Sunday’s trip by the submersible vessel in which all five passengers onboard died was one of a number of expeditions that OceanGate, the company operating the vessel, had sent to the Titanic wreck site with paying guests.
The trips to the wreckage took eight days, and passengers had little room to maneuver aboard the Titan. Here is what we know about the submersible’s past voyages to see the remains of the famous ship.
Eight days at sea — and a 2.4-mile descent
The expeditions to the Titanic wreckage cost $250,000 and were open to passengers age 17 and older, according to OceanGate. The Titan was 22 feet long and weighed 23,000 pounds, according to the company’s website.
Passengers set sail from St. John’s, on the eastern tip of Canada’s Newfoundland island, and traveled aboard a larger vessel for two days until they reached the site of the wreck. At that point, they entered the submersible in groups to go down to see the wreckage at a depth of 12,500 feet, or about 2.4 miles. Unlike a submarine, a submersible must be supported by a surface vessel, platform, shore team or sometimes a larger submarine.
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Descents to the Titanic wreck depended on weather but could have begun as early as the third day of the expedition, OceanGate said.
“Once the submersible is launched you will begin to see alienlike life forms whizz by the viewport as you sink deeper and deeper into the ocean,” OceanGate said on its website before the Titan was lost. “The descent takes approximately two hours but it feels like the blink of an eye.”
According to the company’s itinerary, groups could spend hours exploring the wreckage and surrounding debris before beginning the two-hour return trip.
Bolted from the outside, steered by a video game controller
Footage from previous expeditions shared by the company shows the Titan’s tubelike interior, equipped with a large viewport to allow passengers to see the wreckage.
The video recording shows a toilet on the submersible that the company’s website said was separated from the rest of the capsule by a privacy curtain when in use. “We do recommend that you restrict your diet before and during the dive to reduce the likelihood that you will need to use the facilities,” it said.
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According to CBS News correspondent David Pogue, who traveled on the Titan last year, the submersible had “about as much room as a minivan.” Passengers had to take their shoes off before entering, he said. Then the crew used 17 bolts to seal the hatch from the outside: “There’s no other way out.”
Pogue told the BBC after news of the Titan’s disappearance that many of the components on the submersible appeared to be makeshift or purchased off the shelf.
“For example, you steer this sub with a game controller, an Xbox game controller,” he said. “Some of the ballast is abandoned construction pipes that are sitting on shelves on the side of the thing, and the way you detach the ballast is you get everybody on board to lean to one side of the sub and they roll off.”
End of carouselPogue recalled that chief executive and founder Stockton Rush reassured him that NASA and the University of Washington were involved in the capsule’s design, adding: “It’s rock solid.”
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It’s not clear whether the same controller and ballast were used in Sunday’s expedition. However, OceanGate has said that off-the-shelf components “helped to streamline the construction, and makes it simple to operate and replace parts in the field.”
The submersible was equipped with a 96-hour supply of oxygen when it descended, said David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate, according to the Associated Press.
Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger said Thursday that the vessel suffered a catastrophic loss of pressure that imploded it, killing everyone inside.
What would have happened in an emergency?
Pogue said that during one attempted descent to the wreck last year, communication between the larger surface ship and the submersible briefly broke down, meaning his group could not locate the wreck, he said. “We were lost for 2½ hours.”
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OceanGate said earlier this month that it was relying on technology from Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, to ensure communications during this year’s expedition.
According to OceanGate’s website, the submersible was fitted with a health monitoring system, which enabled the pilot to analyze the effects of changing pressure and assess the vessel’s structural integrity.
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