Full List of Titanic Tourist Sub Expedition Failures

Safety concerns had repeatedly been raised about OceanGate submersible Titan before it went missing on Sunday, just one hour 45 minutes after beginning a dive to the Titanic wreck. This is located at a depth of about 12,500 feet, about 370 nautical miles south-southeast off the coast of Newfoundland.

Authorities are battling against the clock to find Titan and rescue the five people onboard, with the oxygen supply expected to run out at around 10 a.m. ET on Thursday morning. Authorities have reportedly detected mysterious "banging" sounds coming from the search area, triggering speculation the vessel's passengers could still be alive.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Navy said in a statement it was deploying a specialist salvage system to the search site. This is capable of carrying "large, bulky and heavy undersea objects such as aircraft or small vessels," though Titan's exact location has not been confirmed.

Numerous safety concerns had been raised about Titan prior to Sunday's disappearance, with OceanGate facing a safety lawsuit that was settled in 2018. Company CEO Stockton Rush admitted he'd "broken some rules" to make the submersible.

Rush is one of five men believed to be trapped on Titan, along with French pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet; British adventurer Hamish Harding; British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood; and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood.

Newsweek has summarized safety-related concerns raised about Titan before it set off for the Titanic again on Sunday. OceanGate has been contacted for comment by email.

Structural Worries

Three previous Titan voyages, which were scheduled for 2018, 2019 and 2020, were delayed after an investigation found evidence of "cyclic fatigue" to its hull, according to a 2020 report by technology website Geekwire. As a result, the submersible's depth rating was reduced to 3,000 meters, which Rush described as "not enough to get to the Titanic," before it was rebuilt.

Lawsuit

David Lochridge, a former OceanGate employee, filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging he was fired after raising safety concerns about Titan.

Referring to the submersible, his legal team wrote: "Lochridge learned that the viewport manufacturer would only certify to a depth of 1,300 meters due to the experimental design of the viewport supplied by OceanGate, which was out of the Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy ('PVHO') standards.

"The paying passengers would not be aware, and would not be informed, of this experimental design, the lack of non-destructive testing of the hull, or that hazardous flammable materials were being used within the submersible."

The case was settled out of court in November 2018.

Previously Got Lost

During a trip in 2022, Titan got "lost for about five hours," according to CBS reporter David Pogue, who was on the submersible's support boat when the incident took place.

Writing on Twitter, Pogue said: "To be clear, I was not on the sub that day—I was on the ship at the surface, in the control room. They could still send short texts to the sub, but did not know where it was. It was quiet and very tense, and they shut off the ship's internet to prevent us from tweeting."

No Distress Beacon

Titan, which OceanGate described as an "experimental, submersible vessel that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma, or death," didn't have a safety beacon to communicate with the Coast Guard, according to one report.

Speaking to The Daily Beast, Walt Hendrick, who runs a company that trains people in water rescue, commented: "This unit never met international safety standards because it was both innovative and experimental.

"It doesn't have a beacon to send out a signal to tell our Coast Guard where it is. The thing is supposed to have its own ability to surface, but if its electrical system short-circuited because of salt water getting into it, that system doesn't work anymore."

Cheap Controller

According to CBS News reporter Pogue, who made a trip on Titan in 2022, at one point Rush held up what appeared to be a video-game controller and said, "we run the whole thing with this game controller."

The device was identified as a modified Logitech F710 wireless gamepad from a photograph.

Delay in Raising Alarm

OceanGate waited eight hours before notifying the U.S. Coast Guard that they had lost contact with Titan, according to British newspaper The Sun.

Contact between the submersible and support ship Polar Prince was lost about one hour 45 minutes into its trip.