True Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Part VII

Titan Submersible Implosion

On 18 June 2023, Titan, a submersible operated by the American tourism and expeditions company OceanGate, imploded during an expedition to view the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Aboard the submersible were Stockton Rush, the American chief executive officer of OceanGate; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French deep-sea explorer and Titanic expert; Hamish Harding, a British businessman; Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani-British businessman; and Dawood's son, Suleman.

Communication between Titan and its mother ship, MV Polar Prince, was lost 1 hour and 45 minutes into the dive. Authorities were alerted when it failed to resurface at the scheduled time later that day. After the submersible had been missing for four days, a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) discovered a debris field containing parts of Titan, about 500 metres (1,600 ft) from the bow of the Titanic. The search area was informed by the United States Navy's (USN) sonar detection of an acoustic signature consistent with an implosion around the time communications with the submersible ceased, suggesting the pressure hull had imploded while Titan was descending, resulting in the instantaneous deaths of all five occupants.

The search and rescue operation was performed by an international team organized by the United States Coast Guard (USCG), USN, and Canadian Coast Guard. Support was provided by aircraft from the Royal Canadian Air Force and United States Air National Guard, a Royal Canadian Navy ship, as well as several commercial and research vessels and ROVs.

Numerous industry experts had stated concerns about the safety of the vessel. OceanGate executives, including Rush, had not sought certification for Titan, arguing that excessive safety protocols and regulations hindered innovation.

Background

OceanGate

OceanGate was a private company, initiated in 2009 by Stockton Rush and Guillermo Söhnlein. From 2010 until the loss of the Titan submersible, OceanGate transported paying customers in leased commercial submersibles off the coast of California, in the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Atlantic Ocean. The company was based in Everett, Washington, US.

Rush realized that visiting shipwreck sites was a method of getting media attention. OceanGate had previously conducted voyages to other shipwrecks, including its 2016 dive to the wreck of Andrea Doria aboard their other submersible Cyclops 1. In 2019, Rush told Smithsonian magazine: "There's only one wreck that everyone knows ... If you ask people to name something underwater, it's going to be sharks, whales, Titanic".

Titanic

The Titanic was a British ocean liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912, after colliding with an iceberg. More than 1,500 people died, making it the deadliest sinking of a single ship at the time. In 1985, Robert Ballard located the wreck of the Titanic on the ocean floor, 320 nautical miles (590 km; 370 mi) from the coast of Newfoundland. The wreck lies at a depth of about 3,810 metres (12,500 feet; 2,080 fathoms). Since its discovery, it has been a destination for research expeditions and tourism. By 2012, a century after its sinking, 140 persons had visited the wreck site.

Submersible Titan

Schematics of the vessel

Formerly known as Cyclops 2, Titan was a five-person submersible vessel operated by OceanGate Inc. The 6.7-metre-long (22 ft), 10,432 kg (23,000 lb) vessel was constructed from carbon fibre and titanium. The entire pressure vessel consisted of two titanium hemispheres with matching titanium interface rings bonded to the 142 cm (56 in) internal diameter, 2.4-metre-long (7.9 ft) carbon fibre-wound cylinder. One of the titanium hemispherical end caps could be detached to provide the hatch and was fitted with a 380 mm-diameter (15 in) acrylic window. In 2020, Rush said that the hull, originally designed to reach 4,000 m (13,000 ft) below sea level, had been downgraded to a depth rating of 3,000 m (9,800 ft) after demonstrating signs of cyclic fatigue. In 2020 and 2021, the hull was repaired or rebuilt. Rush told the Travel Weekly editor-in-chief that the carbon fibre had been sourced at a discount from Boeing because it was too old for use in the company's airplanes. Boeing stated they have no records of any sale to Rush or to OceanGate. OceanGate had initially not sought certification for Titan, arguing that excessive safety protocols hindered innovation. Lloyd's Register, a ship classification society, refused OceanGate's request to class the vessel in 2019.