Family members and coworkers held funerals for the five people who perished on Friday when their submersible exploded in the North Atlantic while they were making a deep dive into the Titanic wreck, raising concerns about the safety protocols for such ocean-dwelling expeditions.
A robotic diving vehicle launched from a Canadian ship as part of an international rescue effort discovered debris from the Titan submersible on Thursday. The submersible had been missing since Sunday.
Rear Admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard reported that remains of the submersible, which lost contact with a surface ship about an hour and a half into a two-hour descent, were found on the seabed about 1,600 feet (488 metres) from the bow of the Titanic wreck, or 2-1/2 miles (4 km) below the surface.
He told reporters on Thursday that the debris was consistent with “a catastrophic implosion of the vehicle.”
Stockton Rush, the U.S. founder, and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, which operated the submersible and charged $250,000 per person to travel on the Titanic, was among the five who died. He was piloting the craft.
The others were British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son Suleman, both British citizens; and French oceanographer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77.
“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” OceanGate said.
OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Söhnlein said Rush was “keenly aware” of the dangers of exploring the ocean depths.
“Stockton was one of the most astute risk managers I’d ever met,” said Söhnlein, who left the company in 2013, retaining a minority stake. “He was very risk-averse.”
Dik Barton, a British Titanic researcher, acknowledged the contributions of his friend Nargeolet while pointing out problems with the ship’s construction and upkeep. “Everyone’s wise after the event, but as we’ve heard before, unfortunately, there were many red flags flying here,” he said.
Safety concerns regarding Titan were brought up in 2018 at a symposium of submersible industry experts and in a lawsuit filed by OceanGate’s former head of marine operations, which was later settled.
The aftermath of a much worse tragedy—the sinking of a migrant boat off the coast of Greece last week—was overshadowed by the search for the missing person, which received worldwide media attention.