One year after the Titan tragedy, the attraction of the Titanic continues to attract adventurers

It has now been a year since the submersible Titan imploded on its way to the Titanic causing the death of five people and although basic questions about what happened remain unresolved, new commercial attempts are already underway to repeat the risky descent with tourists.

This Monday, one day before the first anniversary of the accident, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) published an update of the investigation it has been carrying out for a year in which it found that the Titan operated since 2021 without “be registered or certified in Canada or any other country.”

As a result of the ongoing investigations, TSB warned that it has identified “other submersibles operating in Canadian waters and in the country’s exclusive economic zone, both before and after June 2023,” which are not registered with any country.

For this reason, earlier this year the federal agency warned the Canadian Ministry of Transport “of the risk posed by submersibles operating in Canadian waters.”

The risk of submersibles remains

The danger of uncertified submersibles became evident on June 18, 2023 with the tragedy of the Titan, the only bathyscaphe in the world made of carbon fiber and which was theoretically capable of diving to a depth of 4,000 meters.

That day, the submersible began a dive towards the Titanic with five people on board: the millionaire Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood with his son Suleman, a 19-year-old student; British explorer Hamish Harding; the French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet and the CEO of the OceanGate firm, Stockton Rush.

Approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes after the start of the descent, communication with the Titan was lost and search and rescue tasks began. On June 22, the US Coast Guard confirmed the discovery of the remains of the boat at the bottom of the ocean and that all of its occupants had died.

Twelve months later, Canada and the United States are still investigating. Canada because although the Titan was a US vessel operating in international waters, the submersible departed from Canadian territory.

The wreck of the Titanic, the British liner that sank on April 15, 1912 in the North Atlantic while en route from the United Kingdom to New York, killing 1,496 people, is located outside Canadian waters: Newfoundland is the place closest to the wreck area.

For this reason, OceanGate, the company that owns the Titan submersible, had been operating since 2021 from the Canadian town of Cape Race, about 325 nautical miles northwest of the site of the Titanic sinking.

And from Cape Race, the Titan’s mother ship, the Canadian ship Polar Prince, departed in June 2023, dragging the OceanGate bathyscaphe alongside its platform.

The new adventurers

The US Coast Guard warned this Monday in a statement that the investigation “it is still active, but it will take longer than initially expected” because of its complexity.

The dominant theory is that the Titan’s carbon fiber hull had suffered microfractures in previous dives that weakened the structure until it gave way under the enormous pressures of diving into the Titanic.

The risks to which Canada alludes will soon increase if billionaire Larry Connor, a real estate businessman from Ohio (USA), continues with his plans to descend 3,800 meters to the site of the remains of the Titanic.

For this adventure, which could take place in 2026, Connor has teamed up with Patrick Lahey, whose company Triton Submarines specializes in building deep-sea bathyscaphes.

Both Connor and Lahey wanted to emphasize in statements to the press that their project is not comparable to that of OceanGate and Titan, a submersible that, after the accident, was considered a vehicle built by amateurs with numerous design errors.

According to Triton Submarines, the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer, whose hull is basically an acrylic bubble with capacity for two people and which has an estimated price of 20 million dollars, will be certified to dive to about 4,000 meters.

“I want to show the world that although the ocean is very powerful, it can be wonderful and enjoyable, as well as transform your life, if done properly”Connor told The Wall Street Journal in May.

“I worry that people associate submarines, especially ones that are new or different, with danger or tragedy,” he added.

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