OceanGate’s Submersible Titan meets a tragic end. All 5 people onboard are decaled perished !

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Search operation has finally come to an end for OceanGate’s submarine ‘Titan’. Expeditions to Titanic wreckage costed 5 lives and has instilled fear in the heart of adrenaline junkies who fancy deep water tourism.

Rightly said, the Titanic still has the power to claim lives, even today.. a century after her sinking !!

The Titanic is beautiful, even as a wreck. Even after 111 years, of settling down at seabed after hitting an iceberg, its allure refuses to die out. It has never stopped casting its magical spell, attracting people towards it, sitting on a pitch black seabed at a depth of 3.8 km.

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A trip to the Titanic has that sense of exclusivity. Only a limited number of people have come close to the behemoth, which was the largest ship of its time and killed 15,000 people when it sank in 1912. It has that calling till date and some do answer that call. Though needless to state the obvious, that they need to have the money and a knack for adventure, even if that sounds life threatening.

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Five people, OceanGate Expeditions CEO and pilot Stockton Rush, British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood, were on the Titan, a submersible pod operated by OceanGate that went missing on Sunday, were drawn by that pull. A pull that has given rise to what is now being referred to as Titanic Tourism – a close encounter with one of the greatest engineering marvels now resting at the bottom of the sea. Iron-eating bacteria, chipping at its remains slowly but surely.

“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” the company said. “Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time.”

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The Titan submersible, operated by OceanGate, could go up to a depth of 13,000 feet. Just some couple of hundred feet underwater and the Sun’s light doesn’t penetrate through the waters, it is cold and dark. A journey as deep as 13,000 feet is no joke. To put into perspective how deep that is, we need to know that the record for a scuba dive is to a depth of 1,090 feet. A sperm whale is likely to go to a depth of around 7,380 feet. The pressure at such depths is bone crushing.

Unlike submarines that navigate independently to and from ports, submersibles require a ship to launch and recover them.

The 22-foot-long submersible is a novel concept, and it hasn’t been approved by any marine regulatory authority. The submersible had emergency oxygen for up to 96 hours but oxygen consumption depends on human activity and metabolism. Oxygen intake of a person lying still would differ from someone exercising, or panicking. The Titan also didn’t have any escape pod and the hatch can’t be opened from inside.

The passengers knew all this and signed a waiver before embarking on the perilous journey. They paid hefty amount too. That is how strong the pull of the Titanic is. And as it is established now, proved to be a fatal attraction.

Even the most reliable technology could fail, and therefore accidents can’t be denied. With the growth in deep-sea tourism, we must expect more incidents like this. The difficulty in searching for the Titan has put light on the fact that the world needs more underwater robots and remotely operated underwater vehicles.