Missing Titanic sub: Safety concerns about the craft have previously been raised

FRANCE 24 English

Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00 It's a tale of adventure and expedition at its peak gone terribly wrong.

00:05 As the search for the missing Titan continues, the company that launched the submersible

00:10 Ocean Gate Expeditions is facing mounting criticism.

00:14 This video of American reporter David Pogue expressing safety concerns about the vessel

00:19 six months ago has gone viral.

00:22 I got these from Camper World.

00:24 We run the whole thing with this game controller.

00:27 Come on!

00:29 I didn't know at that point that you drive the thing with an Xbox game controller.

00:34 I didn't know that the ballast was used construction pipes.

00:41 You get there and then you start seeing this stuff and now your mood crashes and you get

00:45 a little worried.

00:46 Like, is this the level of polish and sophistication we're talking about?

00:52 Meanwhile, it's been revealed that Ocean Gate fired an expert who warned about the submarine

00:57 safety back in 2018.

00:59 In a court filing, David Lockridge cited the company's experimental and untested design

01:04 of the Titan.

01:06 He was especially concerned that the sub was not capable of descending to such extreme

01:10 depths.

01:11 Separately, a group of experts wrote this letter to Ocean Gate in 2018, urging the company

01:17 to get the vessel checked by an independent third party.

01:20 But these calls were all ignored.

01:23 Ocean Gate has made two previous trips to the Titanic site and said in May that it always

01:28 expects new challenges with each trip.

01:32 The latest mission began its descent to the Titanic wreck on Sunday.

01:36 But less than two hours later, contact was lost.

01:40 US and Canadian teams have since been scrambling to find the missing vessel and its five passengers.

Category

Transcript

Recommended