OceanGate’s submersible Titan went missing on Sunday under the deep ocean after it set off on its journey to explore the wreck site of the Titanic. Several American, French, and Canadian agencies led a 5-day search and rescue operation. On Thursday, the Coast Guard reported to have located five pieces of the Titan amid debris around the wreck site. They said it was “consistent with catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber”. Here are the top 5 things to know about the Titanic sub that sunk tragically.
Top 5 things to know about the Titanic sub that sunk
1. People on board
One pilot and four “mission specialists” were aboard.
- Stockton Rush, 61, the chief executive of the firm OceanGate behind the dive
- Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77, a French explorer nicknamed “Mr. Titanic
- Hamish Harding, 58, a British businessman and explorer
- Shahzada Dawood, 48, a British businessman
- Suleman Dawood, 19, son of Shahzada Dawood
2. Fee for the expedition
In 2021, an initial group of tourists paid between $ 100,000 and $ 150,000 per person to go on the expedition. The “mission support fee” for the 2023 trip cost $ 250,000 per person as per OceanGate’s website.
3. When and where did the sub go missing?
The Polar Prince arrived on Sunday morning near the Titanic wreck. The Titan was launched at 08:00 hours local time and was expected to resurface at 15:00 hours. It lost contact around 00:95 which is 1 hour 45 minutes into its descent.
The Coast Guard was notified at around 17:45 hours which is 8 hours later. Immediately, the command center of the agency based in Boston started coordinating the search efforts.
The Titanic wreck site is located approximately 370 miles or 600 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland.
4. Mission of the Titan
OceanGate aims to chronicle the deterioration of the Titanic through its expeditions. They also document the change in the underwater ecosystem resulting due to shipwrecks. This wreck site has hundreds of species unavailable or rare elsewhere.
Stockton Rush said in 2021, “The ocean is taking this thing, and we need to document it before it all disappears or becomes unrecognizable.”
The Titan was fitted with multi-beam sonar equipment and high-definition cameras. By charting the decomposition of the Titanic wreck, scientists could be able to predict the outcome of other such dee-sea wrecks including vessels that sank during the world wars.
5. What kind of submersible was the Titan?
In April, OceanGate filed documents with a U.S. District Court in Virginia that supervises matters concerning the Titanic. The documents stated that Titan can dive 2.4 miles or 4 kilometers “with a comfortable safety margin”.
In May 2021, OceanGate said in a court filing that Titan had an “unparalleled safety feature”. Thus, it can assess the integrity of the hull constantly during every dive.
Titan had undergone over 50 test dives at the time of the filing. It even went as deep as the Titanic wreck site- in deep waters off the Bahamas and a pressure chamber as well.
OceanGate reported a battery issue with the submersible during its first 2022 expedition. Thus, it had to be attached to its lifting platform manually, as per the November court filing.
Regrettably, all aboard the submersible are presumed dead. OceanGate said in a statement, “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.” The company also said it could probably never recover the body of the five people on board.
Comments are closed.