Featured Image Credit: Becky Kagan Schott / OceanGate / Xavier DESMIER/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Topics: News, Titanic, Travel, World News, Titan submersible
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: News, Titanic, Travel, World News, Titan submersible
The Titan submersible tragedy gripped the entire world and the daughter of one of the deceased has spoken out about the incident.
For those unaware, last year, five people lost their lives after it was confirmed that a submersible they were travelling in had imploded.
The OceanGate submersible descended deep into the Atlantic Ocean as part of a voyage to view the Titanic wreckage, which rests 12,500 feet below sea level.
Approximately one hour and 45 minutes into the trip on June 18 2023, the mother ship on the surface lost contact with the Titan, meaning its location was completely unknown.
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This launched a race against the clock as a search mission got underway, aware that the crew would eventually run out of oxygen.
However, when pieces of the submersible were discovered in the ocean, it was revealed Titan had suffered a 'catastrophic implosion'.
The five people on board were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, UK billionaire Hamish Harding, businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his son Sulaiman Dawood.
Nargeolet’s daughter Sidonie, 40, has spoken from her home Ordino, Andorra about the incident and said she hopes the voyages to the Titanic continue.
However she did take issue with no one from OceanGate allegedly contacting her after her father’s death.
She told the Daily Mail: “My anger is mostly because no one from OceanGate contacted us to say we are sorry for your loss, which I'm angry about.
“At least I think they could have contacted us to say we are sorry for your loss.”
However, an OceanGate representative told the Mail they did contact the Nargeolet family after the tragedy.
Speaking on future voyages, she said ‘I think they have to do it’ and insisted that a bad sub does not mean all trips will end the same way.
“We don't have to make a confusion with a bad sub and a good one, you know?” she said.
“I think it's good that people go on the sub and it's good to take artefacts from the Titanic, but just not to play with security, the lives of people."
She also noted that she was very used to her father making these extreme trips and never considered the quality of the submersibles he was regularly in.
“I have always been used to it, so I think it was like normal for me,” she said.
“So I never wondered if the submersible was a good one or not.
“He told me that the Titan was a new kind of sub, but he didn't tell me he was worried about it.
“I didn't know anything about this sub, I didn't know how it was made.
“Now from what I heard, it seems that so many people said it was a bad sub, so why has it been able to go into the sea?”
UNILAD has contacted OceanGate for a comment.