Investigators board the submarine support ship Titan to find out why it imploded

A team of researchers boarded the main escort ship of the submarine Titan this Saturdaywhose implosion near the wreck of the Titanic caused the death of its five passengers.

Boat The polar prince anchored in the port of St. John’s, Newfoundland, with flags at half-mast in memory of those who died, and before the eyes of a group of police officers and investigators who boarded after the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. (TSB) announced that it will be the subject of an investigation.

Canadian Coast Guard ships had already begun returning to St John’s Harbor on Friday, when the salvage operation had already left the crew dead.

British adventurer Hamish Harding, as well as Shahzada and Suleman Dawood died on board submarines, together with the executive director of the company responsible for the vessel, Stockton Rush and French citizen Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

In a statement issued before the ships began returning to port, the GCC said the search and rescue operation had ended.

The CCG indicated that one of its ships would remain on site and “provide assistance and support to salvage and recovery operations as requested by the Boston Maritime Rescue Coordination Center.”

For its part, the TSB confirmed hours before sending a team of investigators to St John’s to “gather information, conduct interviews and assess the event”, according to Europa Press.

In its own statement, the safety authority said the investigation will be conducted “in accordance with Canada’s Traffic Accident Investigation Act and Safety Board and international agreements.”

The TSB, the note added, “will not determine civil or criminal liability and conducts investigations to ‘improve traffic safety.’

After that comes the investigation The BBC reported that Rush’s emails show he dismissed security concerns about the Titan submarine.

In an exchange with deep-sea exploration expert Rob McCallum, OceanGate’s CEO noted that he is “tired of industry players trying to use the safety argument to stop innovation.”

The submarine lost contact with the tour operator an hour and 45 minutes into the two-hour descent to the wreck, and the ship disappeared eight hours after the loss of communication.

The Titan disaster casts serious doubt on this type of expedition

Attraction to him titanic it is as powerful as the dangers of the journey to the wreck. “It is more difficult to go to the bottom of the ocean than to the farthest part of the moon”says a NASA astronaut in an informative video by OceanGate, the company in charge of these expeditions since 2018 and the owner of the Titan, the submarine that exploded during its last dive towards the remains of the ocean liner.

Most of those who participated in these descents are people experienced in adventure leisure and claim that the adrenaline and, above all, the fascinating feeling of “life in a movie” is not even comparable to climbing Everest. One example: Renata Rojas, an American financier of Mexican origin, saved for 30 years to pay for the $250,000 ticket. On three occasions the trip was interrupted due to bad weather. He got it last year. When he resurfaced, he beamed: “Dreams are priceless, some people want a Ferrari. Some people buy a house. I wanted to go on the Titanic.

But after the fatal fate of the Titan, criticism of the safety of the project is growing. At least in part of the scientific community. “I hope we will rest and think a bit,” suggests oceanographer Peter Guirguis in Nature and collects Colpis.

Are Titanic visits at risk?

Nobody knows. The ocean is not only a source of danger, but also a legal loophole, and serious doubts hang over expeditions to its bottom. The Titan had no flag and only sailed in international waters around the legendary shipwreck. In other words, she was exempt from the ties to the safety regulations that govern the maritime world. In this sense, voices calling for coordinated action by governments to fill this gap or regulate the conditions under which wreckage can be brought down have increased. “It’s not a pleasure trip,” exclaims physicist Michael Guillén, who has called for a ban on all types of expeditions so that authorities and experts can determine what limits should be applied.

ready to die”

Guillén was part of the Titanic dive in which he almost lost his life three years ago. His submarine was a different research prototype than the Titan. Better prepared. A strong sea current pushed him between the hull and the propeller of the terrible ship. It took the crew an hour to undock the ship. He, at that time, prepared “to die”. Suddenly I felt peace and was ready to leave my life, and then I got a second chance, this professor of physics at Harvard University recalls to GB News.

Apart from him, other experts consider it necessary to “implement restrictions” that improve travel safety, but also, which is a fundamental element, discourage companies or people with insufficient experience from embarking on this adventure. “Until then, it would be necessary to stop all trips to the Titanic”, which in some cases can be confused with a “kamikaze operation”, as German businessman and adventurer Arthur Loibl (61) calls his own visit to the wreck.

“Although the dangers of deep sea exploration are obvious and well known, many are still drawn to pushing the boundaries, a fascination I know all too well. My insatiable curiosity to look beyond the horizon leads me to an unconventional life. But even I limit myself to getting into a small submarine to sink four kilometers to the bottom of the Atlantic,” wrote the famous explorer and adventurer Levison Wood in an article in Time.