Five people, a whopping $250,000, and one recipe for disaster. On June 22, the lost OceanGate Expeditions submarine “The Titan,” which was set to explore the infamous Titanic wreckage, was said to explode with no survivors after being missing for several days. And if you haven’t heard about it at this point, then where have you been?
On June 16, five passengers including two businessmen, one of their sons, the CEO of OceanGate (yes, the guy that owns this $250,000 tourist trap for billionaires), and an expert Titanic researcher were deployed via an OceanGate submarine off of a port in St. Johns, Newfoundland, into the Atlantic Ocean. All seemed to be well until about 1 hour and 45 minutes into the trip when communication with the now-missing vessel was lost during the passengers’ almost 13,000-foot descent into the sea. Up until now, OceanGate has been taking tourists down to see the wreckage of the Titanic since 2021, seemingly without any life-threatening issues.
However, with recent allegations coming out critiquing the safety of OceanGate’s submarines, I don’t see them doing any more underwater exploring any time soon.
Despite the dreadful reality of the situation, you may still find yourself wondering: what would’ve happened if the trip went as planned? I was thinking that, too — and, since you may not feel like doing the research yourself, I’m here to tell you exactly what should have happened (a TLDR version, if you will) if the OceanGate Titan submarine expedition were to have gone as planned:
The original Titan Submarine trip was supposed to be less than 24 hours.
Through David Pogue, a former passenger of the same Titan submarine, we are able to hypothesize theories about what should have happened and what went wrong.
In short, $250,000 should be able to afford you about 10-12 hours of ship time, with Pogue attesting a typical mission to include 2 hours of the trip reserved for the commute to the sunken ship, two hours reserved for returning from the wreckage, and the rest set aside to explore the Titanic itself. Pogue was not able to see the actual wreckage itself, since the submersible experienced technical difficulties only 37 feet down in the dive and had to be returned to the surface.
The submarine was also equipped with safety precautions.
There are seven safety features and procedures that should have ensured the vessel’s safe ascent to the surface. Pogue states that of the seven different ballast systems, many should have still worked without electricity to allow the submersible to at least bob at the top of the ocean’s surface. He even says that one should have worked if all passengers were to be “passed out” and unresponsive. For some reason, it is likely that all seven safety measures failed if the submarine is still submerged underwater, rather than being lost by floating on top of the sea.
So, what went wrong?
By now, we know that the submarine likely had some technical problems underwater. In the event of an underwater technical malfunction, one of the seven ballast systems should have deployed, sending the ship to the surface. Then, the submersible should have sent out signals for immediate rescue. However, as of June 22, the submersible was said to have exploded, and all five passengers did not survive the catastrophe.
This article was published on 6/21/23. It was updated on 6/22/23.