Efforts intensify in the search for the Titan sub as rescuers race against the clock to locate the vessel which has five people on board.
The world’s gaze is now on OceanGate, the private excursions company behind the missing submersible.
On its own website, the company says its carbon pressure vessels “meet standards where they apply” but adds “innovation often falls outside of the existing industry paradigm”.
In 2018, the Marine Technology Society, which is an industry group of leading submersible experts, wrote to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, warning of potentially “catastrophic” consequences of the company’s “experimental” approach.
That same year, court filings reveal OceanGate’s former director of marine operations, David Lochridge, claimed he was wrongfully dismissed after questioning the ability of the sub’s hull to withstand deep sea pressures. The case was settled in November 2018.
The search for Titan is continuing, but the clock is ticking for any rescue of the five people onboard with the oxygen supply thought to run out around Thursday morning.
Martin Bentham, the Evening Standard’s Home Affairs Editor explains everything we know so far about the missing vessel and the ongoing search effort.
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