When the Titanic sank during the early hours of April 15, 1912, a dark cloud of tragic silence befell the entire world. The ‘unsinkable ship’ had sunk as a  consequence of a deadly combination of human hubris and carelessness. With the magnitude of the misfortune, no one thought that the tragedy would result in another one. However, when the OceanGate submersible went diving into the depths of the ocean, this is exactly what transpired.

Reports suggest that there were warnings of the submersible being unfit for the pressure and other conditions the deep ocean readily provided. Warnings, that were repeatedly ignored by the OceanGate boss Stockton Rush, the daredevil billionaire behind the doomed Titan submersible voyage. Larry Connor, who is somewhat of an expert on deep sea diving, gave his two cents on the entire situation, and his opinion will shock you, or maybe not.

Diving expert reveals everything wrong with OceanGate submersible

Since information revealed that an implosion took away the lives of all the five people who were present in the Titanic submersible, the company has stopped all its commercial explorations, according to its website. After all the details regarding the chilling incident were known, News Center 7′s representative, Kayla McDermott, spoke with the diving expert Larry Connor to find out the viability of the entire excursion.

Safe to say, Connor was not impressed with the overall quality and practicality of the vehicle itself. In 2021, Larry Connor, who is the CEO of his real estate investment firm, made three deep dives in five days at the Mariana Trench in the Western Pacific Ocean. For reference, the wreckage of the Titanic lies around 12,500 feet deep in the ocean, while the Mariana Trench is three times deeper than that. According to the report by News Center 7, Connor said he would have never gotten on that submarine. His words were, “This was an absolutely avoidable tragedy.” 

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According to him, the first and foremost rule of deep sea diving, or even going to space, is whether it will be safe or not, a rule that was completely ignored by OceanGate officials. In fact, Larry was shocked to find out the actual materials that has been used in the submersible. “When I found out that they are using carbon fiber, that’s a red flag,” he said. Connor revealed that if one is diving deeper than 13,000 feet, then titanium or hardened steel is the material one should be using, instead of carbon fiber. Connor added, “It was an uncertified sub, there’s an organization called DNV Norwegian that is kind of the gold standard for certification heard they didn’t have that.”

Another tragedy resulting from hubris

When Larry Connor dived more than 30,000 feet below sea level, he did so in Patrick Lahey’s submersible. Lahey is the owner of Triton Submarines and made the submersible in which Connor went with Lahey, namely, DSV Limiting Factor. After going to a place where the pressure is over 1,000 times greater than the standard atmospheric pressure of water, and could crush almost anything, it is not a surprise that Connor would know a thing or two about deep diving.

When asked if he would get on the OceanGate submarine, his answer was, “Not a chance in the world”. According to him, there need to be standards that need to be maintained while such dangerous explorations, which were clearly not adhered to by OceanGate. These became the reason for such a mishap. He is also worried about the ill-affect such controversy could have on deep-sea diving in general. But the worst part, according to him, is, “What’s really more important is that five lives were lost when they didn’t have to.” Larry revealed that he has plans to dive into the wreckage of the Titanic, to show the world that it can actually be done safely.

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