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What Could Have Caused the Titan Sub Tragedy?
What Could Have Caused the Titan Sub Tragedy?
Sputnik International
On Monday, what began as concerted search-and-rescue operations in the Atlantic Ocean for a deep-sea expedition submersible - Titan - carrying five passengers, ground to a halt yesterday afternoon after found patches of its debris
2023-06-23T17:17+0000
2023-06-23T17:17+0000
2023-10-21T13:05+0000
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Operational safety concernsConcerns about Titan's safety and quality control were raised in January 2018. David Lochridge, then-OceanGate's director of marine operations, wrote a report, according to court documents stressing "the potential dangers to passengers of the Titan as the submersible reached extreme depths.” Even so, the company fired Lochridge and sued him in June 2018 for contract breach, stealing trade secrets, and fraud. Lochridge's countersuit in August 2018 revealed that the Titan's viewport wasn't certified beyond a depth of 1,300 meters - while the company planned to take expeditions down 4,000 meters.In March 2018, the firm received an "unanimous letter" from the Marine Technology Society, warning OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush about the dangers of doing so without the conventional assessment and its potentially devastating outcomes for its planned $250,000 per person Titanic expedition. "It [Titan's tragedy] hasn't surprised us...."We've been aware of this project for some time and have had some concerns," said Will Kohnen, the Marine Technology Society's submarine committee chair.Low-grade quality partsThe quality of the sub's construction and parts have been called to question by some people who are familiar with the Titan. In an interview with a UK media outlet, a former Royal Navy admiral, Chris Parry, said:Speaking on the Unsung Science podcast, correspondent David Pogue - who took a tour of the Titan last year - described the low-quality construction of the vehicle as a craft put together by "MacGyver" - a character in a TV series well-known for his ingenious way of getting out of challenging situations by making devices from mundane objects.Last ditch effortsGlobal media outlets latched on to an ensuing frenzy as a robust international search effort was ongoing for the underwater craft and crew. At the French president's appeal, a French research vessel, The Atalante, carrying a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), Victor 6000, was transferred to the search area on Tuesday.This ROV is among the few underwater vehicles capable of reaching greater depths and tugging stranded submersibles to the surface. In the afternoon, a Canadian Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft raised hopes when it detected "banging sounds." The next day, the US and Canadian Coast Guards, OceanGate, and the US Navy formed a unified command to supervise the search.On Thursday, US Navy's top secret underwater acoustic detection system tracked down an abnormal noise suspected of an implosion near the Titan's debris site.Meanwhile, the actual cause of the incident remains unclear, but professional and technical negligence and issues about using questionable parts could have contributed to the mishap.
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What Could Have Caused the Titan Sub Tragedy?
17:17 GMT 23.06.2023 (Updated: 13:05 GMT 21.10.2023) Titan, a submersible vehicle carrying five passengers onboard, lost communication with a surface vessel during a deep-sea expedition on Sunday. However, four days after, patches of its debris were found, suggesting a "catastrophic implosion."
Operational safety concerns
Concerns about Titan's safety and quality control were raised in January 2018. David Lochridge, then-OceanGate's director of marine operations, wrote a report, according to
court documents stressing
"the potential dangers to passengers of the Titan as the submersible reached extreme depths.” Even so, the company fired Lochridge and sued him in June 2018 for contract breach, stealing trade secrets, and fraud. Lochridge's countersuit in August 2018 revealed that the Titan's viewport wasn't certified beyond a depth of 1,300 meters - while the company planned to take expeditions down 4,000 meters.
In March 2018, the firm received an "
unanimous letter" from the Marine Technology Society, warning OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush about the dangers of doing so without the conventional assessment and its potentially devastating outcomes for its planned $250,000 per person Titanic expedition.
"It [Titan's tragedy] hasn't surprised us...."We've been aware of this project for some time and have had some concerns," said Will Kohnen, the Marine Technology Society's submarine committee chair.
The
quality of the sub's construction and parts have been called to question by some people who are familiar with the Titan. In an interview with a UK media outlet, a former Royal Navy admiral, Chris Parry, said:
"They're built in an experimental way, and this particular one is, shall we say, built from components you can get off the internet, from Amazon - they're very flimsy, very fragile, and you can't allow a lot to go wrong before you're in danger."
Speaking on the Unsung Science podcast, correspondent David Pogue - who took a tour of the Titan last year - described the low-quality construction of the vehicle as a craft put together by "MacGyver" - a character in a TV series well-known for his ingenious way of getting out of challenging situations by making devices from mundane objects.
"There are a couple of touchscreen PC monitors on the floor of the sub, but there are no controls. The multi-million sub is controlled with a games controller," he stressed.
Global media outlets latched on to an ensuing frenzy as a robust international search effort was ongoing for the underwater craft and crew. At the French president's appeal, a French research vessel, The Atalante, carrying a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), Victor 6000, was transferred to the search area on Tuesday.
This ROV is among the few underwater vehicles capable of reaching greater depths and tugging stranded submersibles to the surface. In the afternoon, a Canadian Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft raised hopes when it detected
"banging sounds." The next day, the US and Canadian Coast Guards, OceanGate, and the US Navy formed a unified command to supervise the search.
On Thursday,
US Navy's top secret underwater acoustic detection system tracked down an abnormal noise suspected of an implosion near the
Titan's debris site.
"The US Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost," a senior US Navy official told American press.
Meanwhile, the actual cause of the incident remains unclear, but professional and technical negligence and issues about using questionable parts could have contributed to the mishap.
