As time and oxygen supply run out for the four passengers and pilot aboard the missing submersible that was exploring the wreckage of the Titanic, questions are being raised about the regulatory and safety standards of the company that operates the vessel.
A Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the area where crews are looking for the Titan submersible, and operations were redirected there, the U.S. Coast Guard’s First District reported early Wednesday. Those efforts “have yielded negative results but continue,” the Coast Guard tweeted. The international rescue team planned for at least eight more vessels to arrive Wednesday.
Concerns were raised about quality control and safety issues relating to the Titan as early as 2018, according to court documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
The allegations came from David Lochridge, former director of marine operations at the company, after he was sued by the company in 2018 for allegedly sharing confidential information. Lochridge claimed that OceanGate refused to pay a manufacturer to build a viewport that would meet the required depth of 4,000 meters, or more than 13,000 feet, according to a countercomplaint.
Lochridge said in court filings that paying passengers would not be aware or informed that “hazardous flammable materials were being used within the submersible.” He also expressed concerns about the quality control and safety of the Titan, and he encouraged OceanGate to use the American Bureau of Shipping to inspect and certify the submersible. Lochridge and OceanGate settled the lawsuit in 2018.
Lochridge declined to comment when reached through his attorney, Blake Marks-Dias, adding that they are “praying for everyone’s safe return.”
Maximilian Cremer, director of the ocean technology group at the University of Hawaii Marine Center, told The Post that the Titan’s hatch, which is bolted from the outside, does not meet standards.
“We are required by the American Bureau of Shipping, by our regulatory oversight, to have a tower, a structure you can climb out of the command sphere in case of emergency at sea surface,” Cremer said. “Plus we can and are required to open under our own power, human power, to be able to open the main hatch.”
With less than 24 hours of oxygen supply left for the passengers, crews are searching a massive swath of sea about 900 miles east of Boston.
Search-and-rescue teams detected underwater noise during operations near the Titanic wreckage on Tuesday, Rear Adm. John Mauger of the Coast Guard told CBS on Wednesday morning. The team launched additional vessels, he said, but “we don’t know the source of the noise.”
Three more search vessels arrived on-scene Wednesday. The Canadian coast guard ship John Cabot has side-scanning sonar capabilities and is conducting search patterns alongside another Canadian coast guard vessel, Atlantic Merlin, as well as the commercial vessel Skandi Vinland. Five more vessels will be joining the search later Wednesday.
The submersible has been unaccounted for since it lost contact with the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince during a dive Sunday morning. Built by OceanGate Expeditions, the 22-foot vessel was being piloted by OceanGate’s chief executive, Stockton Rush, toward the wreckage of the Titanic, which sank in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912.
The Navy dispatched a system – the Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System – designed to haul up objects the size of planes and small vessels from the deep ocean floor, a spokesperson said, but it isn’t clear whether other specialized technology required to operate the system is available.
The U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, Canadian coast guard and OceanGate Expeditions have established a unified command, the U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday. A Canadian vessel with a mobile decompression chamber and medical personnel would also be on-site to assist.
In addition to Rush, the other four men aboard the missing submersible are British aviation businessman Hamish Harding, French diver and longtime Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman.
The company creates crewed submersible vessels that can reach the ocean floor. OceanGate announced in July 2021 that its Titan submersible first dove 3,800 meters (or about 12,500 feet) to the site of Titanic wreckage.
Much like the current expedition, the first Titan trip was piloted by OceanGate’s Rush, and Nargeolet was aboard.
“This recent dive in Titan to the Titanic wreck site is one of the most memorable dives I have ever done,” Nargeolet said at the time.
The 22,000-pound Titan can travel at a speed of three knots and can support a crew of five for 96 hours, according to an OceanGate document.
Rush founded OceanGate in 2009 to further deep-sea exploration. Less than 10 percent of the global ocean is mapped using modern sonar, according to the National Ocean Service.
(c) 2023, The Washington Post · Maham Javaid, Timothy Bella, Andrea Salcedo, Ben Brasch
