ROV company describes how it prepared to rescue Titan, and the moment it turned to recovery
Pelagic Research CEO gets emotional describing sequence of events
Ed Cassano, CEO of Pelagic Research Services, became emotional Friday while describing the intense efforts to rescue the five people onboard the missing Titan submersible.
The company held a news conference at its headquarters in East Aurora, N.Y., soon after arriving home from 10 days on the ocean, involved in a search that captured the world's attention.
Cassano spoke about the moment on June 18 when they realized the submersible had likely suffered a catastrophic implosion, inevitably killing all five men on board.
"By 12 o'clock, sadly, a rescue turned into a recovery," he said before sighing with tears in his eyes. "We have to apologize. We're still demobilizing. A lot of emotions. People are tired."
Pelagic Research was called into action by OceanGate Expeditions at 5:45 p.m. that Sunday, soon after the company realized its submersible had gone missing.
Cassano said they immediately mobilized their team, sending some straight to Newfoundland to stand by for the search, and some to their headquarters in New York to prepare their remotely operated vehicle, Odysseus.
By Monday morning, they were at Buffalo Niagara Airport, where they were met by three C-17 aircraft to transport the Odysseus, and the equipment needed to offload it. They arrived in St. John's on Tuesday, and had 70,000 pounds of equipment unloaded from the aircraft and loaded onto a ship in the harbour within 5½ hours.
They set out Wednesday morning and arrived at the site of the Titanic wreckage by Thursday morning, when they were immediately tasked with leading the underwater search.
They were surrounded by other ships, floating just 75 metres away from the massive vessel Deep Energy.
Cassano said Deep Energy had lost an ROV before they arrived on scene, by pushing it beyond its maximum depth capacity. The Titanic sits at nearly 4,000 metres of water, and the Deep Energy ROV was rated for 2,700.
"We pushed some things," Cassano said of the limits they were facing. "Everybody pushed some things on this mission."
The Odysseus was in the water by 5:30 a.m. NT, and Cassano said it didn't take long to spot the first pieces of the Titan's wreck.
What the rescue might have looked like
Cassano said they were prepared for four scenarios, including the Titan being lodged on the ocean floor, and total destruction.
They went into the water fully prepared to save the vessel, however. The crew had secured a lifting mechanism to the core of the Odysseus, which would have allowed them to get a hold of the submersible if it was found in tact.
"The plan was to grab the Titan," he said. "Then it was going to be attaching beacons. We were carrying extra beacons so if we lost her, other assets could track her. And then we were going to attach this heavy lift capability to the sub. At that point, we would begin recovery."
The Odysseus would carry the Titan up about 3,000 metres, at which point the other ROVs tasked in the search would jump in to help out. The Deep Energy — a ship that lays pipe on the sea floor in normal circumstances — would then use its heavy lift line and pull the Titan to the surface.
Unfortunately, it was all for naught. The Titan is believed to have imploded on Sunday, before anyone had been called in to help.
Pelagic and OceanGate knew each other
The search was made all the more serious by the fact that many of the people involved knew each other.
The deepsea exploration community is a small one, Cassano told reporters.
"We're very saddened we couldn't recover a viable sub, but beyond that, the system performed," Cassano said. "Down the road, there's certainly things we'll think about, but we haven't had time for that yet."
He wouldn't comment on what he thought of OceanGate's experimental approach — the fact they did not submit to any peer-reviewed certification process, despite charging passengers a $250,000 fee.
"I don't have an opinion on that," he said. "Explorers, people who seek to be on the ocean and go to depth, it's very compelling. We certainly share those desires. Our whole company is designed to support research and science at depth. There was a passion and a joy for exploration."
As for what the rescue and recovery mission will cost — Cassano had only two words.
"A lot."
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