The small submersible from the American company OceanGate has not given a signal since Sunday.
It’s a race against the clock that begins. Having left to visit the wreck of the Titanic off the coast of North America, the small tourist submarine of OceanGate Expeditions was declared missing on Sunday, 1h45 after the start of its descent towards the wreck of the transatlantic.
Among the five passengers is British businessman, aviator and space tourist Hamish Harding, 58, CEO of Dubai-based private jet sales firm Action Aviation.
“The submarine’s crew is made up of a few legendary explorers, some of whom have completed more than 30 dives on the RMS Titanic since the 1980s,” the billionaire also said on his Instagram account on Saturday announcing his participation in the trip.
Who is OceanGate?
OceanGate is an American company founded in 2009 by Stockton Rush and specialized in underwater expeditions. Today CEO, this former pilot “oversees the financial and engineering strategies” of OceanGate, which has become “the main supplier of manned submersibles”, in particular for scientific research, can we read on the company’s website .
OceanGate first developed the “Cyclops 1” submersible capable of carrying 5 people and reaching depths of 500 meters. Working with NASA engineers, the company then developed the “Titan”, a 7-meter-long carbon fiber vessel weighing more than 10 tons and capable of diving to 4000 meters deep, with a autonomy of 96 hours.
It is with this submersible that OceanGate has been offering tourist expeditions to the Titanic since 2021 to “follow in the footsteps of Jacques Cousteau and become an underwater explorer”. The operator ensures that these explorations also have a scientific aim since they should make it possible to better document the state of the wreckage thanks to the taking of photos and videos.
Each expedition thus generally consists of three tourists, a pilot and a researcher. Non-expert passengers also receive training to participate in the information-gathering mission, according to the company. According to GuardianOceanGate has flown approximately 60 paying customers and 15-20 researchers to Titanic since 2021.
“Not certified”
For the first expedition of 2023, scheduled to take place June 12-20, the Polar Prince ship carrying the Titan departed Newfoundland before arriving at the wreck site 640 km away. The submersible then began its descent at a depth of 3800 meters to the Titanic, which it should have reached in about two hours.
CBS News journalist David Pogue was able to board the Titan last year. As reported Le Figarothe latter was able to see that the means of communication from the ship on the surface with the craft were limited to “sending SMS” and a “signal ‘ping’ sent every 15 minutes”.
In his report, David Pogue reports that he “couldn’t help but notice how many parts of this sub seemed to be improvised, with off-the-shelf components”. He mentions in particular “the piloting of the machine, executed with a joystick” inspired by those used for video game consoles.
The submersible “has not been approved or certified by a regulatory body”, also assures the journalist, recalling that the Titan “was lost for a few hours last summer”, when he was on board.
