SUBMARINE SHOCKER: OceanGate’s Titanic Tourist Trap Uncovered
A former contractor for OceanGate, the company behind the ill-fated Titanic tourist submarine, has blown the whistle on the company’s reckless navigation system, which may have contributed to the vessel’s catastrophic implosion.
According to Antonella Wilby, the company’s Titanic submarine, the Titan, relied on a convoluted and outdated navigation system that was prone to human error. Wilby, who testified before a US Coast Guard panel, revealed that the sub’s ultra-short baseline (USBL) acoustic positioning system generated data on the sub’s velocity, depth, and position using sound pings, but this information was manually transcribed into a notebook and then entered into Excel before loading it into mapping software.
"This is an idiotic way to do navigation," Wilby testified, before being taken off the team and flown home. "It was a slow, manual process done while communicating with the sub via short text messages. It was a ticking time bomb waiting to happen."
But Wilby’s concerns were ignored by the company, which was more interested in developing its own in-house system than adopting standard software to process ping data and plot the sub’s telemetry automatically.
COFFIN IN THE DEEP
The implications of OceanGate’s shoddy navigation system are dire. The company’s Titanic submarine imploded last year during a dive to the Titanic’s wreckage, killing everyone on board. But the company’s response to the incident was far from transparent.
According to Wilby, a loud bang/explosion was heard during the sub’s ascent after Dive 80 in 2022, which was loud enough to be heard from the surface. This mirrors testimony given by OceanGate’s former scientific director, Steven Ross, who attributed the sound to a shifting of the pressure hull in its plastic cradle.
But Wilby’s testimony raises more questions than answers. Why was the company so reckless with its navigation system? Was the company more interested in making a quick buck than ensuring the safety of its passengers?
COVER-UP IN THE DEEP
The incident also raises questions about the company’s handling of a previous incident, in which the sub’s pilot and co-founder, Stockton Rush, crashed the vessel into a launch mechanism bulkhead six days before the implosion. The incident was caused by a malfunction with a ballast tank, which inverted the submarine, causing passengers to "tumble about."
But according to Ross, no inspection of the sub was carried out afterward. Was the company trying to cover up its mistakes?
The OceanGate Titanic tourist submarine was always a recipe for disaster, and now it’s clear that the company’s negligence and recklessness contributed to the tragedy. It’s time for the company to be held accountable for its actions.
