A former OceanGate subcontractor who worked on the Titan submersible that went missing near the Titanic said the vessel was intentionally designed to be low-tech.
Doug Virnig, who worked on the development of the submersible controlled by a wireless Logitech video game controller, said it uses as many ‘off-the-shelf’ components as possible to save on costs and timely research and development.
Virnig added that OceanGate’s main interest was researching the ocean rather than adventure tourism. He said the tourist expeditions, which cost up to $250,000 for a seat, were simply a way of funding the research.
A massive multinational search is under way near the century-old wreck to find and retrieve the five people on board the five-inch thick carbon fibre submersible.
The submersible set off with 96 hours of air, according to OceanGate, so its oxygen tanks would likely be depleted at around 12.08pm UK time (7.08am EDT) today, but precisely when depends on factors such as whether the craft still has power and how calm those on board are, experts say, and whether the craft is still intact.
A former OceanGate subcontractor claims the submersible uses as many ‘off-the-shelf’ components as possible to save on costs and timely research and development
CEO Stockton Rush of OceanGate revealed to CBS last year that the Titan submersible is navigated by a modified Logitech G F710 Wireless Gamepad first released in 2010
Former OceanGate subcontractor Doug Virnig (pictured) said the company’s main interest was researching the ocean rather than adventure tourism
Referring to the $29.99 Logitech gaming controller, Virnig told CNN: ‘It seems kind of cheesy, but if you knew the amount of technology that was packed in that controller and its capabilities, and the amount of money that it costs to develop something like that, it’s just off the charts.
‘So if you can take these components off the shelf and incorporate them into a project like this, where you don’t have the research and development timelines and expense, that I believe is a wise choice.’
Virnig stressed OceanGate had ‘gone cutting edge where they needed to’.
He said the submersible company had ‘incorporated a good bit of conventional wisdom’ during its development.
The ex-Titan subcontractor added that he thought the 22-foot (6.7-meter) carbon-fiber vessel would eventually be found.
‘It has a titanium dome door and that’s not going anywhere,’ Virnig said. ‘That thing is indestructible … It’s a huge hunk of metal, so there are ways to detect that and they’ll find it.’
In an interview with CBS last year, pilot Stockton Rush who is on board the vessel, said it was ‘meant for a 16-year-old to throw it around’.
In the interview he demonstrated by throwing the controller around the Titan’s tiny cabin. He said a couple of spares are kept on board ‘just in case.’
The submersible had seven backup systems to return to the surface, including sandbags and lead pipes that drop off and an inflatable balloon.
Five people fit on board the five-inch thick carbon fibre Titan sub – the size of a mini van (file image)
OceanGate’s Titan sub is controlled by a wireless Logitech video game controller
A massive multinational search is currently underway near the century-old wreck of the Titanic to find and retrieve the five people on board the missing Titan (pictured)
Rescue teams are continuing the search for the submersible tourist vessel which went missing during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck
The sub itself does not have a GPS system. Instead it uses Elon Musk’s Starlink to communicate with a tracking team on its mothership, MV Polar Prince, via short text messages.
The sub is meant to communicate with the main ship – which in 2005 was listed on eBay with a reserve price of $1million – every 15 minutes to inform the team of its location.
On board there are no seats and only one toilet – a small black box containing Ziploc bags – with a black curtain drawn across and music played for privacy.
However, the company’s website recommends ‘you restrict your diet before and during the dive to reduce the likelihood that you will need to use the facilities’.
The walls of the sub are heated because conditions can become extremely cold.
It comes after newly uncovered allegations suggested there had been significant warnings made about the vessel safety during the submersible’s development.
One of the company’s first customers characterized a dive he made to the site two years ago as a ‘kamikaze operation.’
‘Imagine a metal tube a few meters long with a sheet of metal for a floor. You can’t stand. You can’t kneel. Everyone is sitting close to or on top of each other,’ said Arthur Loibl, a retired businessman and adventurer from Germany. ‘You can’t be claustrophobic.’
The controller is designed to work with a PC, is wireless and runs on AA batteries
During the 2.5-hour descent and ascent, the lights were turned off to conserve energy, he said, with the only illumination coming from a fluorescent glow stick.
The dive was repeatedly delayed to fix a problem with the battery and the balancing weights. In total, the voyage took 10.5 hours.
Documents also showed that OceanGate had been warned there might be catastrophic safety problems posed by the way the experimental vessel was developed.
David Lochridge, OceanGate’s director of marine operations, said in a 2018 lawsuit that the company’s testing and certification was insufficient and would ‘subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible.’
The company insisted that Lochridge was ‘not an engineer and was not hired or asked to perform engineering services on the Titan.’ The firm also says the vessel under development was a prototype, not the now-missing Titan.
The Marine Technology Society, which describes itself as ‘a professional group of ocean engineers, technologists, policy-makers, and educators,’ also expressed concern that year in a letter to Rush, OceanGate’s chief executive.
The society, in documents first reported by The New York Times, said it was critical that the company submit its prototype to tests overseen by an expert third party before launching in order to safeguard passengers.
Mission specialists are pictured on board the Titan submersible in voyages before the vessel went missing
French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet (left) is in the sub along with Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate Expedition
Five people are onboard, including British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding and Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who is just 19
The other passengers lost on the Titan are British adventurer Hamish Harding; Pakistani nationals Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, whose eponymous firm invests across the country; and French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet.
Retired Navy Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, who is now deputy director of the Institute for Security Policy and Law at Syracuse University, said the disappearance underscores the dangers associated with operating in deep water and the recreational exploration of the sea and space.
‘I think some people believe that because modern technology is so good, that you can do things like this and not have accidents, but that’s just not the case,’ he said.
