A 2022 promotional video from OceanGate Expeditions, the company behind the missing Titanic tourist sub, features testimonials from previous explorers, including one who notably describes when the submersible landed on the seabed, kicking up sediment.
“We landed on the seabed, saw that little mist of sediment come up,” says one passenger. “It was quite a feeling because we knew that we were close to an object and we had come down on an almost perfect descent the entire dive.”
This file image provided by OceanGate shows the Titan submersible being launched from a platform. (OceanGate Expeditions)
Other participants spoke highly of the experience, describing the journey as “amazing” and “enjoyable” to witness a part of history.
“We’re seeing the remains of one of the great historical events of all time. You can‘t beat that. And we’re someplace where almost no one will ever, ever go. It’s very, very exciting,” says another one of the participants.
Veteran explorer Josh Gates, revealed Wednesday that the OceanGate sub “did not perform well” when he went on a dive aboard the vessel himself.
It was also revealed that the company had been repeatedly warned by a former employee that there might be catastrophic safety problems posed by the way the vessel was developed.
This file image provided by OceanGate shows the Titan submersible being towed in Everett, Washington. (OceanGate Expeditions)
David Lochridge, the company’s director of marine operations, wrote an engineering report in 2018 that said the craft under development needed more testing and that passengers might be endangered when it reached “extreme depths,” according to a lawsuit filed that year in the U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Searchers were racing against the clock Wednesday evening to find the vessel as the oxygen supply was expected to run out by Thursday morning.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.