"Safety is extravagance." Why the Titan did not cope with the Titanic

The attention of the whole world this week, except for Ukraine, is focused on one point on the map — 650 km east of the city of St. John's (Canadian Newfoundland), пишет Vladyslav Girman, an observer of the international policy department of "DS".

Illustrative photo

It is approximately in this location that the carbon-titanium bathyscaphe "Titan" disappeared, used by the OceanGate company for tourist dives to the sunken "Titanic" at a depth of 3,8 km. Such excursions have already taken place in 2021 and 2022. and their cost is $250. for a place for eight days.

This time there were businessmen-adventurers on board, but with a certain amount of experience, and also in the company of an even more experienced French researcher and diver, Paul-Henri Narjolet, albeit of a venerable age (77 years old). This is, for example, the 61-year-old founder of OceanGate, pilot and former aerospace engineer Stockton Rush; 58-year-old British researcher and pilot, founder of Action Group Hamish Harding; 48-year-old British-Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman.

That is, as we can see, people are smart, and three of them have special skills. But it seems that they were not enough for the extraordinary crisis situation that probably took place after their sinking on Sunday, June 19, 111 years after the Titanic tragedy. And already 105 minutes after the bathyscaphe was lowered from the Polar Prince ship, communication with the crew was lost.

For some reason, the alarm "Prince" started sounding after only 8 hours - the US Coast Guard was informed. However, the search area (7,6 thousand square km has already been investigated) is very large, and Canada and France also came to the Coast Guard's aid.

At least eight ships are involved in the search operation, including the Canadian "John Cabot" with sonar equipment and the French research ship "Atalant", on board of which there is an underwater robotic device Victor 6000.

Aviation was involved, both for surface and underwater searches: two Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft, a Canadian C-130 and a P8 with sonar, and a P3 of the Lockheed company, which picked up certain noises that could indicate the location of the bathyscaphe.

All the rescuers were in a great hurry, because the supply of oxygen of the "Titan" is designed for 96 hours. That is, the situation is very, very critical, and time has already expired. The problem is also the small number and extremely limited number of devices that can dive to such a depth.

In the end, according to the assessment of the Coast Guard provided by NBC News, the oxygen was supposed to run out at two o'clock in the afternoon today, Kyiv time. Ego could last longer under the condition of economical consumption, but... But it is worth considering the probable panic of the crew members. At the same time, the five-seater apparatus itself is tight to move energetically there and move in general. In addition, there are already reports in the press from the Coast Guard about the wreckage found in the search area.

However, the circumstances of the disappearance of the connection and the bathyscaphe itself are still unknown. Expert environment can only make assumptions. And, for example, an expert on deep-sea vehicles, Professor Alistair Greig from the University College of London, Alistair Greig outlined several possible scenarios in an interview with the BBC: in the event of an accident, the "Titan" could drop its ballast and rise to the surface, but rescuers are already looking for a bathyscaphe under water, that is aircraft and other means did not detect the device on the surface; or the bathyscaphe was damaged and began to take in water.

The latter is the worst option, but it is still possible, given that at such a depth, as The New York Times writes, the water pressure is equal to the weight of a lead tower as tall as the Empire State Building, which would stand on the bathyscaphe. Coping with such a force is incredibly difficult. And, by the way, if we are talking about the "Titanic", then it is worth recalling the experience of the famous director James Cameron, who is also known for his underwater research work. Actually, Cameron, while working on the picture, went down to the original ship 33 times. And during one of the submersions, an unpleasant incident also happened with him - he was trapped for 16 hours in the bathyscaphe due to the fact that the underwater current pressed the device to the stern of the Titanic.

In addition to Professor Greig's assumptions and Cameron's experience, there is another eloquent story. And it directly concerns the functionality of the "Titan" and its preparation for such dangerous excursions.

Back in 2018, some experts were concerned about how the OceanGate company relates to the Titan testing.

It all started with the sharp remarks of OceanGate's director of marine operations, David Lockridge, in the report about the need for additional tested equipment, since we are talking about sending tourists to extreme depths. Lockridge, for example, noted that the observation porthole in the bathyscaphe is certified only for a depth of up to 1,3 km, but not for 4 km, as the company boasted. Lockridge's demarche led to his dismissal and a lawsuit, which later ended in a settlement with the company.

However, he was not only worried about the quality and functionality of the device. 38 specialized specialists in the field of submarine production, who in 2018 wrote a letter to the head of OceanGate, also drew attention to its shortcomings related to safety. It is not known whether the company paid attention to the experts' reservation. But Strockton Rush said on a CBS News podcast in November 2022 that: "at some point, security is just waste," because "if you just want to be safe, don't get out of bed, don't get in the car , don't do anything." "At some point, you're going to take a certain risk, and it's really a question of risk-reward ratio. I think that I can do it also safely, breaking the rules," he said then. Well... That is why he is called an "adventurer" at the beginning of the article.

Whether he holds the same opinion now, we may not know. The circumstances of the incident are still unknown. The situation will change when or if the device is found. And, unfortunately, even in the worst case scenario.

Although even in the best-case scenario ("Titan" is found, everyone is saved), which is unlikely, it is already possible to state that, most likely, this is the end of the tourist project OceanGate, which planned for this summer 12 submerged in the "Titanic".

And one more consequence is not only a more demanding attitude to technical issues in the future, but also the mystification of this event. People inclined to it will see here rock, fatum, paraonmalshchyna and God knows what else. But usually such incidents are either a coincidence or the result of erroneous actions, which turn into a myth precisely because of the endowment of what happened with a certain mystique - things that seem to be impossible to explain. Sometimes the mystification is intentional in order to justify or support one's own judgments. A good example is a complete crazy house organized in Russia.

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