Titan: What is known about the submarine that disappeared while diving to see the Titanic?

MADRID, 20 June. (EDITIONS) -

Five people have disappeared aboard a submarine that had submerged to view the wreckage of the Titanic. The trace of the submersible was lost about 700 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland (Canada).

OceanGate has published a statement on social networks in which it says that it is "exploring and mobilizing all options to bring back the crew of the Titan." Several agencies in the United States (USA) and Canada have been launched to try to find the submarine as soon as possible: experts estimate that the oxygen on board can last up to 96 hours, in the best of the scenarios raised in the last hours, and it takes two hours to go down to the wreck of the Titanic, or to go up from there.

What is known about the Titan? Who was inside?

A company called OceanGate. Stockton Rush, the CEO, says in a promotional video that the company's goal is to "expand humanity's knowledge of the ocean through responsible exploration, research and marketing." Rush highlights the value of a person and not a robot going to the bottom of the sea to explore since it establishes "an emotional context and a personal awareness".

OceanGate's subs can carry five people, and their expeditions typically send a pilot, a researcher, and what Rush calls "three mission specialists." The crew of the Titan are the tycoon of Pakistani origin Shahzada Dawood, resident in the United Kingdom, his son, Suleman; the British businessman Hamish Harding, president of the Action Aviation company, the French adventurer Paul-Henry Nargeolet and supposedly Stockton Rush himself.

On its website, the company claims to have two submarines: the Cyclops 1, which can be submerged to 500 meters; and the Titan, which can reach depths of 4,000 meters. Titan is the one who is missing.

OceanGate Expeditions claims on its website that the Titan was designed in collaboration with experts from NASA, Boeing and the University of Washington and that it is "lighter, more spacious and more comfortable than any other submarine reaching these depths today". The immersions started two years ago. The first one that the company has uploaded to its YouTube channel is to the depths of the Hudson Canyon.

As a curious fact, the submarines are controlled by PlayStation 3 controllers: "With a little training, if you know how to play a video game, you can drive one of our submarines," says Kenny Hauge, one of the company's pilots, in one of promotional videos.

The Titan is not 'classified', meaning that no independent group such as the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), DNV/GL, Lloyd's Register has ensured that it meets industry standards, something the company justified in a their 2019 blog post saying "although rating agencies are willing to seek certification of innovative ideas and designs, they typically have an approval cycle that lasts several years due to a lack of pre-existing standards."

The company offers explorations of hydrothermal vents in the Azores Islands (Portugal) and the remains of the Titanic. Both cost 250,000 euros and the Titanic lasts eight days --seven nights-- and part of the city of St. John's (Canada).

The luxury liner 'Titanic' is located about 600 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, at a depth of 3,800 meters below the sea surface. Its shipwreck occurred in 1912 and resulted in more than 1,500 deaths, although the remains of the wreck were not located until 1985.

The Titan has disappeared on its fifth mission of the season, since they offer trips only between May and June each year. If the trip lasts eight days, the dives can start on the third depending on the state of the sea, and are done in groups.