Titanic sub latest - Coast Guard makes stunning admission about ‘explosion’ when submersible lost contact

Potential Titan passenger reveals OceanGate CEO assured him it was safe

Jay Bloom, a Las Vegas investor, revealed in a Facebook post that he turned down seats on the Titan submersible trip, offered by OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, due to safety concerns.

In his post, Mr Bloom shared screenshots of messages he exchanged with Mr Rush months before the fatal trip in which he expressed safety concerns for himself and his son, Sean, who was supposed to join him on the excursion.

“I expressed safety concerns and Stockton told me: ‘While there’s obviously risk it’s way safer than flying in a helicopter or even scuba diving.’ I am sure he really believed what he was saying. But he was very wrong,” Mr Bloom wrote.

In text messages, Mr Bloom told Mr Rush that his son was concerned about “stupid” dangers like a giant squid or sperm whale attacking the submersible.

In response, Mr Rush assured Mr Bloom it was safe and due to the intense pressure at the depth of water they would be travelling, neither sperm whale nor giant squid would be able to reach them.

“There hasn’t been even an injury in 35 years in a non-military sub,” Mr Rush texted Mr Bloom.

Mr Bloom said he last saw Mr Rush in early March when the two went to the Titanic Exhibit at Luxor together.

Mr Bloom added: “Then, at lunch in the Luxor food court we talked about the dive, including safety. He was absolutely convinced that it was safer than crossing the street.”

Ultimately, Mr Bloom and his son pulled out of the trip due to scheduling conflicts.

Ariana Baio23 June 2023 15:56

Titanic sub crew likely knew of crack in vessel before catastrophic implosion, James Cameron says

James Cameron believes the Titan crew knew that the submersible’s hull had started to crack and was trying to resurface when a “catastrophic implosion” occurred.

The Titanic director and deep sea adventurer told ABC News that the OceanGates Expeditions vessel had on board warning systems that would go off when the hull started to crack.

“They probably had a warning that their hull was starting to delaminate and the hull was starting to crack.

“We understand from inside the community that they had dropped their ascent weights and they were coming up, trying to manage an emergency,” the filmmaker said.

Bevan Hurley reports:

Ariana Baio23 June 2023 15:15

WATCH: Relatives of Titanic victims criticise dark tourism of submersible tours

Ariana Baio23 June 2023 15:00

CEO of doomed Titan sub hoped to land billion dollar deals with oil and gas companies

The co-founder of OceanGate, the company at the centre of the submersible tragedy, had hopes to contract deals with oil and gas companies after developing a reputation from its dives to see the Titanic wreckage.

During a 2017 interview with business magazine FastCompany, Stockton Rush said that after the demand for high-paying adventurers to visit the Titanic had dwindled, he hoped his submarine technology would prove an enticing investment for oil and gas companies.

“The biggest resource is oil and gas, and they spend about $16 billion a year on robots to service oil and gas platforms,” he said. “But oil and gas [companies] don’t take new technology. They want it proven, they want it out there.”

Holly Evans reports:

Ariana Baio23 June 2023 14:45

Film director James Cameron says there were “warning signs”

Film director James Cameron, who has visited the wreck a number of times and was a friend of Paul-Henri Nargoleot, said there were warning signs ahead of the voyage to the wreck.

Speaking to ABC News about submersible engineering, Cameron said: “This is a mature art and many people in the community were very concerned about the sub.

“A number of the top players in the deep submergence engineering community even wrote letters to the company, saying that what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers and they needed to be certified.”

Holly Evans23 June 2023 14:30

Tribute to victim’s “unparalleled” knowledge of Titanic wreck

President of the Titanic International Society Charles Haas paid tribute to Mr Nargeolet, saying his “consummate knowledge of the wreck and wreck site was unique and unparalleled”.

He added: “Commander Paul-Henri Nargeolet brought to this expedition more than a quarter-century of expertise, making more dives to Titanic’s wreck than anyone on earth.

“His willingness to share that information kept the world informed about Titanic’s deteriorating condition and helped to rewrite significant parts of the ship’s history. Sadly, that irreplaceable knowledge has been lost.”

Paul-Henri Nargeolet’s knowledge of the Titanic wreck was “unique and unparalleled”

(AP1996)

Holly Evans23 June 2023 14:10

President of Titanic society questions if trips to wreckage should end

In a statement published online, Charles Haas, president of the Titanic International Society, an organisation set up in 1989 to preserve the history of the Titanic, questioned whether visits to the historic site 3,800m below the surface should continue.

He said: “It is time to consider seriously whether human trips to Titanic’s wreck should end in the name of safety, with relatively little remaining to be learned from or about the wreck.

“Crewed submersibles’ roles in surveying the wreck now can be assigned to autonomous underwater vehicles, like those that mapped the ship and its debris field in high-resolution, 3-D detail last summer.

“The world joins us in expressing our profound sadness and heartbreak about this tragic, avoidable event.”

Holly Evans23 June 2023 13:45

‘Titanic’ director says he is ‘struck’ by similarities to Titanic disaster

Titanic director James Cameron told ABC News he is “struck” by the similarities between the Titanic disaster and the Titan disaster, and warned people not to take deep submersion diving lightly.

It is absolutely critical for people to really get the take-home message from this, from our effort here is deep submersion diving is a mature art,” Mr Cameron said.

The filmmaker said he has been to the Titanic wreckage many times.

Mr Cameron added that he found the similarities between the two tragedies ironic.

“I am struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about the ice ahead of his ship and yet he steamed at full speed into the ice field,” Mr Cameron said.

Graeme Massie23 June 2023 13:01

Prime Minister’s thoughts are “very much with the loved ones” of five victims

Downing Street has said that Rishi Sunak’s thoughts are with the loved ones of the victims of the missing Titan submersible, which is believed to have imploded while attempting to visit the Titanic wreckage.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “His thoughts are very much with the loved ones of those who have died in this tragic incident and they have been through an unimaginably difficult ordeal in the last few days.

“FCDO are in touch with those families to provide support.”

Holly Evans23 June 2023 12:53

Where is the debris field and what has been found?

The hunt for the missing OceanGate Expeditions submersible the Titan ended in tragedy on Thursday when, hours after the craft exhausted its 96-hour oxygen supply, the US Coast Guard revealed that parts of the vessel had been found on the seabed.

That indicated a “catastrophic implosion” had likely occurred at some point since the sub’s disappearance on Sunday afternoon, which would have killed all five people on board.

At least three of the crew were fee-paying tourists being taken to tour the disintegrating wreck of the doomed ocean liner the Titanic, which sank in 1912 at the cost of 1,500 lives and whose final resting place was only discovered in 1985.

Joe Sommerlad has more.

Holly Evans23 June 2023 12:50