See the video: Reports of safety deficiencies in the missing submersible are increasing.
How to go diving safely? Will Kohnen has been dealing with this question for a long time. The California engineer chairs a committee for manned underwater vehicles at the Marine Technology Society, an association for research into marine technology. In 2018 he wrote to the company OceanGate, operator of the submersible “Titan”, which has disappeared since a tourist dive trip on Sunday. Several experts signed the open letter at the time. “As Chair of the Underwater Committee, I stand by the letter and the feelings of our members who were concerned. There’s no joy in saying, ‘Boy, we were hoping that wasn’t going to happen. We’re in a very precarious situation that affects many people.” The letter to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who is said to be on the missing boat himself, was not about a specific design flaw, but about the company’s decision to no longer undergo the industry-recognized approval process. “There are only ten vehicles in the world that can dive 4,000 meters or deeper, and all are certified – except for the ‘Titan’. So it’s an outlier. Industry experts at a conference at the time expressed concern: What should we do? It’s very risky, we understand the strategy, but it’s very risky for everyone.” The Mexican Youtuber Alan Estrada was already on the dive with the “Titan”. He and other participants were aware of the danger at the time, he reports in an interview. “We signed a declaration, several sheets, I can’t remember how many, explaining all the risks one runs, including ‘loss of one’s life’. We, who are involved in these expeditions, know that “It’s an incredibly risky expedition. We know we’re not going to an amusement park.” During his expedition to the wreck of the “Titanic” last year, communication between the submersible and the escort ship was temporarily broken, says Estrada. “There is a tolerance time. If communication is not restored within that time, you have to abort the mission. As you can see in my videos, we lost communication more or less at a depth of 1000 meters. The tolerance time passed, and we were already in the process of aborting the mission; in fact, the first ballast was dropped and at that very moment we were able to reestablish communications and haven’t lost them again. That’s why we were able to make the descent.” The dive of the “Titan” on Sunday was scheduled for two hours. According to expert estimates, the oxygen on board is only enough for 96 hours. The search for the missing persons continued with great haste on Thursday.