Photo: Belfast Telegraph-
Metropolis Desk-
After learning of the devastating implosion that killed the captain and his four passengers close to the Titanic catastrophe, investigators are now concentrating on how it happened and whether it might have been avoided. For days, the world was captivated by the 24-hour search for the missing Titan submersible.
Deep-sea robots will keep looking for information on the sea floor of the North Atlantic. The support ship for the Titan is being investigated by Canadian investigators. Other facets of the disaster are being investigated by US officials.
Since 2021, OceanGate Expeditions’ undersea exploration vessel The Titan has made yearly journeys to document the Titanic’s decomposition and the surrounding underwater ecology.
Answers are sought by authorities and specialists: How did the implosion happen, and when and why? When will the bodies of the victims be discovered? What can the upcoming phase of underwater research learn from this?
According to the Coast Guard, the craft sank on Sunday morning, and its backup vessel lost communication with it an hour and a half later.
The vessel was reported missing by the Canadian Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which is located about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
The Canadian Coast Guard used to operate the icebreaker that OceanGate leased to launch the Titan. To get to the North Atlantic wreck site, where the Titan has done several dives, the ship has transported dozens of passengers as well as the submersible vessel.
Sometime after it sank on Sunday morning, the ship had a devastating implosion that killed all five people on board. Although the exact time and location of the implosion are unknown, a US Navy acoustics system discovered an “anomaly” on Sunday, which was probably the Titan’s catastrophic implosion.
On Thursday, the Coast Guard reported the conclusion of the rescue operation and the discovery of submersible debris, bringing to a tragic finish the ongoing search for the missing vessel that had been ongoing around the clock.
Authorities claim that the debris from the submersible was found by a deep-sea robot close to the Titanic shipwreck.
According to experts, the ship’s pilot and four passengers were likely murdered instantly as it catastrophically imploded due to the high-water pressure in the deep North Atlantic.
The worst possibility envisioned during the desperate 24-hour search for the missing vessel, according to maritime researchers, was an implosion.
The hull of the Titan may rupture under high pressure, experts had warned, and anybody on board would perish in an instant.
While OceanGate Expeditions, which owned and operated the craft, highlighted the Titan’s roomier cylinder-shaped cabin made of a carbon-fiber, experts in the field say it was a departure from the sphere-shaped cabins made of titanium used by most submersibles, which are thought to be ideal because the water pressure is exerted equally on all areas.
Although still crowded with a maximum of five seated passengers, the 22-foot long (6.7-meter long), 23,000-pound (10,432-kilogram) Titan’s increased interior volume meant it was put under more external pressure.
At the location of the Titanic wreck, at a depth of 12,500 feet (3,800 meters), the water pressure is around 400 atmospheres or 6,000 pounds per square inch.
Oceangate CEO and Titan pilot Stockton Rush, two famous Pakistani family members, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, British explorer Hamish Harding, and Titanic specialist Paul-Henri Nargeolet are the fatalities of the Titan.
With honors to the men and sympathy for their families, condolences from all across the world have flooded in.
According to a statement from OceanGate, “These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans.” We lament their passing and the loss of the happiness they brought to everyone they knew.
The Titan’s descent into the North Atlantic sheds light on the hazy regulatory framework around deep-sea exploration. Risk-taking businesspeople and rich tourists who support their aspirations can ignore rules and traditions in this area of the high seas. at least right now.
The Titan operated in international waters, beyond the purview of many US or other national regulations. It wasn’t registered as a US vessel, it wasn’t registered with any international safety organizations, and it wasn’t categorized by a group representing the maritime industry that sets criteria for things like hull structure.
The Titan pilot and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, Stockton Rush, who was one of the victims, had previously stated he didn’t want to be burdened by such requirements.
The Coast Guard will keep looking in the area of the Titanic to find more hints about what transpired with the Titan.
There is no set deadline for when the endeavor will end, according to officials, and there is no guarantee that anything will be found or recovered.
The Canadian Transportation Safety Board announced on Friday that it has begun an investigation into the Titan’s disappearance that would concentrate on the cargo ship Polar Prince.
The Titan submarine was housed on board the Canadian-flagged Polar Prince, which also functioned as its mothership. The Polar Prince will be investigated by the Transportation Safety Board in its capacity as a support vessel, and the agency will carry out a safety investigation into the conditions of the operation, the agency stated.
According to experts, the Titan case will certainly move on to include wrongful death and negligence cases, both of which have a chance of success. However, legal lawsuits will encounter other obstacles, including disclaimers that the Titan passengers very certainly signed that warned of the numerous ways they could die.
For the US Coast Guard alone, the cost of the search will probably reach millions of dollars. Additionally, rushing to provide resources and experience were the US Navy, the Canadian Coast Guard, and other government and commercial organizations.
There isn’t another ocean search like it, especially with so many nations and even businesses involved, according to Virginia-based naval historian, commentator, and author Norman Polmar.
The cost of operating the aircraft is high alone.
The cost of using the turboprop P-3 Orion, jet-powered P-8 Poseidon sub hunters, C-130 Hercules, and other aircraft in the search has been estimated by the Pentagon at tens of thousands of dollars each hour.
Some organizations may ask for reimbursement. But according to Stephen Koerting, a US attorney in Maine who specializes in maritime law, the US Coast Guard is generally banned by federal law from demanding payment relative to any search or rescue effort.
Source- Arab News
