The only submersible doing deep dives to the wreck of the famous Titanic, and one of the largest deep-dive submarines in the world, has gone missing. Five people are on board.
UPDATE: : On June 22, 2023, the five crew on Titan were pronounced dead. The sub suffered a "catastrophic implosion" on the way down, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed.
Titan, the submarine in question, is the biggest submersible from the OceanGate Expeditions fleet and the only one in the world still doing active dives to the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is a "tourist" expedition vessel because it carries people who pay for the privilege of the experience, with tickets selling for $250,000 a pop.
On Sunday, June 18, Titan went under for the first Titanic dive of the year after repeated delays caused by severe weather. It sent its last ping to the mothership on the surface 1 hour and 45 minutes after beginning its descent, so it was probably halfway to the wreck. All communication between the sub and the mothership stopped, and a massive international search and rescue mission is now underway, OceanGate Expeditions announced on Monday, June 19.
Five people were onboard Titan when it went under, and they have an emergency oxygen supply of about 95 hours. The submersible is also equipped with seven redundant failsafes that should help it reach the surface in an emergency like complete loss of power onboard. Coastal authorities are not ruling out the possibility that it might have already emerged to the surface and is bobbing away without a possibility of reaching out to anyone.
The Titanic wreck is approximately 435 miles (700km) south of St John's, Newfoundland, at a depth of 3,800 meters (12,500 feet). Titan's last ping came when they were right above the site. However, the remoteness of the area is making the search operation all the more difficult. Polar Prince, the research vessel acting as the mothership on this particular mission, is involved in the search. Another sub from OceanGate is expected to join, and the U.S. Coast Guard is also counting on assistance from two aircraft, another submarine, and sonar buoys in the search.
Photo: OceanGate Expeditions
Both authorities and OceanGate have expressed their belief that they can still get to the missing submarine by the time the air supply runs out. The five people onboard are three so-called "mission specialists," which is what OceanGate calls the paying customers that are also involved in manning the submersible, a "content specialist," and a pilot. One of these mission specialists is British billionaire Hamish Harding, a Guinness World Record holder explorer and aviation expert.
What is Titan?
Titan is a capsule-shaped sub with only one small window in the front end from which it draws its name. It is a 2018 Cyclops-class submersible with a carbon fiber and titanium hull and four electric thrusters that help it travel at a speed of 3 knots and a rate of descent of 55 meters (180.5 feet) per minute.
Titan is also "blind" in that it doesn't see where it is relative to the subject of its investigation, which, in this case, would be the Titanic wreck, so it's always accompanied by a secondary crew onboard the mothership, which guides it to its destination. Dives to the Titanic are meant to help analyze the wreck that is rapidly decaying, map it, and obtain other types of content and data. Each mission includes the 2+ hours for the descent and ascent and a few more hours to get the data, but customers are paying the $250,000 for the entire stay, including whatever time they spend on the mothership before and after dives.
Photo: OceanGate Expeditions
Titan was designed to carry five people in the most rudimentary conditions. There are no seats and no luxury amenities, as you'd expect on a tourist vessel, and all five crewmembers sit on the floor, pee in a bag, and munch on whatever snack they bring along. In time, this has earned Titan the descriptor "homemade" with more than a subtle negative connotation.
Titan is equipped with lights and cameras to map the Titanic wreck and seven failsafes to get back to the surface in case of an emergency. It communicates every 15 minutes by pings and by means of text messages with the mothership, which guides it on its descent in the same way. Both means of communication have stopped on this recent mission.
Past troubles of Titan
This is not the first time that Titan has experienced communication issues, though it's the first it has gone dark for such an extended period of time. Last summer, with tech CBS journalist David Pogue onboard, it lost communication with the mothership for two full hours due to an unspecified malfunction.
Photo: OceanGate Expeditions
Over the past few hours, Pogue has been very active on social media with his concerns regarding the highly experimental state of the sub and how it was never meant for the public consumer. He cites his own experience for his criticism and the seemingly makeshift, rudimentary features of Titan, including the fact that it's operated with a PlayStation joystick and is guided to its destination from the waterline.
On the upside, Titan's previous communication blackouts give authorities hope that something similar has happened. Titan might already be out on the waterline but unable to broadcast its position.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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