Titanic sub expert’s prior warning of dangers of deep sea exploration
One of the three people on board the missing submersible that was exploring the Titanic wreck has previously highlighted the dangers of plumbing the depths of the ocean.
Former French navy commander Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who served for 25 years, is said to be aboard Titan, along with billionaire British adventurer Hamish Harding and CEO of OceanGate, the company who operates the vessel, Stockton Rush. The craft went missing on the morning of June 19, while the vessel has an oxygen supply which will last 96 hours. If the submersible’s supply has not been damaged, the crew have until around 6am on Thursday 22 June 22 until it runs out.
Nargeolet, who is also a submersible pilot, spoke of the extreme dangers of deep-sea exploration in a recent interview. He said: “If you are 11m or 11km down, if something bad happens, the result is the same.
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“When you’re in very deep water, you’re dead before you realise that something is happening, so it’s just not a problem.”
Nargeolet has made several trips down to the Titanic and was once said to have spent more time than any other at the wreck of the famous ship.
And he still remembers the first time he clapped eyes on the sunken ship. He added: “We video everything so you can play it back: this first day, when we arrived at the bow, for 10 minutes we were in absolute silence. Not a sound, from three people.
“I was imagining the people on the deck, and all the things I already knew about the Titanic were going through my mind.”
And on Titanic itself, he added: “What really strikes you is how beautiful it is.
“You don’t normally see that on a shipwreck. It is an amazingly beautiful wreck.”
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The US Coastguard have confirmed there are five people on board the missing sub. OceanGate Expeditions has confirmed in a statement that it owns the missing submersible.
The statement said: “We are exploring and mobilising all options to bring the crew back safely. Our entire focus is on the crew members in the submersible and their families.”
The wreckage lies around 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, and around 3,800m below the surface.
The ship now lies in two parts, with the bow and stern separated by around 800m, and a huge field of debris around the vessel.
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