(Saint-Jean) Since the small submersible Titan made its disastrous dive to closely observe the wreck of the Titanic a year ago, other unregistered submarines have dived into Canadian waters, underlines the Bureau Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB).
And it’s unclear whether all of these submersibles have been certified for safety, the independent agency said in a “maritime safety information letter” sent last week to Transport Canada.
The letter, released Monday, is part of an update released by the TSB as part of its investigation into the tragic June 18, 2023 dive of the submersible Titan southeast of the island of Newfoundland. All five occupants of the small submersible lost their lives when the submarine imploded in the depths of the Atlantic.
“However, the investigation did not confirm whether these submersibles were subject to surveillance by (Transport Canada) or by other certification bodies,” underlines the TSB in its letter dated last Thursday.
The TSB said it sent the letter to Transport Canada “to advise it of the risk posed by submersibles operating in Canadian waters” and “to ensure that appropriate follow-up measures are taken.” The independent agency added that it would like to be informed of the federal government’s actions in this regard.
At Transport Canada on Monday, no spokesperson was immediately available to comment on the letter.
The TSB states on its website that safety information letters are sent to regulators or industry “to inform them of potentially unsafe conditions or actions discovered during the investigation that pose low risks and do not do not require immediate action.
The small Titan submersible was not registered or certified in Canada or any other country to ensure it met safety standards, and marine engineers had warned that the “experimental” approach taken by the submarine’s owner – OceanGate – could have tragic consequences.
The Canadian-flagged cargo ship “Polar Prince” had towed the Titan to its dive site, about 600 km off Cape Race on the island of Newfoundland. About an hour and 45 minutes after beginning its descent, the crew of the “Polar Prince” lost contact with the submersible.
The TSB points out that during its previous expeditions, in 2021 and 2022, the Titan was not towed to the dive site, but rather transported on the deck of another Canadian ship, the “Horizon Arctic”.
On June 22, 2023, the U.S. Coast Guard announced that a catastrophic implosion had destroyed the Titan and that it had found pieces of the submersible on the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic.
All five occupants of the small submarine perished in the accident: the submersible’s pilot, Stockton Rush, president and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions; British billionaire Hamish Harding ; French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman.
U.S. Coast Guard experts said the extent of the debris field indicated that the Titan had broken up on top of the Titanic, which sank on April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg.
In 2018, a group of engineers and industry professionals wrote to the Titan’s owners to express concern that the submarine had not been certified. In a 2019 blog post, OceanGate explained that the Titan – made from carbon fiber and titanium – had not been given a classification because the process could hinder innovation.
