Missing Titan submarine had been lost before

You could hardly have missed it yesterday, as it was everywhere in the news. The submarine Titan, which was on an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic, is missing. On board are five people: the pilot (Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a Frenchman who has the nickname Mr. Titanic in France due to his many expeditions to the wreck), British billionaire Hamish Harding, the CEO of the company organizing the expedition (Stockton Rush), Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his son Suleman. They booked this expedition with OceanGate, of which Rush is the CEO. Since Sunday, nothing has been heard from the submarine, and it has now become a race against time: at the time of writing, they have about 35 hours of oxygen left.

This morning it was announced that sounds had been detected at the location where the submarine last sent a signal. These are said to be tapping sounds, with an interval of 30 minutes. The last sounds were reportedly heard on Tuesday afternoon. By the way, I have learned that if you ever find yourself in such a situation (let's hope not), you should make sounds at intervals; this way, people searching for you know that the sounds are made by humans. Natural sounds do not occur at fixed intervals, after all.

The wreck of the Titanic, OceanGate

The wreck of the Titanic lies at nearly four kilometers deep, which is why this rescue operation is so complex: there are not many submarines or submersibles that can go that deep, let alone bring a submarine back up. In the statement given yesterday, it was also mentioned that a lot of different equipment is needed to locate and rescue these five people, which is not available from a single entity. They are currently gathering people and supplies here and there. The sounds are, in a sense, the first positive news since Sunday: it suggests that the five passengers are still alive. Earlier, there was speculation that there might have been a leak, causing the Titan to implode. And that is just as terrible as it sounds.

Today, the search will of course continue, but this bizarre situation is not leaving my mind. What drives people to book a trip like this? And what kind of company is OceanGate? The more you learn about it, the less I understand how people had faith in this.

Journalist David Pogue, who works for CBS, went to the wreck of the Titanic with the Titan last year. And he was not exactly complimentary: he said there were already ‘many red flags’ regarding the safety of the submarine. ‘Yes, I was really terrified. I didn't sleep the night before.’

Those fears turned out to be quite justified, as the submarine was also missing for five hours during his trip. Fortunately, he was not with that group but was on the ship from which they departed. ‘It was quiet and very tense, and they shut down the internet on the ship so that no one could tweet about it,’ Pogue recounts about his experience.

That was the moment he found out that there was no tracker on the Titan — and after that five-hour disappearance, it was discussed that it would be handy to have one... But that never happened.

The Titan on its way to its dive location, OceanGate

Additionally, the CEO, who is also one of the passengers, has previously spoken out about the negligence of safety with the Titan: ‘You know, there are limits. At a certain point, safety is just ridiculous. I mean, if you want to be safe, you shouldn't get out of bed. Don't get in your car. Don't do anything at all. At a certain point, you take some risks, and it's more a question of whether the risk is worth the reward. I think I can do all this as safely as possible by breaking the rules.’ He said this in November 2022, in the podcast Unsung Science.

In 2018, Stockton Rush also received a letter from the Marine Technology Society, in which they expressed their concerns about the safety (and especially the lack thereof) of the Titan. In that same year, there were also threats of a lawsuit against OceanGate, due to — you guessed it — the lack of safety. It also turned out that the window, the only window in the submarine, was not of the right quality and only suitable for a depth of 1500 meters. This was discovered by David Lochridge, who worked at OceanGate. He raised this issue in January 2018, as this was obviously waiting for a disaster. Were they grateful? Oh certainly, he was immediately urged to pack his things and leave the premises. Yep, this whistleblower was fired.

The more I read about OceanGate, the clearer it becomes that this company did not have its affairs in order. And no, that is not even because the Titan was operated by a game controller made by Logitech. Macabre detail: they cost about 50 dollars and have suddenly become immensely popular since this drama. And why do I not find the use of that the strangest? Because the U.S. military has been operating their drones for some time with Xbox controllers, so that's not even that strange. What I do find striking is that the controller was connected via Bluetooth. Why not with cables, when it literally concerns human lives?

Image: Oceangate