A Titanic Catastrophe

Warnings about safety aboard the doomed Titan sub were ignored and now families of the five lost souls on board must try to come to terms with their loved ones’ terrible death

- By Lavern De Vries

For five days the world held its breath, awaiting news as the clocked ticked down for the five people aboard the missing submersible. There was only 96 hours of oxygen to keep the occupants alive – but in the end none of it was used.

Because, as we know now, they likely died instantly when the sub lost contact with its support vessel. There was no banging on the sub walls, no slow suffocation, no desperate thoughts of being rescued.

Instead there was a “catastrophic implosion” that would’ve killed OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French Navy veteran Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, instantly when the vessel was crushed by high pressure waters at a depth of some 3 800m.

A deep-ocean remote operated vehicle (ROV) found debris on the ocean floor about 488m from the bow of the wrecked ocean liner Titanic, which was their destination.

It’s the greatest disaster of its kind and the criticism has poured in thick and fast while the families grieve for their lost loved ones.

In the next few weeks many questions will need to be answered – we take a closer look.

THE CONTROVERSIAL CEO

American engineer Stockton Rush, the head of OceanGate, the company that created the Titan submersible, was piloting the craft when it went missing on 18 June. The 61-year-old was an ardent innovator with a reputation for taking too many risks.