Titan submersible inquiry reveals safety lessons for the future

It has been more than a year since OceanGate’s Titan submersible imploded, killing all five people aboard, while on the way to visit the wreck of the RMS Titanic. Questions remain about what could have been done to prevent the accident, and 16 months on, the U.S. Coast Guard has begun a series of investigatory hearings hoping to realize a solution.

The purpose of the two-week inquiry, set to run from Sept. 16 to Sept. 27, is to “assure that every aspect of the case is probed and to determine the causes of the Titan submersible’s loss, identify contributing factors and develop safety recommendations to prevent similar incidents,” the Coast Guard said in a press release. Following the hearings, there will be efforts aimed at “enhancing safety protocols and preventing future tragedies.”

The hearings have “made public a flood of information about the doomed vessel’s design and operation,” and “paint a damning picture,” said Wired, while also revealing some of the key mistakes and flaws that may have led to the implosion. The most notable perhaps is testimony that OceanGate “skirted, or simply ignored, accepted construction practices for submersibles.” The company — whose founder, Stockton Rush, died aboard the Titan — “tested only one scale model of the innovative carbon fiber hull and, despite it failing early under high pressures, proceeded straight to building a full-scale hull.” OceanGate also “relied on an unproven acoustic monitoring system to provide an early warning of failure.”

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The carbon fiber hull itself was also noted as having caused many of the problems. Under the standards of the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), carbon fiber hulls are “not acceptable materials for submersibles,” Roy Thomas, an ABS engineer, testified, per ABC News. The hulls “have very low resistance to impact loads, and the hull is susceptible to deformation under applied external loading.”

It should be noted that there “has been up to this point a perfect track record in deep submersions,” Chris Roman, an oceanography professor at the University of Rhode Island, said to CNN. It is “not a cavalier, high risk, every dive is like a daredevil event if done properly.” There are “no shortcuts here, especially in this business. And if you cut corners, it will bite you,” said Roman.

Others, such as Patrick Lahey, the founder of submersible manufacturer Triton, noted that there should be new protocols to prevent similar tragedies. Lahey “stressed the importance of certifying submersible vessels through a process that involves an extensive safety assessment carried out by independent marine organizations” during his testimony, said the BBC. At the end of the day, the submersible “was not quite ready for prime time,” said Lahey.

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