NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – A representative to the owners of the ill-fated Titan submersible, which imploded near the site of the Titanic and killed five people, outlined plans for journeys to the sunken Titanic in a letter to U.S. District Court in Norfolk earlier this year and invited a judge to take part in an expedition.
The Titanic case and who has the rights to salvage it has been going on 30 years, but the most recent documents filed in the case deal with the OceanGate Expedition and its submersible, Titan.
OceanGate Expeditions legal and operational advisor David Concannon explained the plans for the trips to the Titanic and invited U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Beech Smith in an April 20 letter.
“If you would like to personally participate in 2023 Titanic Survey Expedition, you are more than welcome to do so as a guest of OceanGate Expeditions,” Concannon said in the letter.
But that was not the only letter in the Titanic federal court file.
A little more than a month later, Smith, who was not available for comment, responded to Concannon in a letter of her own by expressing interest in taking a trip to the Titanic in the future.
Smith, in her response, left the door open for a trip, but it is certainly not clear she would participate in a Titan-type submersible adventure. However, she seemed interested in some type of expedition trip.
“I thank you for the invitation to participate in the 2023 Titanic Survey Expedition,” Smith said in her May 30 letter, “and perhaps, if another expedition occurs in the future, I will be able to do so. After almost thirty (30) years of being involved in this case, that opportunity would be quite informative and present a first ‘eyes on’ view of the wreck site by the Court.”
There was another document, labeled as a status report, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which said OceanGate did not need authorization to conduct its expeditions because it was “not proposing to conduct any ‘research, exploration, salvage, or other activity that would physically alter or disturb the wreck or wreck site of the RMS Titanic.”
Only on 10, the latest document in the Titanic file, which was filed just two days ago by the president of RMS Titanic Inc. and made available Thursday morning, noted the missing submersible. That was before the announcement Thursday afternoon by the U.S. Coast Guard that the Titan had likely imploded and that there was not likely to be any survivors.
“A submersible, owned and operated by OceanGate Expeditions and carrying five persons on board, has gone missing while diving to the wreck,” the June 20 letter states. “The vessel lost contact with the submersible approximately an hour and a half into their dive on Sunday, June 18, 2023.”
The letter noted that the United States, Canada, France and the United Kingdom have been working “to mobilize a massive search and rescue mission.”
In a statement Thursday, OceanGate acknowledged the loss of the five people aboard the Titan.
“We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and hsi son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.
“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.”
This was the third trip Titan was making to the Titanic Site, and there had been concerns on previous trips.
One of the issues from a reporter who went on a 2022 expedition was communication issues. It was reported that communication was lost for 2 1/2 hours.
A senior Navy official told the Associated Press that, after the submersible was reported missing, the U.S. Navy analyzed its acoustic data and found an anomaly “consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost.“
Concannon was not available for an interview.
