Titanic sub: Safety concerns were raised about missing submersible - BBC News

well as the search continues it has emerged that safety concerns were raised about the vessel five years ago by a former employee of the company our science editor Rebecca Morrell has the details ocean Gate's deep sea submersible the Titan has some unusual features it's whole the part where the passengers sit is made from carbon fiber with titanium caps at each end carbon fiber is used in airplanes and Yachts but not for deep sea vessels it's extremely strong but questions have been raised about its reliability under extreme pressures the shape of the sub is also different most have spherical holes so there's the same pressure all the way around but the Titan is tube shaped this is so it can fit five people inside but it means the pressure isn't equally distributed in 2018 safety issues were raised by an employee of Ocean Gate to David Lockridge an experienced a submersible pilot in American court documents he said the structural Integrity of the Titan had not been properly tested and this could subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible concerns were also raised by Engineers from the Marine technology Society over the experimental approach adopted by Ocean Gate that could result in negative outcomes from minor to catastrophic an Ocean Gate spokesman told us they couldn't provide any information at this time experts have said this incident should lead to changes it's a wake-up call for us and and that's why I think a really thorough rigorous investigation should be done and shared with the community and uh and lessons will be learned and whether you whichever side of the fence you want in terms of sub design you will learn something from this Carrie passengers can go through independent safety assessments by specialist organizations but the Titan was not certified by any external agency in a blog post in 2019 the company said its design fell outside the accepted system and that simply focusing on classing The Vessel does not address the operational risks so is this unusual any sub that dives four thousand meters or Beyond is a one-off vehicle but it doesn't mean it can't be independently classified this sub called the limited factor has repeatedly been to the deepest place in the oceans the Mariana Trench nearly 11 kilometers down nothing is more unique or Cutting Edge but the team behind it worked with assessors and the limiting factor has full certification no one knows what's happened to the Titan but it may be a turning point for how this industry is regulated so that's Rebecca morale there let's talk a little bit about this so joining me is Chris Morris uh Chris is a writer a journalist I should say former BBC reality check correspondent so great person to talk to about this but um I mean we know more about the surface of Mars than we do about what's under the sea what's what's under the ocean this is a stark reminder of that this this tragic story well this scary story yeah there's there are still so many mysteries on our planet and you can only Marvel really at the skills of those who are involved in the rescue effort but when you hear of a search area twice the size of the U.S state of Connecticut I mean it's not quite needling a haystack but it's not far off and I think this idea of people trapped in a in a small space somewhere remote is kind of something that plays into a lot of our deepest fears and it reminds me a bit of the Chilean mine collapse back in 2010 when if you remember more than 30 miners were eventually brought out from underground more than two months after the collapse took place which was really seen as something of a miracle of course the big difference this time is the lack of available oxygen which makes the Race Against Time so much more acute and as you say there are so many elements to this that have really captured people's attention there's uh thousands upon thousands of people following this so like you said it it reads like something out of your worst nightmares I've seen people say you know I'm afraid of getting into an elevator thinking about this little capsule all the way down there no way to get out you just have to wait to be rescued it was pretty horrific stuff it is pretty horrific and you know one can only imagine what it must be like if we hope they are still alive uh trapped inside the submersible and of course have we heard it's not just about finding the vessel it's about how you bring it up from you know up to 4 000 meters below the surface so it's an incredibly intricate and difficult operation and people are interested in this and they're sort of fascinated by I think it's worth saying though and I know I'm not the first person to say this but it it's worth emphasizing the amount of attention being paid to the rescue uh attempt for the submarine and we obviously all fervently hope that it will succeed it seems to be a pretty stark contrast the lack of attention that was paid to uh the migrant ship that that capsized off Greece when hundreds of people are still missing and you know there are people who who set out to see in the most extraordinary of circumstances and get very little help so we hope this rescue succeeds and as I said that the the ability of the people coordinating the search and rescue is just something you have to sit back and admire but we know that they are in a real Race Against Time I mean when you put your journalist hat on how do you explain that discrepancy you just mentioned in terms of the amount of attention that this story is getting I suppose this is a one-off um it's something slightly unique sadly um migrant boats capsizing in the Mediterranean is almost a daily occurrence the incident last week off Greece was was particularly horrific but there have been other incidents where people have lost their lives since and we know that over the last few years thousands of people have died but but there is something different between boats however unsafe they are however dangerous families are setting out on the surface and I think people trapped in a submersible so far uh Beneath the Sea as you say in a part of the planet that we still know so little about in many ways and and so it's it it has a quality that attracts people to a story that they hope will have a happy ending Chris stay with us I'll definitely be coming back to you those are some interesting Reflections to chew on but I'd like us now to speak to Dr Michael Gillen he's joining us on the phone and he's a scientist and journalist and he was science editor for ABC News when he was trapped in a similar vessel during a dive in the same spot while visiting the wreck of the Titanic back in the year 2000 and thanks for joining us Michael now you were the first News correspondent to actually report from the wreck of the Titanic you went in a Russian submersible and everything was going pretty well you toured the bow but then things went wrong didn't they tell us what happened yeah they went quite wrong what happened is that when we left the bow headed towards the stern as you'll recall the Titanic broke into two pieces the bow went straight down the stern came down did a somersault and landed on its back exposing its gigantic propeller so as we were heading towards the stern what caught my eye was the propeller it was very it's very shiny which is in contrast to the kind of the decaying Hulk of the rest of the Titanic as Shades of Gray down there like the lunar surface and as I was at uh just remarking about the propeller I became aware of the fact that our sub was speeding up and I thought that was rather odd I mean we should be slowing down we're we're going much too fast towards this propeller and of course I learned later that we had been caught up in an underwater current a very strong one they do exist down there believe it or not and that is that current just drove us uh full speed into the blades of the propeller and of course the propeller is much larger than our little tear draped teardrop shaped uh three-man sub and we got caught behind the blades and the collision and then the giant pieces of the Titanic Bank began falling on us and I knew immediately right then that we were in uh not just this is not just a minor oops but that this was a major crisis a life-threatening crisis wow I mean just describe for us that moment inside uh this very small vessel there was three of you did you talk about what was happening because presumably it was all up to the pilot at this point to disentangle you from the wreck what was going through your mind did you talk to each other at all what were you doing when the Collision happened and you have to picture the fact that uh my myself and my diving buddy were on our stomachs we're laying on benches with little tiny mattresses little uh not too thick mattresses and we're looking at everything going on through eight inch uh diameter portholes so when we witnessed we felt the Collision then we saw these shards of rusted metal falling down on us our first reaction was what what just happened what what is this what's going on it was just a sense of confusion everything had been going so well up until then this was not at all expected uh it happened so quickly and then uh once we realized that we were in a very serious situation we felt silent because we realized that we didn't want to distract the pilot the pilot at that moment sat up straight he was on the edge of his seat he was uh his you could see his eyes just roving all the monitors and the dials and the switches and he was in communication with the mothership the research vessel academic keldish up on on the surface he was speaking Russian so I didn't know what he was saying but it was clear there was a the in the voice the intonation there was an urgency it was clear that we were in in a real predicament so we kept quiet in my mind being a scientist I started ticking off the possible ways in which we might be rescued being an intellectual you know I believe that for every problem there is an optimal solution and so I didn't panic I didn't do I just went right to my default position of trying to figure out how we could get out very soon I realized I hit a brick wall and there was no way out and that might surprise people but you have to remember you're in a remote part of the North Atlantic you're two and a half miles below the surface there's just nobody you can't call the tow service to tow you out and so that's when I felt an enormous sadness I thought of my wife we were newlyweds that was our wedding anniversary in September when I was down there so I just realized wow and then this voice came into my head that said but this is how it's going to end for you those were the exact words and uh ironic because as ABC News science presenter I had been to the North Pole the South Pole I had covered the Persian Gulf War I had been In Harm's Way many many times all over the world but I realized right then and there that this was the end of the road for me that is I mean I mean that is so striking that with all your sort of scientific background and knowledge and calmness you still felt there was actually no way out of this had you been given instructions about what to do if something like this happened we were instructed what not to do up on the ship we were we went through many kind of seminars before diving we were informed about the risks we were all very serious-minded people these were not frivolous people the vessel that I was on was originally designed for scientific research only the Russians and the French back then had vessels designed to withstand the pressures down there the enormous pressures and we were told one story that really sank in uh the captain of the ship told us the story of a man who was in a similar situation panicked and then right went right for the escape hatch thinking that you know it wasn't obviously was not thinking uh thinking that that would cause him to escape but of course that only hastened his demise so I knew what not to do I I knew that we should not go for the hats to escape that was just a dumb thing to do I worried about somebody else in the sub maybe doing that so I prepared myself to gang tackle him in case that would happen so that was uppermost in my mind and then I started brainstorming how do we get out of there how much oxygen do we have left what's the ability that we could be hauled up to the surface but I I hit a brick wall as I say it was a hard thing for me to it was a hard pill for me to swallow because I've always lived by that motto and I've taught it to my son I've drummed it into his head for every problem there is an optimal solution so you can imagine how difficult it was how terrible terrifying it was for me to come to the conclusion that there was no optimal solution certainly and no solution whatsoever well happily your pilot was able to wrestle you free and of course you came back to the surface but it must be very hard for you to think about the five people in the Titan that still have not been found yes uh said you know I can only imagine well I don't need to imagine I know what they're going through I was there and so I am it's almost as if I I'm bonded to them spiritually I mean I I I feel a kinship with them and it just it's certainly an experience that not many people have had I'm so sorry Dr Gillen but thank you for sharing your testimony with us Dr Michael gillenbeer who has been in a similar situation you're watching the context

Channel: BBC News

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Length: 14min 7sec (847 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 22 2023