Test pilot had warned OceanGate about Titan's novel 'carbon shell'

The mere mention of the name Titanic takes us back to the memory of the great sinkage that occurred over a century ago. Now another tragic incident has become closely intertwined with the ‘unsinkable ship’ that sank on its very first voyage in April 1912.

OceanGate’s submersible Titan, which took passengers on underwater expeditions to witness Titanic’s wreckage, made what was soon going to be its last descent to the Titanic wreckage site on Sunday, June 18. Just an hour and 45 minutes later, the craft lost contact with its mother ship Polar Prince, which had transported the vessel to the site.

A five-day intensive search later, five major pieces of the submersible were found on Thursday amid debris at the Titanic wreckage site, which, the US Coast Guard said, was “consistent with catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber”.

3 things you should know

The submersible Titan, with five people onboard, went missing in the Atlantic Ocean.

A massive five-day search and rescue operation led by US, Canadian, and French forces was launched to locate the vessel that was running on a limited oxygen supply.

The US Coast Guard announced on Thursday that all five passengers had lost their lives after it found five major pieces of the Titan at the Titanic wreckage site.

When did the Titan go missing?

The submersible started its voyage on Sunday after it was launched at 08:00 hrs local time, and the vessel was expected to resurface at 15:00 hrs. The craft lost communication one hour and 45 minutes into its descent, at about 09:45, with the support boat on the surface. This was its third annual voyage to the Titanic wreck site, which is approximately 600 kilometres (370 miles) off the coast of Newfoundland.

The US Coast Guard announced that they were notified of the missing vessel at about 17:45, eight hours later. A massive search operation was launched in the North Atlantic Ocean to find the missing vessel.

How did it sink?

The vessel, fashioned with life support to sustain five crew members with a limited oxygen supply of 96 hours, needed to be rescued in three days to save its passengers aboard, according to the Coast Guard. The vessel that descended on Sunday, likely ended the oxygen supply on Thursday, eventually leading to the deaths of five crew members aboard.

OceanGate Expeditions, a private firm that carries out the voyage, confirmed a day after the sub went missing that they were “exploring and mobilising all options to bring the crew back safely”. 

“Our entire focus is on the crew members in the submersible and their families. We are working towards the safe return of the crew members," the firm said in a statement.

According to the official website, Titan is a carbon-fibre and titanium vessel that can reach 13,123 feet (The Titanic rests 12,400 feet under the surface).

The price for a spot on the submersible was USD 250,000, i.e., over INR 20 crores. It was only its third trip since OceanGate Expeditions began offering trips in 2021.

What happened to the vessel?

Ocean explorers and experts suggest that one of the best-case scenarios about what might have happened to the Titan would be that it might have been entangled in the wreckage of the Titanic.

However, if that was the case, it would be easier to find the submersible and the five people aboard, Tim Taylor, an ocean explorer and the CEO of Tiburon Subsea, said.

The US Coast Guard said that the vessel most likely suffered a catastrophic loss of pressure imploding the vessel and killing all five passengers onboard.

In another twist in the case, court documents filed five years ago revealed that a pilot contracted by OceanGate to conduct manned submersible tests was fired after he warned that the vessel’s carbon shell had not been adequately tested to ensure that it could dive safely to 4,000 metres. Reportedly, OceanGate declined to “pay more” for a viewport that could be used safely at 4,000 metres of depth.