While the search continues in the area to identify other remains and try to establish a hypothesis, relatives and colleagues mourned this Friday, June 23, the death of the five people who were in the submersible that imploded in the North Atlantic during a deep dive to see the remains of the Titanic. The incident raises questions about safety regulations for deep-ocean tours. In parallel, criticism of these practices does not stop increasing.
One day after it was revealed that the Titan submersible had imploded, bringing a tragic end to a four-day saga of searches, authorities now face questions over who is responsible for investigating the international maritime disaster.
“I know there are also a lot of questions about how, why and when this happened. Those are questions that we will gather as much information as we can now,” Rear Admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard First District said Thursday. who led the search and rescue mission.
On Friday, the Coast Guard confirmed that all the agencies involved are trying to determine who has the authority to lead an investigation that will undoubtedly be complex due to the international nature of the mission.
OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owns and operates the Titan, is based in the United States, but the sub was registered in the Bahamas.
For its part, the Titan’s mother ship, the Polar Prince, was Canadian, and the five people aboard the submersible came from England, Pakistan, France and the United States.
Tourist submersibles in the spotlight
How the research will unfold is also complicated by the fact that the world of deep-sea exploration is not well-regulated. It is a space on the high seas where laws and conventions can be circumvented by risky businessmen and wealthy tourists who help finance their adventures.
According to Salvatore Mercogliano, a professor at Campbell University in North Carolina who specializes in maritime history and politics, deep-sea expeditions like OceanGate’s come under less scrutiny than companies that launch people into space.
In addition, the Titan was not registered as a US ship or with the international organizations that regulate safety. She, too, was not rated by a maritime industry group that sets standards on issues like hull construction.
The implosion of the Titan, the first fatal accident aboard a tourist submersible at sea, could then lead to calls for stricter safety standards, but industry experts believe further measures would be difficult to enforce given the international nature of the activity.
Before the deaths of the five passengers aboard the submersible, there had been no fatalities in more than sixty years of civilian voyages at sea.
Criticism of OceanGate Expeditions intensifies
OceanGate did not respond to questions about its refusal to be certified by third parties, such as the American Bureau of Shipping or the European company DNV.
Back in 2018, Will Kohnen, chairman of the Marine Technology Society (MTS) Committee on Manned Submersibles, which brings together companies and researchers, warned Stockton Rush, the OceanGate CEO who died in the implosion, that the decision could have “catastrophic” consequences.
Rear Admiral John Mauger, United States Coast Guard, stated at his press conference on Thursday, June 22, that he was confident that “issues relating to applicable rules and regulations” will be “subject to future review.”
The American filmmaker and director of the film ‘Titanic’, James Cameron, denounced the “ignored warnings” in terms of security on the American chain ‘ABC News’, stating that he was “impressed by the similarity with the disaster” of the famous ship,
“I participated in the early phases of the development program” of OceanGate and “we were extremely committed to security,” Guillermo Söhnlein, co-founder of the company along with the American Stockton Rush, replied on ‘Times Radio’.
“Risk mitigation was a key part of the company’s culture,” he said.
Tributes to Paul-Henri Nargeolet, the French ‘Mr. Titanic’
The five Titanic passengers who lost their lives received all kinds of tributes. ANDAmong them, the French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a specialist in the Titanic.
Nargeolet “helped mankind to understand the unknown world of the deep sea,” says Bernard Cauvin, director of the Cité de la mer in Cherbourg. According to Cauvin, the researcher was a man who “fascinated everyone with his moderation, delicacy and humility.”
The former scuba diver, who died at the age of 77, had visited the wreck on more than thirty occasions and was part of the first expeditions that recovered objects from the ocean liner that lay at a depth of 3,800 meters.
He was also expected to attend the opening of a Titanic exhibition in Paris on July 18. “We salute the passion and courage of this extraordinary explorer and thank him for the dreams and emotions he has given us,” Pascal Bernardin, his manager, said in a press release.
“A deep passion for exploration”
Also among the five dead was Stockton Rush, the American founder and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, which operated the submersible and charged $250,000 per person to make the Titanic voyage. He was in charge of piloting the boat.
The other members of the expedition were British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, both British citizens.
“These men were true explorers who shared a strong spirit of adventure and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” OceanGate stated.
A question remains open: Will the families of the victims of the Titan be able to sue the OceanGate company despite the disclaimers signed by the passengers of the expedition? The answer remains to be seen. Matthew D. Shaffer, a Texas attorney specializing in maritime law, told Reuters that orA judge could strike down this clause entirely “if aspects of the ship’s design and construction were concealed from the passengers or if it was used despite information” suggesting a danger.
With AP, Reuters and AFP
