June 20, 2023 – Jacqueline Hemingway.
Stockton Rush, founder and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions is among those missing in the aptly named submersible Titan. The vessel was approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes into the dive that would keep the Titan underwater for 12 hours during its round trip to the wreckage of the famed ship, RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Titanic when contact was lost.
The Titan sub only has 96 hours of oxygen on board for the five passengers. The passengers on board are, Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood, Sulaiman Dawood, Paul Henri-Nargeolet and Hamish Harding.
There are a number of issues at hand. The 96 hour oxygen supply being most critical, but the sub could have experienced hull damage and began taking on water, much like the Titanic it was en route to visit.
Another key issue is the vessel itself. Made of 5 inch thick carbon fiber cylinder (not spherical which is more common and safer with equal pressure distribution) with titanium end caps, the Titan only has a rudimentary control system. It is actually piloted with a Logitech game controller, much like people use with their Xbox or Playstation. There is only one button to push to begin diving, which turns green when activated.
Safety and oversight of private vessels like this is an important factor as well. From early news reports it seems that very little regulation is in place pertaining to these types of private vessels. Reports indicate that this company ran things on a ‘seat of their pants’ philosophy with experimental and controversial as words to define their practices.
CBS correspondent David Pogue who was a passenger on a previous tour on board Titan reports that when he arrived it appeared much of the equipment looked ‘rigged’ and even pointed it out to Stockton Rush who preferred to call it ‘innovative’. Rusty pipes and sandbags were used for ballast. When they (passengers) were bolted into the Titan, Pogue reports that only 17 of the 18 bolts were secured. He was told that the 18th bolt at the top wasn’t needed. Pogue never made it to Titanic, just 37 feet into the dive it was aborted.
You cannot rush innovation. Innovation doesn’t do much good if established practices based on regulations are ignored. Regulations may slow innovation but they serve a purpose. Safety being a high priority. Whether or not the passengers on the ill-fated voyage, and previous ones, were 100% aware of just how experimental this sub was is something that will be key going forward.
Full disclosure is fundamental, and disclosure beyond dozens of pages of legalese that one may gloss over in their eagerness to get started. Something with such catastrophic possibilities needs to have verbal, face to face warnings like, “just so you know, our subs aren’t under the regulatory control of any agency, and we have chosen not to follow industry standards of practice nor have we submitted our vessel to outside testing or certification. Our sub is not approved by anyone but us.” I think that kind of disclosure is the only way you can honestly inform a passenger embarking on such a potentially perilous journey.
Being an innovative maverick, as Stockton Rush is being described and he has described himself as a ‘rule breaker’, in an industry that has strict oversight and regulations doesn’t mix well, and something has to give. Unfortunately, the ‘give’ in this case looks like it is going to end up being the hull of the Titan. And the cost will be five lives. Eagerness for innovation doesn’t excuse shortcuts.
Another key issue is the way that the sub is closed. There is no hatch that can be opened from the inside, the titanium end cap that passengers enter the sub through is secured by 18 bolts that close the sub from the outside. Once locked inside, there is no exiting or opening the sub until it is retrieved by its mother vessel, the Polar Prince.
The bad thing about this design is that the Titan sub, even if it safely surfaces, cannot get fresh air inside. So if the sub somehow surfaces miles off course, the five passengers aboard would die from lack of oxygen if not found before the 96 hour air supply runs out. A very flawed design at best, and a fatal flaw at worse.
This outside locking method is a dangerous way to secure any hatch device. Another catastrophe that implemented exterior locking methods was Appolo 1. Before Apollo 1’s planned launch on February 21, 1967, the Command Module interior caught fire and burned on January 27, 1967, during a pre-launch test on Launch Pad 34 at Cape Kennedy.
Astronauts Edward H. White II, Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, and Roger B. Chaffee, who were working inside the exterior locked Command Module, were asphyxiated when an electrical short ignited the pure oxygen interior. Because the three astronauts could not open the hatch from the inside, all three burned to death. That type of hatch securing method was immediately discontinued.
One has to question the safety efficacy of continuing to use the exterior securing method in contemporary times. It is something that hopefully is addressed if these deep sea tours are to continue.
Another issue outside of the operational or safety concerns is, should there be commercial tours of such a sacred site in the first place? After all, it is the final resting place for some 1,500 souls.
Despite the interest, whether from the average person or those in the scientific and research communities, is it proper to be tooling around what is essentially a graveyard in the name of science or curiosity? A number of cemeteries above water frown upon curiosity seekers while some don’t. Some require checking in with a caretaker or are closed to the public at large except for a segment of a community.
I have been to the cemetery at Gettysburg a number of times. Certainly this place has the distinction of being hallowed ground, just as the Titanic’s resting place is as such. I suppose the biggest distinction between the two is, I’m not in danger of being crushed to death or suffocating under two and a half miles of Atlantic Ocean pressure while at Gettysburg.
Perhaps in the end it may come down to how people die. Gettysburg represents a nation’s inner struggle, some 650,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died in the Civil War. They were soldiers, armed and engaging their enemy. They were also properly and respectfully buried. There is a certain unfortunate expectation of human loss in war. Those 1,500 passengers aboard the Titanic were not at war, and there was never any expectation of human loss. Of those who perished on the Titanic only 400 bodies or so were recovered and properly and respectfully buried. Perhaps in the end it does comes down to how and why tragedy strikes that determines how we the living view the loss of the dead.
Maybe the five missing people aboard the Titan sub can be rescued in time, though each passing hour seems to make that possibility improbable. If they perish, should we bring the sub and bodies to the surface, or let their ‘burial’ at sea be their tomb? I think technology dictates that they will be retrieved if possible.
What are your thoughts on this subject? Feel free to leave your comments below. Respectful comments will be posted.
****UPDATE****
6/22/23 — It is now clear and evidence shows conclusively that a catastrophic implosion has killed all five people on board the Titan sub.
Recordings from secret Naval acoustic devices now point to the sub suffering catastrophic failure not long after it initially lost contact with the Polar Prince on Sunday. Though not definitive, the acoustic anomaly of a possible catastrophic implosion discovered on Sunday means, though search efforts proceeded, there were clear indications that something had happened.
The efforts of so many attempting a rescue would end up being in vain as the would-be rescuees were already dead. Although some debris has been been discovered, it is highly unlikely that any of the five bodies will ever be found. Thy sea is so great and my boat is so small.
The only solace in this tragedy if there can be one is how the end came. With a catastrophic pressure chamber failure, death would come instantaneously rather than a leak that slowly filled the chamber drowning everyone or running out of oxygen and suffocating to death. Not much of a consolation for the loved ones of the dead.
In the end, right or wrong, much if not all blame will fall upon Stockton Rush. After all, he was the one in charge at OceanGate. Reports of safety concerns by former OceanGate employees, at least one letter from the Maritime Technology Society that has interacted with Rush and OceanGate are surfacing regarding safety, the experimental nature of OceanGate without vessel testing and certification indicating that Rush had misinformed or outright misled the community he was a part of.
The fact that Rush wouldn’t submit the Titan sub to certifying bodies for approval lend to the ‘rushed innovation’ claims that will no doubt continue to circulate in the future.
Rush told CBS correspondent David Pogue that he was a think outside the box kind of person. That way of thinking has sparked innovation of all kinds throughout history. However, just because you think outside the box doesn’t mean the people inside the box are wrong about what you are doing and how you are doing it.
Hemingway Ink 
Finding it would be the biggest problem. That deep down, and even with powerful lights and sonar, it could easily be missed. Thanks for your input on this.
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