A former OceanGate Experiences executive has been fired after raising concerns about the safety of the submarine Titan, according to court documents dating from 2018, AFP revealed on Tuesday. The submersible, designed and operated by OceanGate Experiences, has been missing since Sunday and hopes of finding its passengers alive are dwindling by the hour.
What there is to know
- Operated by OceanGate Expeditions, the 6.5 meter submersible has begun its descent towards the wreck of the titanic Sunday, but lost contact with the surface less than two hours later;
- The named submersible Titan displays passenger seats at US$250,000;
- Five people are on board;
- British businessmen Hamish Harding and Pakistani Shahzada Dawood, the latter accompanied by his son Suleman, as well as the French specialist in titanicPaul-Henry Nargeolet, are part of the expedition;
- THE titanic lies 650 kilometers off Newfoundland, some 4,000 meters underwater;
- Rear Admiral John Mauger, of the United States Coast Guard, specifies that the searches, on the surface and under water, relate to an area “about 1450 km east of Cape Cod, at a depth of about 4000 meters “.
The company’s former director of marine operations, David Lochridge, maintained that the porthole at the front of the submarine Titan was designed to withstand pressure up to 1300 meters deep. However, the Titan dives up to 4000 meters deep to visit the wreck of the titanic. OceanGate Experiences allegedly ignored these warnings.
The hope of seeing the passengers of the submarine again Titandisappeared while trying to visit the wreckage of the titanic, decreases. Its oxygen supply will run out around 5 a.m. Thursday morning, the US Coast Guard said Tuesday.
The submarine, whose trace was lost on Sunday morning, is believed to be some 700 kilometers off the coast of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, in the Atlantic Ocean.
MAP CREATED WITH DATAWAPPER
The wreckage of titanic is located about 650 kilometers southeast of Newfoundland and about 1450 km east of Cape Cod, at a depth of about 4000 meters.
An experiment risky
The president of the General Association of Friends of Submariners, Dominique Salles, believes that the Titan launches into the unknown with each expedition. For good reason: it is unprecedented to see a submarine made of carbon fiber subjected to such pressure, according to the sailor.
At a depth of 4000 meters, the pressure is 300 to 400 times greater than atmospheric pressure at the surface. “We can imagine that it is a problem of resistance, because it is a material of which we do not have the experience [à cette profondeur]. »
If the problem is related to the hull, the passengers of the Titan are already dead, is convinced Mr. Salles.
Billionaire Hamish Harding, businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman are in the submarine, as is French aquanaut Paul-Henri Nargeolet. OceanGate Experience Founder and Managing Director Stockton Rush would also be on board. Titanaccording to Sky News.
PHOTO VIA AGENCY FRANCE-PRESSE
Hamish Harding
Visit the wreck of the titanic is “as sharp as going into space,” says Dany St-Cyr, professor of professional diving at the Institut maritime du Québec. “There are not so many people who [connaît bien] this kind of expedition. »
The technologies used in the submarine Titan are also unknown, which makes its research more difficult, explains Mr. St-Cyr.
Research that lead to nothing
Captain Jamie Frederick of the United States Coast Guard announced at a press briefing on Tuesday that the search has so far yielded “no results”.
The US Coast Guard, supported by the Canadian Coast Guard, is leading the search operations. THE Titan could be in the bottom of the ocean. In this case, underwater drones can theoretically bring it out of the depths, but none are currently on the scene of the search, while time is running out.
PHOTO REUTERS
American ship docked in St. John’s Harbor, Newfoundland and Labrador, before heading out to search for the missing submarine
Dominique Salles finds it hard to see how the rescue operation could succeed if the Titan is at the bottom of the sea. “The concern is not so much whether or not [le drone], but that’s the time it will take to intervene. It is not counted in ten hours, it would be much longer than that, ”he says.
The company OceanGate Experiences organizes expeditions to the titanic3800 meters deep, since 2021. The cost of a ticket for one trip is 330,000 Canadian dollars.
Discharge of responibility
“This experimental submarine has not been approved or certified by any regulatory agency, and could cause physical injury, emotional trauma, or death. This is the disclaimer that journalist David Pogue had to sign before exploring the seabed aboard the Titan in 2022. The correspondent then told his story in an article published on CBS.
PHOTO STEVEN SENNE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
“It’s a remote area and it’s complicated to conduct research in such an area,” Rear Admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard said at a press conference in Boston on Monday.
Mr. Pogue had noticed that several parts of the sub seemed to be improvised. He compared the interior of the submarine to that of a van.
The research vessel Polar Prince drove the submarine to the site above the wreckage of the titanic Sunday. According to a Facebook post by Hamish Harding, the Titan reportedly dove at 4 a.m. Sunday morning. THE Polar Prince would have lost contact 1 hour and 45 minutes later. But it wasn’t until 9:13 p.m. that the Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax declared the submarine missing.
The story so far
Sunday morning
The submarine Titan begins its descent towards the wreckage of the titanic with five people on board. Less than two hours later, his signal is lost.
Sunday night
The Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax declares the submarine missing.
Monday afternoon
The United States Coast Guard announces that it is looking for the Titanwhich would be 700 kilometers from Newfoundland.
Tuesday afternoon
At 1:00 p.m., the crew of the Titan. The search did not progress.