van and has no seats, but conveniently is fitted with a toilet.
What makes the Titan different from a submarine, is it needs a mothership to launch it and has fewer power reserves.
Despite its peculiar design compared to other authorised vessels, Mr Rush repeatedly told reporters, experts and his visitors the vessel is “safe” — even “obscenely safe”.
“Everything else can fail, your thrusters can go, your lights can go. You’re still going to be safe,” he told American technology and science writer David Pogue last November.
Three years prior, he took Smithsonian Magazine writer Tony Perrottet on the same vessel to showcase his unapproved invention.
Mr Rush later disclosed that while he found the rules and regulations surrounding submersible use well-meaning, he felt limited when it came to creating and manufacturing the vessels.
“There hasn’t been an injury in the commercial sub industry in over 35 years. It’s obscenely safe, because they have all these regulations,” he told the magazine.
“But it also hasn’t innovated or grown — because they have all these regulations.”
An eight-day voyage
Mr Rush and his four companions – British billionaire Hamish Harding, French diving expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet and businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman – were enjoying the early days of an eight-day “unique travel experience” on the Titan before going missing.
According to an archived itinerary that’s since been deleted from OceanGate’s website, each trip enables travellers to enjoy an experience with a “scientific objective” and the opportunity to go diving.
On day one, passengers are asked to meet at St Johns, the capital of Newfoundland in Canada, where they’re asked to board the ship that will transport them to the dive site.
It’s understood the Polar Prince was the mothership which transported the five missing passengers, CNN reports.
On day two, the ship continues its journey to the dive site in the North Atlantic Ocean, while the expedition leader briefs their passengers on diving safety and education.
Between days three to seven, passengers are invited to dive depending on the sea conditions before boarding the Titan.
It’s believed the missing sub takes up to two hours to descend to the Titanic’s graveyard, with passengers on board invited to direct the pilot with “comms and tracking” or take notes for the science team, eat lunch or watch a movie.
Passengers are then offered the opportunity to dive and explore the wreckage, before heading back up to the surface following another two hour ascending journey.
Finally, on day eight, passengers are escorted back to St Johns by ship.
Science writer David Pogue went on a similar expedition in July last year with OceanGate where he got to watch the sub from the mothership, however the experience was far from smooth sailing.
“Not gonna lie; I was a little nervous, especially given the paperwork, which read, ‘This experimental vessel has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, emotional trauma, or death,’” he wrote in a piece published in November detailing the unique experience.
Pogue was seen in disbelief in his television report as OceanGate chief executive Stockton Rush showed him the game controller that “runs the whole thing”.
Rush assured Pogue the pressure vessel was safe and unlike other aspects of the operation, was “not MacGyver at all”.
Pogue also reported that journey to the Titanic shipwreck was full of hiccups.
He said the dive was initially postponed due to the size of the waves and a consolation dive to the Continental Shelf was also scrapped after another technical difficulty.
Days later they tried to reach the Titanic again.
Pogue explained there was no GPS underwater, so the surface ship is tasked with guiding the sub to the shipwreck by sending text messages.
“But on this dive, communications somehow broke down. The sub never found the wreck,” Pogue explained.
On a third attempt on their last day at sea, they had a successful dive where they saw the Titanic at the bottom of the ocean.
David Pogue hopeful Titan passengers will survive
Pogue remains optimistic the five passengers on-board the Titan will make it out alive, after his trip to the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean with OceanGate almost a year ago.
“Remember my voyage to the Titanic last summer? In OceanGate’s homemade carbon-fibre sub? They took passengers out again this summer — but as of today, the sub is lost. Coast Guard is doing a search and rescue,” he tweeted yesterday.
The author and podcaster later said he was hopeful the passengers would survive due to several escape measures.
“As we monitor the lost @OceanGateExped sub to the #Titanic, two reasons for hope. First, they have 96 hours of oxygen on board,” he said.
“Second, they have SEVEN different ways to rise to the surface — multiple redundant ballast and air-bladder systems.”
Pogue was later forced to clarify he had never been on the vessel himself, despite earlier reports suggesting he had.
“To be clear, I was not on the sub that day – I was on the ship at the surface, in the control room,” he tweeted.
“They could still send short texts to the sub, but did not know where it was. It was quiet and very tense, and they shut off the ship’s internet to prevent us from tweeting.”