With search and rescue crews from all over the world joining the mission in a race against the clock… quite literally. Today’s Pulse is all about the breaking news surrounding OceanGate’s ‘The Titan’.

The Pulse Results (109 Votes) 📈

Side A 44.04% - As with any extreme event or expedition, the passengers assumed the risks when they signed up

Side B 55.96% - OceanGate was negligent hosting this expedition and should be held accountable

^{Poll closed: June 23, 2023}

Some experts fear an innovative submersible maker was ‘cutting corners.’

Published on: June 20, 2023
Published by: The New York Times

Today’s Pulse is about the recent breaking news surrounding OceanGate’s ‘The Titan’ and the search and rescue operations currently taking place.

On June 18, OceanGate Expeditions' submersible, named 'The Titan,' went missing in the North Atlantic Ocean while on an expedition to the Titanic shipwreck. The disappearance occurred less than two hours after its deployment.

Having completed three successful dives to the Titanic since 2021, the Titan is a small submersible, roughly the size of a mini-van. It has limited power and oxygen reserves, and it is piloted using a video game controller while communicating with the surface through a text messaging system—a bit of a sketchy setup.

Tickets for this experience reportedly cost a hefty $250,000 per passenger, with OceanGate's CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French diver Paul Henry Nargeolet, prominent Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, all aboard for “the experience of a lifetime”.

Soon after losing contact with the sub, the search to find the Titan was on. With search and rescue crews from all over the world joining the mission in a race against the clock… quite literally. The Titan comes equipped with 96 hours of reserve oxygen… of which experts believe at this point has dwindled down to less than 24 hours.

At this point, there are many theories about what could’ve happened to the Titan and its passengers - including that the vessel is floating somewhere on the ocean, that it imploded due to pressure, that it is stuck in the shipwreck, to the passengers running out of oxygen… with every theory feeling equally as gut-wrenching as the previous.

The entire world watches, anxiously anticipating a potential miracle.

While many hope for a positive outcome, others remain unfazed and criticize the passengers for willingly assuming the risks associated with a private (and expensive!) expedition of this nature. Social media platforms have been flooded with comments like, "Who cares? Less greedy billionaires for the world to worry about."

To make the situation even more tense, recent reports have surfaced suggesting that OceanGate was aware of how dangerous their experimental vessel was, fully ignoring the warning signs that led to this tragedy.

We know you’re seeing this all over the news and we want to know - what do you think?

*This story is very much still unfolding, and we are aware that a simple summary won’t encompass every aspect of the situation - we’ve linked some super helpful articles and references for you below. We hope you check them out!

The Debate Showdown

Side A: As with any extreme event or expedition, the passengers assumed the risks when they signed up

• As with literally any other extreme sport or adventure, the participants sign waivers so that they know exactly what they can expect. In this particular case, all passengers signed a lengthly waiver that explicitly stated "This experimental vessel has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and could result in physical injury, emotional trauma or death."

• Mike Reiss, a former Titan passenger who took the trip in July of 2021, stated that the waiver he signed mentioned “death” 3 times on just the first page - the risks were very clearly laid out, nothing about the trip was sugarcoated or misleading.

• This was a private trip and a personal choice. Why are we stepping in, and spending insane amounts of tax dollars, to help aid in the search and rescue? When you sign up to climb Mount Everest, you are doing so with the understanding that should you not physically be able to make your way back down… there won’t be a search and rescue sent for you. This is a similar scenario.

• A simple Google search reveals the insane risks involved with this expedition… it was on each and every passenger to do their own research before committing to getting on the Titan.

• We can’t discuss this situation without comparing it to the migrant boat that recently capsized off the coast of Greece. With 82 confirmed deaths and hundreds more unaccounted for… it’s incredibly unfair to prioritize the lives of The Titan passengers while disregarding the shipwreck. One situation includes a few billionaires who paid $250,000 a piece for an ‘adventure of a lifetime’, while the other situation includes hundreds of people fleeing for their lives.

Side B: OceanGate was negligent hosting this expedition and should be held accountable

• The Titan was not approved or certified by any regulatory body or agency, which means it didn’t meet any of the rigorous standards that are applied to deep-sea craft, and didn’t undergo any extensive testing for particular depths… It was an experimental vessel that should’ve never been advertised to the public.

• In 2018, OceanGate’s Director of Marine Operations was fired and sued for producing a report that highlighted “The viewport for passengers to look at the Titanic was only rated for 1,300 metres. The Titanic sits at a depth of 3,800 metres.”

• In 2019, OceanGate posted a blog post on their website addressing the question of why they are not certified, by claiming that regulations “slow down innovation”… just plain ignorance.

• The Titan has only made a total of 3 expeditions to the Titanic, the first of which was in 2021. It’s controlled by a game controller, uses construction piping as ballasts, and has a history of running into technical issues… both with losing communication and failed/cancelled trips. In what world did they have the confidence to market this experiment to real people?

• Even if the passengers signed lengthy waivers, any waiver can be nullified for gross negligence, intentional harm, or violations of public policy.

• OceanGate should be held fully responsible for this situation, the family members of the passengers should sue them for every penny they have.

Previous Debate

Previous Pulse Results (76 Votes) 📈

Side A 61.84% - Joe Rogan is the perfect host & platform for the debate we’ve all been waiting for

Side B 38.16% - Dr. Hotez is being set up for failure by bullying him into debating on Joe Rogan’s podcast

Want to learn more?

• Some experts fear an innovative submersible maker was ‘cutting corners.’ - The New York Times

• What happened to the missing Titan sub? These are the most likely scenarios - Global News

• Missing Titanic sub search continues as banging sounds heard - CNN

• Titanic sub latest news: What we know about search for the OceanGate submersible - BBC

• Missing Titanic Submersible Passengers: Here’s who’s on board - The New York Times

• Missing Titanic sub: How does the Titan submersible work? Here's a look inside - USA Today

• Titanic sub: more noises heard in search area, says US Coast Guard, amid huge effort to bring crew home - The Guardian

• The Simpsons writer who went on Titanic submarine says he’s ‘not optimistic’ about rescue mission - The Independent

• Marine group says 10 subs in the world can dive to Titanic depths. Titan is the only one not certified - CBC

• Missing Titanic sub took on extreme danger, while 'breaking the rules' - USA Today

• Company behind missing Titan sub allegedly fired a director for raising concerns about the vessel and its potential to expose passengers to ‘extreme danger’ - Fortune

• Titanic sub passengers forced to sign chilling ‘death waiver’ before tourist excursion - The Independent

• Experts raised safety concerns about OceanGate years before its Titanic sub vanished - NPR

• Titanic voyage waiver 'might not be enforceable,' ex Secret Service agent says - Mirror

• Cost of search for missing submersible ‘irrelevant,’ fisheries minister says - The Star

• A tale of two disasters: Missing Titanic sub captivates the world days after deadly migrant shipwreck - NBC News

• 9 questions about the missing Titanic submersible, answered - Vox

• OceanGate website

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