‘Suspect’ materials? Canada launches probe into loss of Titan submersible

Ottawa, June 24

Canadian safety officials on Friday opened an investigation into the undersea implosion of a tourist submersible that killed all five persons aboard while diving to the century-old wreck of the Titanic, raising questions about the unregulated nature of such expeditions.

A debris field from the submersible Titan was found at the bottom of the North Atlantic on Thursday by a robotic diving vehicle deployed from a Canadian search vessel, ending an intense five-day rescue effort.

‘It imploded’

I learned of the acoustic findings within a day and knew that it had imploded. I sent e-mail to everybody and said we’ve lost some friends. James Cameron, Moviemaker

No contact after 105 minutes

Fragments of Titan, which lost contact with its surface support ship about one hour and 45 minutes into a two-hour descent on Sunday, littered the seabed about 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the bow of the Titanic wreck, about 2-1/2 miles (4 km) below the surface, US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said.

He told reporters on Thursday the debris was consistent with “a catastrophic implosion of the vehicle”, meaning the 22-foot-long vessel ultimately collapsed and was crushed under the immense hydrostatic pressure at that depth.

Five were killed

1 Hamish Harding, British billionaire and explorer

2 Businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman

3 Stockton Rush, CEO-founder of OceanGate Expeditions

4 Paul-Henri Nargeolet, French oceanographer

5 The Titan vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions

Design lacked certification

People in the close-knit community of submersible operators and experts noted that Stockton and his company opted to forgo certification of Titan’s novel design from third parties such as the American Bureau of Shipping.

Some have questioned Stockton’s choice of carbon fiber to fabricate the critical pressure hull of his craft.

“OceanGate had created its own experimental vehicle with materials avoided by others, decided to bypass the certification process designed to assure safety, and chose to ignore the warnings from many experts within the submersible community,” investment manager Ray Dalio, co-founder of the OceanX sea exploration initiative, said in a LinkedIn post on Friday.

One would-be Titan passenger, Las Vegas-based investor Jay Bloom, said he declined a last-minute chance to join the ill-fated Titan excursion with his son out of safety concerns.

Submersible bolted shut

Bloom, a licensed helicopter pilot, said he was particularly worried about Stockton’s use of consumer-grade parts on Titan, including a video game joystick to control the vessel, and was “spooked” by the fact that the submersible would be bolted shut from the outside, preventing passengers from getting out on their own in an emergency.

US detected acoustic anomaly

The US Navy monitors that part of the Atlantic for submarine activity, and said an analysis of acoustic data detected “an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion” near the submersible’s location when communication with Titan was lost.

The data was shared with the US Coast Guard command, according to Navy officials. It was decided the acoustic data was not definitive and the search and rescue mission should continue. Reuters