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Five people have been killed after the Titan tourist submarine imploded less than two hours into a dive exploring the wreckage of the Titanic
Lauren Heath-Jones | Planet Attractions | 23 Jun 2023
The vessel is believed to have imploded less than two hours into its descent to the Titanic wreckage Credit: OceanGate Expeditions
The five crew members aboard the missing Titan tourist submarine have been killed in a “catastrophic implosion” that is believed to have taken place less than two hours into the submarine’s descent to the Titanic shipwreck on June 18.
The crew, which included French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British explorer Hamish Hardin, Pakistani businessman Shahzasa Dawood, his 19-year-old son Sulaiman Dawood and Stockton Rush, founder of OceanGate Expeditions - the company that operated the commercial expedition, are believed to have been killed instantly in the disaster.
The news was announced by the US Coast Guard during a press conference in Boston, US, on June 22, and comes following a major four-day search and rescue mission, led by several agencies including the Canadian and US Coast Guards, the US Navy and the New York National Guard.
During the search, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) discovered a debris field containing major fragments of the Titan vessel, including its tail cone and two sections of the pressure hull, approximately 1,600ft (488m) from the site of the Titanic wreckage.
“The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” said Rear Admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard during the press conference.
The Titan submersible went missing on Sunday, June 18, after losing contact with its support vessel Polar Prince just an hour and 45 minutes into its dive, approximately 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod in the US.
Tributes have been paid to the five crew members and their families, with the White House issuing a statement offering its condolences and thanking the US and Canadian Coast Guards alongside its British and French partners for their work.
“Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives on the Titan. They have been through a harrowing ordeal over the past few days,” said the statement.
A spokesperson for British prime minister Rishi Sunak said: “His thoughts are very much with the loved ones of those who have died in this tragic incident and they have been through an unimaginably difficult ordeal in the last few days.”
OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein said that he hopes that deep-sea tourism will be able to continue in light of the tragedy, telling Sky News that: “It’s an important endeavour and humanity needs it to continue.”
Several experts meanwhile have questioned the safety of commercial ocean exploration.
“With the growth in deep-sea tourism, we must expect more incidents like this,” deep-sea ecologist Nicolai Roterman and marine biology lecturer at the UK’s University of Portsmouth told The Associated Press.
“Even the most reliable technology can fail, and therefore accidents will happen,” he added.
Tourism
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