Photo:Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
OceanGate is making headlines afteritsTitansubmersible went missingon June 18, following a dive to visit theTitanicwreckage.
However, the recent trip quickly went awry as almost two hours after the vessel’s dive, the crew ofTitan’s support vessel,the Polar Prince, lost contact.
As the U.S. Coast Guard in Boston undergoes a search and rescue operation, new information has come to light about the infamous vessel, whichCBS Sunday Morningcorrespondent David Pogue previously boarded for a segment in 2022.
From its size to the safety measures in place, here’s everything to know about theTitansubmersible, including photos inside.
How big is theTitansubmersible?
An OceanGate submersible.Ocean Gate / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Ocean Gate / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Per OceanGate’s website, theTitanis 22-ft. long x 9.2-ft. wide x 8.3-ft. high. To put that in perspective,Titan’s main compartment has as much space as a “minivan without chairs,” Pogue told PEOPLE.
“The sub is made from a carbon fiber cylinder, so the walls are curved,” he added. “So you sit there on the floor with your back against the curved wall.”
It weighs 23,000 lbs and can carry up to 1,510 lbs. It is designed to go as deep as 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) in the ocean. For reference, theTitanicwreckage sits at 3,800 meters in the ocean. DuringhisCBS Sunday Morningsegmentin 2022, Pogue noted that it is the only five-person sub that can reachTitanicdepths.
How many people does theTitansubmersible hold?
Oceangate
TheTitanis built to hold five passengers, including one pilot and four crew members, seated . Though authorities have not officially releasedthe names of those on theTitan, PEOPLE has confirmed their identities.
They include British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British billionaire Hamish Harding;Titanicexpert Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Stockton Rush,the latter of which was piloting the voyage.
How much life support does theTitansubmersible have?
Pogue also reported that the oxygen supply has never been tested. “Nobody’s ever measured it,“he told CBS News.
How is theTitansubmersible operated?
CBS Sunday Morning
Since radio waves are not as reliable in the ocean, submersibles like theTitan“use underwater sounds to transmit data packets across the ocean,”ABC News reports.
“The receiving party aboard a support ship [the Polar Prince] can then use a hydrophone to receive the data transmitted acoustically, which can then be converted into understandable information like text or audio,” the outlet adds.
With those special instructions, the pilot steers the vessel on a modified video game controller, whichRush previewed in his segmentwithCBS Sunday Morningin 2022.
Pogue told PEOPLE theTitanhas “only a single button, an on/off button,” but “beyond that, the pilot drives the sub using a PlayStation video game controller.”
He added that there’s also a touchscreen computer that the pilot uses for the lights, air and the measurements of depth as well as communicating with the surface.
What safety measures does theTitansubmersible have in place?
Ocean Gate/Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty
In order to deal with the intense pressure of diving deep into the ocean, theTitanhas Real Time Hull Health Monitoring (RTM) systems, which OceanGate says analyzes “the effects of changing pressure on the vessel as the submersible dives deeper [to] accurately assess the integrity of the structure.”
The website adds that the “onboard health analysis monitoring system provides early warning detection for the pilot with enough time to arrest the descent and safely return to surface.”
Unlike other submersibles though, which usually feature an internally accessible hatch and allow passengers to open the door from inside, theTitan’s hatch is out the outside of the vessel.
As noted during theCBS Sunday Morningsegment in 2022, before every dive, a crew closes the hatch of the sub from the outside with 17 bolts, with Pogue adding, “There is no other way out.”
Speaking with PEOPLE, Pogue noted that when it comes to a disaster one of the only things you can do in the vessel “is rise to the surface as quickly as possible.” He called that in 2022, Rush showed him seven different ways to do that, including releasing sandbags, releasing “heavy construction pipes,” “inflating an air bladder” and releasing “the legs of the sub” to lose weight.
How many times has theTitansubmersible been to theTitanicwreckage?
https://oceangate.com/gallery/gallery-titanic-2021.html
Per NBC News, OceanGate Expeditions began offering trips to theTitanicwreckage in 2021 and had only made two previous trips before the June 18 dive.
source: people.com
