SHOCKING! Despite Titan horror, OceanGate still advertising $250,000 trips in 2024 to Titanic wreckage
A page titled 'Titan Expedition - Explore the Titanic' was still available on Thursday which offered a chance to dive to the Titanic wreckage in the company's submersible. It lists two 'missions' in June 2024 and says the June 2023 mission is 'currently underway'.
Follow11 days after five people—including the firm CEO Stockton Rush—died after one of its vessels imploded, OceanGate's website still features sections that promote trips to the Titanic wreckage. On Thursday, a page with the headline "Titan Expedition - Explore the Titanic" was still accessible and offered the possibility to use the company's submersible to dive to the shipwreck. "Intrepid travelers will sail from the Atlantic coast of Canada for an 8-day expedition to dive on the iconic wreck that lies 380 miles offshore and 3,800 meters below the surface," the page states.
"Your dive will provide not only a thrilling and unique travel experience, but also help the scientific community learn more about the wreck and the deep ocean environment," it adds. It lists two 'missions' in June 2024 and says the June 2023 mission is 'currently underway'.
The travels won't take place, and it looks like the website hasn't been changed in the wake of the catastrophe.
The website also cites Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a famous French explorer who died on the Titan, as a professional "who may join you on [the] expedition."
Meanwhile, Canadian police are considering whether 'criminal, federal, or provincial laws' were broken in the lead up to the Titan submersible disaster.
In order to determine whether a thorough investigation is necessary, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will look into "the circumstances that led to the deaths" of the five crew members aboard the submarine.
On Thursday, a day after it was revealed that human remains were discovered during the recovery mission and pieces of the vessel were brought ashore, their investigation was still ongoing. It comes after claims that the electrical system was composed of improper materials and a professor of marine engineering suggested that electrical breakdown may also have contributed to the catastrophe.
Titan had a "catastrophic implosion" while travelling to the Titanic debris, 12,500 feet below the surface of the Atlantic.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Superintendent Kent Osmond stated that a team of detectives has been assembled with the 'sole purpose' of assessing whether or not a criminal inquiry would be appropriate.
"Such an investigation will proceed only if our examination of the circumstances indicate criminal, federal or provincial laws may possibly have been broken," he said.
"Following the US Coast Guard's announcement earlier this week that debris from the submersible was located and all five on board were presumed dead, we will now look at the circumstances that led to those deaths. Our investigators are engaged and active in this matter as of this morning. Once a determination has been made as to whether or not a full investigation will be launched, we will provide an update at that time," he added.
Professor of mechanical and marine engineering Dr. Jasper Graham-Jones suggested that a "electrical catastrophe" may have had a role in the incident. His opinion is in line with others that have emphasised the carbon fibre hull's frailty, which was supposedly inappropriate for the depths to which Titan dived to.
"This could have been an electrical catastrophe. It could have been corrosion, it could have been a fire. Any leakage of water coming through to the electrics could lead to failure as well. Some of the pipes and parts that lead outside could have begun to leak. If you have a wire going outside, then those wires going through land could actually start to leak. They could have corroded," he said.
'Presumed human remains' were found in the wreckage of the Titan submersible, the US Coast Guard announced on Wednesday. The sub's nose and a sizable panel that looks to be from its tail end were among the parts of the ship that were hauled ashore in Canada. In the midst of those parts, according to Coast Guard authorities, were what they thought to be human remains. These remains will now be transferred on a ship to a port in the United States where they will be tested and examined. The findings shocked researchers who believed Titan had undergone a "catastrophic implosion" and been entirely destroyed.
British billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood were the five people who lost their lives in the Titan implosion.
