Don’t pretend the Titan sub tragedy isn’t a warning about why we need regulation | Opinion
The shocking story of the Titan submersible and its five passengers isn’t funny. It should not be the butt of jokes.
Social media has not wasted time: reports of people taking bets on when the oxygen would run out; a live countdown showing when the air would be gone; and memes, memes and more memes.
This situation has never been anything to laugh about. Making fun of others’ tragedy is tacky and exploitative.
However, what is appropriate is for the news media to question whether this kind of tour, currently available only to rich patrons or the media, should be available at all — even to those who knew the risks.
The Coast Guard announced Thursday that it appears the submersible imploded, instantly killing its passengers. Those on board the Titan were the OceanGate pilot and CEO Stockton Rush and four lay passengers the company called “mission specialists,” who paid $250,000 each to survey the wreckage of the Titanic: British adventurer-billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, and French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet.
It’s expensive, questionable safety-wise and dangerous. I am not blaming the victims, but it’s a fair question: Why would anyone want to go? The allure of the Titanic certainly is part of the draw.
Wade Sisson, a Kansas member of the Titanic Historical Society, believes there are two types of travelers who would risk it:
“First, you have the Titanic enthusiasts — people who would do anything to be close to the ship. To be able to say, ‘I was there.’ That’s quite an attractive thing for those who can afford the price of admission,” said Sisson, who lives in Overbrook, Kansas. He’s the author of “Racing Through the Night” about the Titanic and her nearly identical sister ship, the Olympic.
“Then you have the adventurers who are willing to take risks in order to do something few people on this Earth get to do. For people who collect those kinds of adventures, this is Mount Everest,” he said.
Competent regulation necessary
Desire aside, should people have the choice at all? There is no federal safety standard for this kind of machine or this kind of tour. The U.S. Naval Institute’s website reports: “Submersibles, like OceanGate’s Titan, are not regulated. That means there is no governing body dictating what safety features the craft requires.”
The tour was known to be dangerous. Journalists have reported on the waiver that passengers had to sign. NBC news raised questions about liabilities. A CBS reporter read part of a document passengers had to sign before taking the dive: It’s “an experimental submersible vessel has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma or death.”
Former ABC science correspondent Michael Guillen was the first journalist to report from the ocean floor near the Titanic wreckage. “This is not Disneyland,” he told ABC’s Barbara Walters after a 2000 trip to the site. “This is the real world. Mother Nature is very unforgiving.”
Technology continues to evolve and allow people to do things previously unimaginable. But just because we can do something, should we? Safety regulation is critical. Sisson agrees.
“If we’re going to continue to have commercial dives to Titanic, we must have competent regulation of the vehicles and the technologies involved,” he said. “Clearly this sub was risky in a number of ways that should never have been allowed. This really is the Schlitterbahn of deep sea exploration.”
(Schlitterbahn Waterpark Kansas City, Kansas was the site of the under-tested and barely-regulated Verrückt water slide that decapitated 10-year-old Caleb Schwab in 2016. The park never recovered from the accident, and closed in 2018.)
And what about using remote vehicles to study the wreckage? Do humans need to risk life to learn about the ship?
“Perhaps we can consider that as a way to move forward from this. Interest in Titanic is always going to be there,” Sisson said.
The families of the passengers are grieving. OceanGate has taken a huge loss: its CEO, major investment and potential liability. People are wondering what the company knew and when.
One thing is clear: The Titan should never have been down there. And in further investigation of the submersible itself, how many human lives have to be risked?
