Titan, four days of harrowing search for a submarine that was “safer than crossing the street”

The mourning began and the press conferences ended, but not the search. A monumental international operation carried out by at least three countries trying to save five crew members of the submarine Titanwho roamed among the remains titanic it involved nine American, Canadian and French ships, some of which have since withdrawn from the area. Others, however, are still in the area.

After they announced on Thursday that they had found evidence of o an accident so “catastrophic” that there could be no survivors, US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger reported that “demobilization” would take place within the next 24 hours. The Pentagon estimates that it cost tens of thousands of dollars per hour, so the final bill will be estimated at several million kunas. A P3 Orion turboprop, an underwater-capable P8 Poseidon and a C-13 Hercules scanned the sea surface for debris, hoping the submarine would surface with its passengers. Now remote-controlled underwater robots will prevail, which will continue to descend to the bottom of the sea in search of other smaller parts of Titan. His subsequent analysis would enable the preparation of a detailed report on the implosion that ended the voyeur’s experience of closely studying the remains of the sunken cruiser in 1912.

The industry in question

It is a point of pride for the diving industry, which prides itself on not having had a similar accident in half a century. And there was a reason for that. Industry standards were rigid, it was a matter of life and death for the founder Ocean Gate contemptible. “I want to be remembered as an innovator,” Stockton Rush said. in an interview for a documentary on Mexican television. He was so convinced that descending 12,000 feet to the bottom of the sea in his Titan was “safer than crossing the road” that he even claimed to pilot the ship himself, thus falling victim to his own daydreaming. In any case, no one doubts that he firmly believed what he said. The other thing is that he was right. His submarine was made of carbon fiber and titanium, materials that were not approved for those depths because with each plunge the screws opened a little more, until the fatal implosion occurred. What happened is evidenced by the fact that both the bow and stern, which protected the cabin, were found scattered over a great distance.

A ship, dangerous?

The wealthy families of the victims, however, will face a complex case if they want to bring it to court, because each crew member signed a three-page document that mentioned the possibility of death up to eight times. However, if they show that OceanGate was aware that the ship was dangerous, that discharge could lose its legal validity. “I think General MacArthur said ‘you will be remembered by the rules you broke,'” the businessman recalled. “I think I broke them with good engineering. Carbon fiber and titanium? Yes, there is a rule not to do that and I did it,” he boasted.

But submarines are usually made of steel, not carbon fiber, no matter how aircraft grade. In addition, this eliminated the need to purchase the very expensive and durable synthetic foam used for submarines. “By choosing the rules you want to break, you add value to others and to society,” he explained confidently. It is not known how much of all this has come to light young Suleman Dawood, but his aunt Azmeh said in several interviews that he was “terrified” for the trip taken by his father, Pakistani-born billionaire Shahzada Dawood. The 19-year-old accepted the experience at the bottom of the sea in a claustrophobic cabin because it was Father’s Day in the US. Both will share something that will unite them forever: death. From the outside, industry insiders had no doubt from the first moment that the submarine had succumbed to the pressure of the sea. Director James Cameron, a Titanic enthusiast who dived 33 times to its remains, in addition to the Oscar-winning film, told the BBC that “with the technology they used” he would never have entered that submarine. “OceanGate should not have done what it did, I think that’s pretty clear,” he added. Titan “wasn’t certified because they knew it would never go through the process,” he said.

“Super Masquerade Ball”

Shortly after losing contact with the mother ship that took it to the wreck, a sophisticated military acoustic detection system used by the US Navy since World War II to monitor the oceans detected a large explosion, according to a publication this Friday. to the newspaper The Wall Street Journal. The Navy reported this to the Coast Guard, which could not make it public so as not to jeopardize national security. The Coast Guard then decided to continue the search as a rescue operation which, in Cameron’s opinion, became “a big masquerade, because We all knew what happened.”

As word of the explosion picked up by the sensors spread through a narrow circle of marine researchers, the 96-hour oxygen countdown attributed to the ship irked many. “We knew right away it was game over,” Cameron said. “I felt it extended the nightmare masquerade where people were walking around talking about metal noises and oxygen going off,” laments the director. In the same week that three countries pooled their most sophisticated resources to rescue five millionaires, a modest boat carrying more than 700 immigrants sank off the coast of Greece. The US Coast Guard must not burden families with the costs of their operations, because life is priceless. Other state agencies will, when the invoice, which will be worth millions, is closed.

The families of the victims could sue the New York company

A lengthy waiver signed by Titan passengers to release its owner, OceanGate, from liability in the event of an accident may not serve to protect the company from potential lawsuits from victims’ families. This will largely depend on the details revealed by the investigation into the cause of the disaster, but legal experts have already put the possibility of a conviction on the table.

“If there were aspects of the design or construction that were hidden or if it was operated despite information that (the vessel) was not suitable for diving, that would absolutely go against the validity of the exemption,” says Matthew D. Shaffer, an attorney and maritime law expert with office in Texas. Relatives of the five victims have not yet decided whether to file a lawsuit, but it is also unknown whether OceanGate has sufficient funds to cover the hypothetical damages or even has an insurance policy.