The pilot and four passengers are aboard and the available oxygen on the vehicle has been forecast to run out by Thursday morning.
The Titan submersible is a 22-foot (6.7-meter)-long vessel operated by Everett, Washington-based OceanGate Expeditions. It first made a voyage dive to 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) in December of 2018, according to the company's website, and first dove to the site of the Titanic - about 3,800 meters beneath the Atlantic - in 2021. It planned to make 18 such dives this year.
But some industry experts and a whistle-blowing employee had worried about its safety, expressing concern that OceanGate opted against certifying the Titan through third parties such as the American Bureau of Shipping, a leading classifier of submersibles, or the European group DNV, an independent quality assurance and risk management company that sets standards for the design safety of underwater vehicles.
Will Kohnen, chairman of peer-review group Marine Technology Society's (MTS) committee on manned submersibles, addressed a letter dated March 27, 2018, to OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush, who is piloting the missing vehicle. In the letter, Kohnen expressed what he said were widespread concerns about the Titan, and Kohnen said he later discussed the letter with Rush.
Kohnen credited OceanGate with notifying passengers about Titan's experimental nature. In November, CBS News aired a report from a journalist who read the waiver he had to sign before going on Titan that identified it as "an experimental submersible vessel that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body which could result in physical injury, emotional trauma or death." | via Reuters.
