Featured Image Credit: OceanGate/CBS
Topics: World News, Titanic
Jess Hardiman
Boeing and the University of Washington have said they had nothing to do with the missing Titanic sub, following previous claims from OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
The vessel went missing less than two hours into its deep sea voyage to the Titanic wreckage, with five passengers on board - Rush, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood.
The breadth and depth of the search area has made it incredibly hard for rescuers, who had been trying to locate the sub since it vanished on Sunday.
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In the wake of the mysterious disappearance, questions have arisen about the quality of the sub’s materials, including a modified gaming controller used to steer the craft – a topic CEO Rush has previously commented on.
When asked by CBS last year about the basic conditions inside, he insisted the vessel was safe.
“There are certain things that you want to be buttoned down,” Rush said.
“The pressure vessel is not MacGyver at all, because that's where we worked with Boeing and NASA and the University of Washington.
“Everything else can fail, your thrusters can go, your lights can go. You're still going to be safe.”
However, both Boeing and the University of Washington have since come out to deny any involvement.
A Boeing spokesperson told CNN on Wednesday (21 June): “Boeing was not a partner on the Titan and did not design or build it.”
The day before, a University of Washington spokesperson also told the outlet the institution was not involved in the craft, following a 2021 court filing in which OceanGate claimed Titan was the result of eight years of ‘detailed engineering and development work under a company issued $5 million contract to the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory’.
Kevin Williams, the executive director of the university’s Applied Physics Laboratory, said: “The Laboratory was not involved in the design, engineering or testing of the TITAN submersible used in the RMS TITANIC expedition.”
On Wednesday, another spokesperson for the university reiterated that it was not involved.
Victor Balta said the University of Washington had signed an agreement with OceanGate, but they did not see it through, explaining that they had designed a prototype meant for far shallower depths.
“To clarify and expand upon yesterday's statement, the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory initially signed a $5 million research collaborative agreement with OceanGate, but only $650,000 worth of work was completed before the two organizations parted ways,” Balta said.
“That collaboration resulted in a steel-hulled vessel, named the Cyclops 1, that can travel to 500 meters depth, which is far shallower than the depths that OceanGate's TITAN submersible traveled to.
“As stated earlier, the Laboratory was not involved in the design, engineering or testing of the TITAN submersible used in the RMS TITANIC expedition.”