The Titan submersible aborted more deep sea dives than it had successfully completed before its implosion amid warnings from experts that it risked a disaster, The New York Times reported.
Bill Price, who formerly ran a family travel business, boarded the ship in 2021 and aborted the trip after it lost its propulsion system on one side, The New York Times reported. He could get the ship to release ballast for the ascent to the surface, causing everyone to line up on one side in a row and tip the Titan to release the ballast.
The majority of the other trips were aborted without ever reaching the Titanic, the outlet reported. Price and a handful of others experts successfully reached the Titanic, though it normally failed to do so. (RELATED: Woman Whose Son, Husband Died On Submersible Said She Made Last-Minute Decision To Give Up Her Seat To Son)
Experts said they found several errors with the submersible’s design during OceanGate’s, the company which owned the ship, testing of the ship, The New York Times reported. The submersible took off from the mother ship and soon lost communication, leading to an aggressive search led by the U.S. Coast Guard. They later learned of the ship’s implosion.
Stockton Rush, the founder and chief executive officer of OceanGate, planned to organize a eight-to-nine day expedition in the late spring and early summer to the sunken Titanic ship—two days traveling to the site, five days over it, and two days to return, The New York Times reported.
Some experts criticized the submersible’s design prior to the expedition, according to the Times. They expressed concerns about the ship’s cylindrical design given that most ships are spherical, the larch porthole, and the use of mixed material including carbon fiber and titanium, which may not withstand the pressure in a deep-sea dive.
Will Konen, chair of Marine Technology Society’s manned underwater vehicles committee, and other experts wrote a letter to Rush in 2018 with warning about his company’s “experimental approach” could lead to “catastrophic” consequences, the Times reported. The next year, an expert heard several cracking sounds and pleaded with Rush to suspend the operations.
ATLANTIC OCEAN – JUNE 21: (Photo by U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images)
The five passengers who died when the sub imploded, including a Pakistani father and son, boarded the submersible on June 18 in St. John’s, Newfoundland, en route to the Titanic. Last-minute preparations were made before taking off into the water.
The ship lost contact and led to an intense search until officials discovered a debris field on June 22. The Coast Guard later announced the ship had imploded, instantly killing all the passengers aboard within nanoseconds.
The Coast Guard then announced the discovery of “presumed human remains” from the seafloor where the submersible imploded. The remains are currently being tested at a U.S. port.