TRANSCRIPT
June 2023.
It was the rescue operation that captivated the world.
The submarine owned by OceanGate Expeditions, named Titan, lost contact with the surface during a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic at a depth of 3,810 metres.
Aboard were OceanGate's CEO, Stockton Rush, and four passengers: British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani-born British businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Each passenger paid $368,000 for the experience.
After the loss of contact, the US Coastguard launched an extensive - and expensive - search operation.
Rear Admiral John Mauger was leading the operation and admitted it was a challenging task, involving the coordination of many different resources.
"This is a complex case, and the Coast Guard doesn't have all the resources to be able to effect this kind of a rescue, although this is an area that's within our search zone. My lead planner for this effort is called the SAR Mission Coordinator of the Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator. And that's a reflection of in many cases, we are working to bring all assets to bear and our role is in coordinating all of the technical expertise that we can bring to bear on the problem. In addition to flying aircraft or operating ships out on the water when necessary."
French-Australian Submarine expert Eric Fusil - with 20 years of experience - admitted the search was extraordinarily difficult.
"Honestly, it's like finding a needle in a haystack. First, when you are above the surface, we can use GPS we can use radar, we can use radio. There is nothing like that, that we can use below the sea because simply put the electromagnetic frequencies the electromagnetic waves do not propagate far under sea so you can only rely on acoustic sensors to try to mitigate and be aware of your environment."
On June 22nd, Rear Admiral Mauger told waiting reporters that all hope was lost.
"This morning, an ROV or remote operated vehicle from the vessel Horizon Arctic discovered the tail cone of the Titan submersible approximately 1600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor. The ROV subsequently found additional debris in consultation with experts from within the unified command. The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber."
At nearly four kilometres underwater, the pressure equates to 400 atmospheres (6,000 PSI) – as much as 35 elephants on one's shoulders.
All aboard would have been killed in an instant.
Details began to emerge that the Titan submarine had issues.
David Pogue is a science writer and has been aboard Titan in the past.
He spoke at the time of when he first saw the submersible.... and he was not impressed - and feared for his life.
“Before we went, we had never seen the sub. We didn't know anything about it. There's very little information on the website. Just that it's a state of the art, one-of-a-kind carbon fiber submersible. I didn't know at that point that you drive the thing with an Xbox game controller. I didn't know that the ballast was, you know, used construction pipes. You just, you get there and then you start seeing this stuff and now your mood crashes and you get a little worried. Like, is this the level of polish and sophistication we're talking about?"
Now, just over two years later, the US Coastguard has released its report into the disaster.
David Pogue's concerns at the time proved to be close to the truth.
The Coastguard determined the safety procedures at OceanGate were “critically flawed” and found “glaring disparities” between safety protocols and actual practices.
Jason Neubauer is chair of the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation.
He says it appears OceanGate set out to dodge the regulations.
"One of the tactics was not to register the Titan with any flag state. So there was no oversight, you know, which should typically occur in any vessel, even recreational. So that was the first strategy, I've never seen that in 28 years of, of doing and overseeing investigations. The second is to use an international operating area, that's really, you know, outside of where it was constructed, and that really removes Coast Guard oversight domestically. So that's one way that I think they were able to kind of create enough confusion, you know, between the nations where they were operating, to keep going for several years in plain sight. And a part of that is Ocean Gate had a good reputation. So I think they were given the benefit of the doubt, and they did not deserve it."
The 300-page report concluded that the inadequate design of the Titan submersible was a primary contributing factor in its implosion.
Mr Neubauer says had OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush lived, he would have faced manslaughter charges.
"From the Marine Board's perspective, we would have recommended to make a referral to Department of Justice for the prosecutors - to look to conduct a separate criminal investigation of what we have called manslaughter, and that is really based on the fact that he was the master of the submersible and in charge of the safety and was negligent from the standpoint of not complying with any standards and not maintaining the vessel."
The disaster has sparked lawsuits and calls for stricter regulations in private deep-sea tourism.
