A former passenger of the Titan submersible says he was told about the risk of being crushed by extreme pressure through analogies while onboard.
In an interview with The New York Times, former passenger Bill Price said there was transparency onboard about the challenges of the deep ocean.
He rode on the submersible in 2021. Price said analogies were used to convey the possibility of instantaneous death deep underwater.
"In a macabre way," the Titan passenger told the Times, "it was reassuring".
One included a Coca-Cola can being smashed with a sledgehammer, while another involved an elephant standing on one foot with a hundred elephants on top.
During his first dive, Price said the propulsion system failed on one side of the submersible. When the trip was promptly aborted, OceanGate chief executive Stockton Rush was then unable to release ballasts for the Titan to ascent, the Times reported.
Some family members of the 5 passengers on board are calling for an investigation. (Source: 1News)
The ballasts were eventually released after passengers, on instruction, rushed back and forth from one side of the sub to the other in order to rock the vessel back and forth.
"The fact that we went through that, we experienced some worst-case scenarios, and we overcame it, my thinking was: 'We can do this,'" Price told the Times.
He successfully made the dive the next day on the Titan.
The dramatic four-day search for the missing submersible has ended with a tragic conclusion. (Source: 1News)
On its last voyage, the US Navy detected a sound consistent with an implosion shortly after the Titan lost contact during its descent. Debris was later located in the North Atlantic, confirming that the submersible suffered a catastrophic collapse.
Pieces of the Titan were returned to land last week after being located about 3810 metres underwater and roughly 488 metres from the Titanic on the ocean floor, the Coast Guard said last week.
The cause of the implosion is still under investigation, but experts have speculated that it may have been related to the carbon fibre mid-section of the submersible. The tragic incident has raised questions about the safety of private undersea exploration.
Pieces of the sub were brought ashore today in Canada. (Source: 1News)
An international group of agencies is investigating what may have caused the submersible to implode, and US maritime officials say they’ll issue a report aimed at improving the safety of submersibles worldwide.
Killed in the implosion were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Additional reporting by the Associated Press
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