Achi news desk-
PORTLAND, Maine –
A year after an experimental submersible swelled on the way to the Titanic, unanswered questions remain – with no immediate answers.
Tuesday marks one year since the Titan disappeared en route to the historic wreck site. After a five-day search that captured the world’s attention, officials said the craft had been destroyed and all five people on board had been killed.
The US Coast Guard quickly convened a high-level investigation into what happened. Concerns that led to the investigation included the Titan’s unconventional design and its creator’s decision to forgo standard independent checks.
A look at the one year anniversary of the Titan tragedy:
The investigation is taking longer than expected
US Coast Guard officials said in a statement last week that they would not be ready to release the results of their investigation by the anniversary. A public hearing to discuss the findings will not take place for at least another two months, they said.
Investigators are “working closely with our domestic and international partners to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the incident,” said Marine Board of Inquiry Chairman Jason Neubauer, describing the investigation as a “complex and ongoing effort.”
The Titan was owned by a company called OceanGate, which suspended operations last July, shortly after the tragedy. OceanGate declined to comment.
The Titan dived for the last time on June 18, 2023, Sunday morning, and lost contact with its support vessel about two hours later. When it was reported late that afternoon, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to the area, about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said Monday that there are other submersibles operating in Canadian waters, some of which are not registered with any country.
In addition to OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush, the implosions killed two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; the British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Remembering those who died
David Concannon, a former adviser to OceanGate, said he will mark the anniversary privately with a group of people who have been involved with the company or its underwater expeditions over the years, including scientists, volunteers and experts. mission.
Harding and Nargeolet were members of The Explorers Club, a professional society dedicated to research, exploration and resource conservation.
“Then, as now, it hit us on a very deep personal level,” the group’s president, Richard Garriott, said in an interview last week.
Garriott said there will be a commemoration for Titan victims this week in Portugal at the annual Global Exploration Summit.
The tragedy will not stop deep sea exploration
The Georgia company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic plans to visit the sunken ocean liner in July using remotely operated vehicles, and an Ohio real estate billionaire has said he is planning a trip to the wreck in two people underwater in 2026.
Several deep-sea explorers told The Associated Press that the Titan disaster has shaken the global exploration community, but it remains committed to continuing its mission to expand scientific understanding of the ocean.
Garriott believes the world is in a new golden age of undersea exploration, thanks to technological advances that have opened up frontiers and provided new tools to study places that have already been visited more thoroughly. The Titan tragedy hasn’t tarnished that, he said.
“The progress continues,” he said. “I feel very comfortable and confident that we will now be able to proceed.”
Former deep sea explorer Katy Croff Bell said the Titan explosion reinforced the importance of following industry standards and conducting rigorous testing. But in the industry as a whole, “the safety record for this has been very good for several decades,” said Bell, president of the Ocean Discovery League, a non-profit organization.
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Ramer reporter from Concord, New Hampshire.
