2023-06-26 18:00:28
The US Coast Guard launched an investigation on Sunday following the implosion of the Titan submersible, which killed five people on their way to the wreck of the RMS Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland last week. The Marine Board of Investigation (MBI), the Coast Guard’s highest-ranking investigative unit, is to work with Canadian, French and British forces to clarify the circumstances under which the Titan imploded at a depth of around 3,000 meters the day before last Sunday. Using remote-controlled underwater vehicles, the Coast Guard began hauling debris from the Titan ashore.
“We will take all possible precautions, including in the event that we come across human remains,” said lead investigator Jason Neubauer. After the rescue, a public hearing of witnesses is also planned. As confirmed by Neubauer, the investigators are also examining possible violations or omissions by the submersible operator Oceangate. Already during the worldwide search for the Titan in the past week, allegations about Oceangate’s allegedly lax safety standards and the waiver of the certification of the submersible had become loud.
Investigations are also being carried out on the Polar Prince
On the morning of June 18, the Titan disappeared under the water surface about 600 kilometers off the Canadian island of Newfoundland. On board the almost seven meter long capsule were the engineer and OceanGate founder Stockton Rush, Hamish Harding, a British billionaire, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French deep sea diver, and the Pakistani entrepreneur Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Sulaiman.
The passengers on the TItan: Harmish Harding, Stockton Rush, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood and his son (left to right, top to bottom) : Image: AFP
According to initial investigations, the connection to the escort ship Polar Prince broke off after one hour and 45 minutes under unclear circumstances. As the US Coast Guard announced on Thursday after debris was found near the bow of the RMS Titanic, which sank in April 1912, a surveillance system for enemy submarines had recorded an implosion shortly after the last contact between the Titan and the escort boat. The incident was immediately reported to the emergency services on the Atlantic about 1400 kilometers off the American peninsula of Cape Cod (Massachusetts).
The United States and Canadian Coast Guards continued to search for the submersible, as they believed the submersible had 96 hours of oxygen on board. As the Canadian Transport Safety Authority announced on Friday, they are now also examining the safety precautions on the escort ship. The Polar Prince, which was supposed to maintain radio contact with the American Titan, sails under the Canadian flag.
Dawood’s son really wanted to go
The wife of Pakistani investor and billionaire Dawood, Christine Dawood, told the BBC over the weekend that she had long hoped for rescue. “It was only when the 96 hours were over that I lost hope,” said the native of Rosenheim, who also lost her son Sulaiman in the accident. At first she wanted to accompany her husband to the wreck of the RMS Titanic. However, since her 19-year-old son wanted to see the remains of the legendary passenger liner, she gave him her place on the Titan – earlier it had been said, among other things, that the son wanted to give his father a happy Father’s Day by going on board, observed that Sunday in the United Kingdom.
Dawood also reported on the student’s plan to set a Rubik’s Cube record at the wreck of the RMS Titanic at 12,000 feet. “He always had the cube with him and could solve it in twelve seconds.” Her husband and Sulaiman brought a camera on board to film the record attempt.
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The 46-year-old, who met her husband at university and later moved with him to Long Ditton, south-west of London, stayed on board the escort vessel with her 17-year-old daughter Alina during the dive. When a crew member reported almost two hours after the Titan dived that radio contact had been lost (“We lost comm”), she didn’t know what that meant at first. Then fear set in. Dawood and other family members searched the surface of the water from the deck for hours for a clue to the missing boat. “There were so many things, we thought, that people could do in this pod to make it surface, like shed weight,” she said. “We had hope. There was a lot of hope.”
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