Editorial: Danger attracts and reality bites

The OceanGate Expeditions submersible vessel Titan used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic. Photo / OceanGate Expeditions via AP

EDITORIAL

New Zealand isn’t the only country that promotes itself as a drawcard through adventure tourism and the great outdoors.

Other places often attract people with vertigo-inducing photos of people peering from rocky cliffs into canyons, valleys and lakes.

People tend to like a bit of risk as part of an adventure, and there’s always some lurking when we travel, especially when we’re out among nature. It can be a source of pride, that we’re getting out of our comfort zone, doing something different.

There are degrees of it, starting with the basic dance with chance in getting in a jet, car, train, bus or ship. Other common activities can raise risk such as scenic flights by balloon, helicopter or small plane, and boat trips.

Destinations add to it again - such as heading out into the bush or remote hilly terrain, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time during a rising river or erupting volcano. There are sports and ventures that could clearly be hazardous, and the odds of something going wrong are higher.

At these levels people should be thinking about things such as how experienced is the pilot, how sea-worthy is the boat, is it really a good time?

Taking a trip to visit the Titanic shipwreck on the Atlantic seabed on the Titan submersible appeared to be on another level, comparable in its rare, extreme risk to early-stage space test launches.

US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger confirms the missing submersible imploded near the wreckage of the Titanic, killing all five people on board. Photo / Steven Senne, AP

Great care is normally taken with the development of deep-sea vessels. The Titan, lost in Titanic’s watery grave with five people on board, tragically, appears to have been simply too great a risk.

Yesterday, the US Coast Guard confirmed it had imploded. A remote-controlled vehicle found debris 500m from the Titanic “consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber” in the vessel.

The submersible was the subject of a lawsuit in 2018. An engineering report said it needed more testing and that passengers might be in danger at “extreme depths”. The Marine Technology Society told the OceanGate Expeditions company that the prototype craft with its carbon fibre hull should be tested by independent experts for passenger safety. OceanGate chief executive Stockton Rush opposed that idea.

In 2019, Rush told the Smithsonian magazine: “There hasn’t been an injury in the commercial sub industry in over 35 years. It’s obscenely safe because they have all these regulations. But it also hasn’t innovated or grown — because they have all these regulations.”

For some people, there’s a special enducement in exploring a new frontier without adequate precautions. Aaron Newman, a former Titan passenger, told NBC: “Obviously, this is the type of exploration that’s doing things – this is not a Disney ride. We’re going places that very few people have been.”

The waiver passengers were required to sign before trips said it was “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”.

Anyone with a strong survival instinct should have been highly wary. Retired Royal Navy rear-admiral Chris Parry called the Titan a “dodgy piece of technology”.

He told media in Britain that “any responsible organisation would have another submersible ready to go down at an hour’s notice” and that without an “emitting signal” the craft was very hard to locate. “It is fundamentally dangerous, there was no backup plan, it’s experimental.“

Five people were onboard the Titan submersible. Photo / OceanGate, File

OceanGate Expeditions made its first dive to 4000m in late 2018. It has made yearly trips to the Titanic since 2021. There were ways of allowing the submersible to rise without electricity. It could use acoustic sound sensors and communication equipment to connect with a ship on the surface.

But CBS reporter David Pogue, who travelled on the submersible last year, tweeted that he had witnessed the craft “get lost for about five hours”. He said that “nobody’s ever measured” the oxygen supply on board. Former passenger Arthur Loibl said there were electrical problems when he travelled to the Titanic site in 2021.

Any prospective passenger should have considered: How would any emergency be dealt with; how easily could the craft be located; how reliable was the vessel itself; what was known about the operation?

The facts were stacked against it in a disaster.

The general area where the submersible went missing is known for being foggy and stormy, making a rescue difficult. It was going to a depth of 3800m. The world record for the deepest underwater rescue is 480m.

Even if it could get back to the surface, it could not be opened from the inside. The passenger viewing port was only certified for depths of up to 1300m.

With different levels of risk, people are relying on their own and other people’s judgment, abilities, and competence. And beyond those factors are standards, training, regulations, qualifications, maintenance, inspections that are meant to boost safety and protection.

When red flags are flying over a risky venture, there’s a bottom line for everyone involved: Is it a good idea? Sadly, in this case, it wasn’t.