uthorities are searching for the reason a submersible carrying people to the wreck of the Titanic imploded deep in the North Atlantic, as questions emerged about how such expeditions are regulated and tributes poured in for the five aboard who were killed.
It comes amid uncertainty over whether the bodies of the five men who were seeking a trip of a lifetime to the Titanic wreck – including a London-based businessman and his son – will be recovered.
Constellation Marine Services director Captain John Noble told Sky News that the five men are “in a resting place along with hundreds of Titanic passengers”.
“The decision may well be to leave them in peace where they are,” he said.
He said the implosion is expected to be the “start of a very long path by regulators” to tighten rules around deep-sea exploration.
The victims are London-based businessman Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman, British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Oceangate chief executive and Titan pilot Stockton Rush.
The US Coast Guard confirmed the tail cone of the deep-sea vessel was discovered around 1,600 ft from the bow of the Titanic wreckage during a press conference in Boston.
Rear Admiral John Mauger said further debris was also found, in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, that was “consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber”.
Undersea expert Paul Hankin said five major pieces of debris helped to identify it as from the Titan submersible – including the vessel’s nose cone and the front end bell of the pressure hull.
According to court documents, safety concerns had previously been raised about the Titan submersible by a former employee of OceanGate.
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Paul-Henri Nargeolet was ‘legendary figure’
RMS Titanic, Inc, the only company permitted to recover artifacts from the wreck site, has been collecting tributes from friends and admirers of Paul-Henri Nargeolet – one of five men killed on board the Titan sub.
The French deep sea explorer and Titanic expert was known as “Mr Titanic” due to his extensive knowledge of the ship.
One tribute said: “I highly doubt there was a man on planet Earth who knew more about RMS Titanic, its passengers, and its crew than Captain Nargeolet.”
Another said: “PH was a legendary figure in the world of Titanic. His work has inspired so many people, myself included, and has allowed us to gain new perspectives of the disaster.”
Time to consider whether Titanic trips should end, society president says
It is time to consider whether trips to the wreckage of the Titanic should end following the death of five people on board the Titan submersible, the president of the Titanic International Society has said.
In a statement published online, Charles Haas, president of the Titanic International Society, an organisation set up in 1989 to preserve the history of the Titanic, questioned whether visits to the historic site 3,800m below the surface should continue.
He said: “It is time to consider seriously whether human trips to Titanic’s wreck should end in the name of safety, with relatively little remaining to be learned from or about the wreck.
“Crewed submersibles’ roles in surveying the wreck now can be assigned to autonomous underwater vehicles, like those that mapped the ship and its debris field in high-resolution, 3-D detail last summer.
“The world joins us in expressing our profound sadness and heartbreak about this tragic, avoidable event.”
Regulations around Titanic trips ‘tricky to navigate’
The co-founder of the Titan submersible’s parent company has said the regulations surrounding visits to the Titanic wreckage are “tricky to navigate” after the deep-sea vessel is believed to have imploded while attempting to visit the site.
Guillermo Sohnlein, co-founder of OceanGate Expeditions, said there are regulations in place surrounding submersibles but they are “sparse” and “antiquated” as he defended the firm from critics including Titanic film director James Cameron.
Mr Sohnlein defended the safety of the submersible, saying he and his co-founder Stockton Rush, who was onboard Titan, were committed to safety during expeditions.
He told Times Radio: “He was extremely committed to safety. He was also extremely diligent about managing risks, and was very keenly aware of the dangers of operating in a deep ocean environment.
“So that’s one of the main reasons I agreed to go into business with him in 2009.”
Mr Sohnlein, who no longer works for the company, continued: “I know from first-hand experience that we were extremely committed to safety and safety and risk mitigation was a key part of the company culture.”
Explaining the regulations surrounding visiting the Titanic wreckage, he said: “The regulations are pretty sparse. And many of them are antiquated, or they’re designed for specific instances.
“So it’s kind of tricky to navigate those regulatory schemes.”
Downing Street has said that Rishi Sunak’s thoughts are with the loved ones of the victims of the missing Titan submersible, which is believed to have imploded while attempting to visit the Titanic wreckage.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman 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.
“FCDO are in touch with those families to provide support.”
Deep sea exploration should continue to ‘preserve legacy’ of victims
Guillermo Sohnlein, co-founder of OceanGate Expeditions, said he hopes deep sea exploration continues to “preserve the legacy” of the victims.
He told Sky News: “It’s an important endevaour and humanity needs it to continue, and to preserve the legacy of all these explorers who unfortunately died doing something they enjoyed doing.”
Of OceanGate chief executive and pilot Stockton Rush, Mr Sohnlein said: “He was a talented engineer, a passionate explorer, but mostly he was a keen risk manager”.
He said Mr Rush was “well aware of risks” and “very committed to safety”.
He added: “Every innovation he made…was pushing two things, expanding capabilities to explore deep ocean but also to explore it as safely as possible.
“He was always willing to listen to other people’s opinions and evaluate them.”
A recap: What is happening today?
- The search for the Titan submersible has become an investigation and salvage mission that will take an indefinite amount of time, officials have said.
- The investigation into what happened is already underway and will continue in the area around Titanic, where debris from the submersible was found, said Rear Adm. John Mauger, of the First Coast Guard District.
- “I know there are also a lot of questions about how, why and when did this happen. Those are questions we will collect as much information as we can about now,” he said.
- A senior US Navy official has said that after the Titan was reported missing on Sunday, the Navy went back and analysed its acoustic data and found an “anomaly” that was consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the vessel was operating when communications were lost.
Submersible regulations ‘written in blood’, industry expert says
William Kohnen, chairman of the Manned Underwater Vehicles Committee, said the regulations for building submersible vessels were “written in blood”.
Mr Kohnen’s organisation, based in Los Angeles in the US, raised safety concerns in 2018 about OceanGate’s development of Titan.
He suggested the company was “not willing to undergo the standard certification process which we all do in the submarine industry” via a third party “double check” system.
Mr Kohnen told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The rules are written in blood – it is in there because it caused trouble before, and to say: ‘Well I think we’re just going to ignore that and go on our own way,’ suggests there might be a bit of input of wisdom that this might not be the best decision.”
It comes after Guillermo Sohnlein, co-founder of OceanGate Expeditions, told the same programme that the Titan had undergone 14 years of “rigorous” and “robust” checks during development.
University attended by victim Suleman Dawood ‘profoundly saddened’
The University of Strathclyde has paid tribute to student Suleman Dawood, 19, who died on board the Titan submersible.
The university said: “The staff and students of Strathclyde have been shocked and profoundly saddened by the death of Suleman Dawood and his father in this tragic incident.
“The entire university community offers our deepest condolences to the Dawood family and all of those affected by this terrible accident.
“Our student wellbeing team is on hand to offer appropriate support to Suleman’s Strathclyde classmates and the wider community at this difficult time.”
Suleman Dawood had been “terrified” of the voyage but felt compelled to join his dad because the trip was a Father’s Day present, his aunty told media.
James Cameron blasts search for missing Titan as ‘nightmarish charade’
Titanic director and deep-sea expert James Cameron said he predicted the fate of the tragic Titan submersible as he blasted the search for the vessel that catastrophically imploded during the dive as a “nightmarish charade”.
The Hollywood director, who has visited the Titanic wreck himself 33 times, said he suspected a disaster when he learned the sub had lost both its navigation and communication at the same time.
Cameron told BBC News the past week had “felt like a prolonged and nightmarish charade where people are running around talking about banging noises and talking about oxygen and all this other stuff”.
Read more here.
James Cameron speaks to media
/ ABCA recap: Families pay tribute to victims
Families of UK billionaire Hamish Harding, London businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, and French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet have paid tribute, as well as OceanGate Expeditions to its pilot and chief executive Stockton Rush.
Relatives of the Dawoods, from London, urged well-wishers to keep their “departed souls and our family in your prayers during this difficult period of mourning”.
The family of Mr Harding said: “Hamish Harding was a loving husband to his wife and a dedicated father to his two sons, whom he loved deeply.”
The family of French dive expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet have paid tribute to “one of the greatest deep-sea explorers in modern history”.
Read more here.