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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 33 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 550 yards (500 m; 1,650 ft) from the bow of 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.
Industry experts, friends of Rush, and OceanGate employees had previously stated concerns about the safety of the vessel.
OceanGate is a private company, initiated in 2009 by Stockton Rush and Guillermo Söhnlein. From 2010 until the loss of the Titan submersible, OceanGate had 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. (A near disaster on that expedition was recounted in Vanity Fair in 2023.) 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."
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 320 nautical miles (590 km; 370 mi) from the coast of Newfoundland. The Titanic's wreck lies at a depth of 2,100 fathoms (12,600 ft; 3,800 m). Since its discovery, it has been a destination for research expeditions and tourism. By 2012, 140 people had visited the wreck site.
Formerly known as Cyclops 2, Titan was a five-person submersible vessel operated by OceanGate Inc. The 6.7-metre (22 ft), 10,432-kilogram (10.4 t; 23,000 lb) vessel was constructed from carbon fibre and titanium. The entire pressure vessel consisted of two titanium hemispheres (domes) with matching titanium interface rings bonded to the 142-centimetre (56 in) internal diameter, 2.4-metre (7.9 ft) carbon fibre-wound cylinder. One of the titanium hemispherical end caps was detachable to provide the hatch and was fitted with a 380-millimetre-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.
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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 33 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 550 yards (500 m; 1,650 ft) from the bow of 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.
Industry experts, friends of Rush, and OceanGate employees had previously stated concerns about the safety of the vessel.
OceanGate is a private company, initiated in 2009 by Stockton Rush and Guillermo Söhnlein. From 2010 until the loss of the Titan submersible, OceanGate had 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. (A near disaster on that expedition was recounted in Vanity Fair in 2023.) 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."
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 320 nautical miles (590 km; 370 mi) from the coast of Newfoundland. The Titanic's wreck lies at a depth of 2,100 fathoms (12,600 ft; 3,800 m). Since its discovery, it has been a destination for research expeditions and tourism. By 2012, 140 people had visited the wreck site.
Formerly known as Cyclops 2, Titan was a five-person submersible vessel operated by OceanGate Inc. The 6.7-metre (22 ft), 10,432-kilogram (10.4 t; 23,000 lb) vessel was constructed from carbon fibre and titanium. The entire pressure vessel consisted of two titanium hemispheres (domes) with matching titanium interface rings bonded to the 142-centimetre (56 in) internal diameter, 2.4-metre (7.9 ft) carbon fibre-wound cylinder. One of the titanium hemispherical end caps was detachable to provide the hatch and was fitted with a 380-millimetre-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.
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