Titan Submersible’s Tragic Fate

For many days, the world’s headlines were all about a combined search effort from multiple countries to find a submersible touring the wreck of the RMS Titanic. However, it’s unfortunate to hear that the ending for this submersible and the five passengers aboard was quite tragic, a “catastrophic implosion,” as confirmed by the U.S. Coast Guard. Today, we’re looking into the depths and the global response to this incident.

The submersible in question is called “Titan,” owned and operated by OceanGate Expeditions, which is a private company founded in 2009 that offers deep-sea exploration trips, with the journey to the Titanic one of the options it provides. Sitting 3800 meters below the North Atlantic Ocean, the wreck of the Titanic is truly a breathtaking site to see. However, not many people have seen the “unsinkable” cruise vessel. Those who are lucky and wealthy enough to board a trip to the bottom of the ocean get to witness the vastness of this ship, and OceanGate offers this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to those who’re willing to pay the price, a whopping quarter of a million dollars.

And that’s the offer the five passengers aboard the Titan took. Those aboard the Titan were the company’s CEO and pilot of the mission Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman Dawood, and renowned French maritime expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet. They were all commemorated as dare-taking explorers who loved taking risks.

But these five people met their end while descending to another one of their thrilling adventures. The most regrettable fact is that experts believe the disaster could have gotten avoided. OceanGate Expeditions received warnings from experts as far back as 2018, specifically about how the Titan vessel operated and the flaws in its design. Sadly, OceanGate dismissed these ‘baseless claims,’ and fired one of the engineers, David Lochridge, after he raised concerns over the quality and safety of the Titan submersible. The company itself claimed that the engineering of the submersible had been in collaboration with big names like NASA and Washington University. It would later turn out that these statements from OceanGate were false, and after the incident with the submersible, both tried to distance themselves from the company.

So what exactly were the problems of the Titan that would lead to its ultimate demise? To understand that, let us tour the Titan submersible first. The most obvious thing about the vessel is that it isn’t spacious, in that the four passengers and the pilot need to sit on the floor with their legs crossed. And there is only one viewing port in the vessel, with the hull made from carbon fibre material. The pilot uses screens to monitor and maintain communications with the support ship. But the most eyebrow-raising fact about the Titan is that the entire thing gets controlled by an off-the-shelves Sony game controller.

That is the first warning sign: The game controller is the steering, which signals the simplicity and under-engineering of the vessel. The second warning sign of the jerry-building of the Titan was the weights used for descent, which were rusted pieces of scaffolding. And when it was time to ascend, passengers had to move to one side and tilt the vessel to release the weights. The third warning sign of potential flaws is the way it operates. There isn’t any sonar or navigating system aboard the submersible, and the directions all rely on communications from the support ship. In the case of this descent, the Titan lost connection about an hour and 45 minutes into the descent. Without directions, the vessel got stranded underneath the North Atlantic. However, that wasn’t what ultimately resulted in the disaster; Titan supposedly imploded due to the immense pressure of the ocean resting upon it.

That leads to the fatal flaw of the Titan submersible: The choice of material. The material used was carbon fibre, which may seem like a state-of-the-art material (and indeed is) but isn’t fit at all for handling deep-sea depths. As the renowned deep-sea explorer and director of the film ‘Titanic’ James Cameron, put it, carbon fibre was good at handling internal pressure (like when in space), though the worst choice of material for external pressure. A substantial pressure difference may have been the cause of this incident.

So what happens next both for OceanGate and the family of those who sadly perished in this disaster? Well, it is expected OceanGate would seek legal protection, and the families of those aboard Titan would almost certainly sue the company for damages. However, the exact proceedings are unclear, as the people who boarded the vessel had signed an extensive waiver stating a possibility of death aboard. But that waiver could get challenged in court if OceanGate was liable for operational negligence. Such actions of negligence could involve things like how OceanGate dismissed claims of the design flaws of the Titan in the past, and failure to inform these flaws to the passengers aboard the vessel could be a court argument against OceanGate.

That is regarding this particular case. More broadly, regarding the entirety of the deep-sea exploration industry, there is a new-found urgency to regulate experimental submersibles like Titan and the sector as a whole, as currently, there isn’t an official governmental body supervising it. But regulation is needed because this industry isn’t like tourism; Far from it. It’s where daredevils can enjoy another dangerous though thrilling adventure. Although it is too late to save those onboard the Titan, it reminds us of the lives that could get saved if governments take action to regulate such sectors of adventurism.

A considerable obstacle in regulating the industry is these activities like the Titan expedition happen in international waters. Only with a combined effort from countries can these quality and safety issues be recognized and requirements for companies like OceanGate Expeditions be set up.

In conclusion, more could have got done to prevent those five people from meeting their unfortunate end. From the perspective of companies like OceanGate, we should do further research and invest more effort and money into providing safe trips for customers. As governments and global institutions, there should be a push for more regulation. And finally, as the average human, there’s just one tip I have to offer you: Never risk one’s life doing these dangerous adventures, because when we realize the problem, it may very well be too late. That’s the end of this production from the New News Newsminute. Thank you for reading, and may the five who lost their lives rest in peace.