Marine group says 10 subs in the world can dive to Titanic depths. Titan is the only one not certified
Company fired director of marine operations after he published a searing report: NYT
Dozens of industry insiders penned a warning to OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush in 2018 saying he was walking a dangerous path by not submitting to a certification process for his submersibles.
CBC News has spoken with two signatories to the letter, including Will Kohnen, chair of the Marine Technology Society's submarine group.
There is no law in the United States, where OceanGate Expeditions is headquartered, that a submersible has to be certified by any regulatory body. However, Kohnen stressed this company is an outlier.
"There are only 10 submarines in the world that can go 4,000m or deeper and all of them are certified except the OceanGate," he told CBC News. "Out of the entire population of submersibles, 90 to 95 per cent are certified. There's a five to 10 per cent fringe, so in that aspect they are an outlier, but sure, in the deep submersibles they really stand out."
The letter outlined the concerns of more than three-dozen scientists, explorers and industry leaders.
"Our apprehension is that the current 'experimental' approach adopted by OceanGate could result in negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic) that would have serious consequences for everyone in the industry," it reads.
It goes on to say the company's marketing material was "at minimum, misleading to the public and breaches an industry-wide professional code of conduct."
Kohnen said the letter was never formally sent to Rush, however the two men spoke about the concerns in person, and Rush told Kohnen he'd received a leaked draft of the letter. They "agreed to disagree" on the matter of certification, but Kohnen said OceanGate Expeditions did change their marketing and add text to their waivers to emphasize that the submersible was experimental and uncertified.
Regulation stifling innovation?
A blog post on OceanGate's website in 2019 responds to questions about why the company's submersibles are not "classed" by any independent organization. The post was centred on regulation slowing down innovation.
"Bringing an outside entity up to speed on every innovation before it is put into real-world testing is anathema to rapid innovation," the post reads.
The company said that classing agencies often have a "multi-year approval cycle due to lack of pre-existing standards, especially, for example, in the case of many of OceanGate's innovations."
The government of Newfoundland and Labrador told CBC News on Wednesday morning it has no responsibility over the Titan. It's still unclear if Transport Canada — the federal department tasked with transportation safety — has any responsibility to inspect or certify the craft.
Bart Kemper, an engineer who signed the 2018 letter, said it shouldn't necessarily fall on governments to regulate the industry. He said he's OK with people taking their own risks — as long as those risks are made clear to the participants.
While OceanGate Expeditions did make changes to its marketing after the 2018 letter, Kemper questions if people truly understood this was not a tourist submersible.
"Tourist subs are all under jurisdictions. They all follow rules," he told CBC News. "They chose to say no [to regulation]. They wholesale rejected codes and standards."
Kemper worries some passengers may have been swept up in the company's own belief that this was safe, and failed to do their own due diligence.
"They believed in their own stuff. I mean the CEO is down there right now," he said.
Company director fired after reporting concerns: NYT
Two months before the letter was sent by industry experts, OceanGate's own director of marine operations produced a searing report in which he highlighted "the potential dangers to passengers of the Titan as the submersible reached extreme depths," according to the New York Times.
The company sued that director, David Lochridge, over allegations he had shared confidential information. He was fired, and later sued OceanGate for wrongful termination.
According to the New York Times, court records from the lawsuits say Lochridge learned the viewport for passengers to look at the Titanic was only rated for 1,300 metres. The Titanic sits at a depth of 3,800 metres.
The lawsuits ended with a settlement in 2018.
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