OceanGate is unlikely to foot the bill for a rescue mission launched to find survivors among the five-man crew in the missing Titan submersible — and the operation is expected to cost millions of dollars, according to experts.
Ret. Adm. Paul Zukunft, who commanded the Coast Guard from 2014 to 2018, told The Washington Post that the underwater exploration company — which charges wealthy clients $250,000 each to see the wreckage of the Titanic — would likely not be required to reimburse the federal government.
“It’s no different than if a private citizen goes out and his boat sinks,” Zukunft told The Washington Post.
“We go out and recover him. We don’t stick them with the bill after the fact.”
Chris Boyer, who heads the National Association for Search and Rescue, told The New York Times that the rescue mission would “probably cost millions.”
The Navy has dispatched a specialized system known as the Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System (FADOSS) that has the capability of recovering objects as deep as 20,000 feet below the surface of the ocean.
But the system’s required consumption of fuel as well as the considerable investment in personnel and maintenance will easily run into the millions of dollars, according to Zukunft.
The former Coast Guard commander said that if the authorities determine that there is no hope of finding any survivors alive, it is likely that OceanGate would be asked to pursue a salvage operation on its own dime.
The submersible’s passengers include OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush; British billionaire Hamish Harding; Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood, and French deep-sea diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The five were bound for the Atlantic seabed 13,000 feet below the surface of the ocean, where the remnants of the Titanic rest.
“There’s a huge humanitarian piece to this when we have a vessel missing at sea,” Zukunft said.
Tourist submersible exploring Titanic wreckage disappears in Atlantic Ocean
What we know
A submersible on a pricey tourist expedition to the Titanic shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean has vanished with likely only four days’ worth of oxygen. The US Coast Guard said the small submarine began its journey underwater with five passengers Sunday morning, and the Canadian research vessel that it was working with lost contact with the crew about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.
It was later found that a top-secret team with the US Navy detected the implosion of the Titan submersible on Sunday, but did not stop search efforts due because the evidence was “not definitive” and a decision was made to “make every effort to save the lives on board.”
Who was on board?
The family of world explorer Hamish Harding confirmed on Facebook that he was among the five traveling in the missing submarine. Harding, a British businessman who previously paid for a space ride aboard the Blue Origin rocket last year, shared a photo of himself on Sunday signing a banner for OceanGate’s latest voyage to the shipwreck.
Also onboard were Pakistani energy and tech mogul Shanzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman, 19; famed French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush.
- Missing Titanic sub live updates
- Debris discovered near Titanic site during frantic search for missing crew on OceanGate sub
- Daughter of missing Titanic diver remains hopeful: ‘I think we have to trust’ search crews
- Titanic tourist Hamish Harding’s family slams OceanGate for delay in reporting missing sub
- Coast Guard knew Titan sub imploded Sunday, but continued search anyway — here’s why
What’s next?
“We’re doing everything we can do to locate the submersible and rescue those on board,” Rear Adm. John Mauger told reporters. “In terms of the hours, we understood that was 96 hours of emergency capability from the operator.
Coast Guard officials said they are currently focusing all their efforts on locating the sub first before deploying any vessel capable of reaching as far below as 12,500 feet where the Titanic wreck is located.
Mauger, first district commander and leader of the search-and-rescue mission, said the US was coordinating with Canada on the operation.
The debris recovered from the US Coast Guard’s Titan submersible search site early Thursday included “a landing frame and a rear cover from the submersible.”
After search efforts to recover the stranded passengers proved futile, and bits of debris from the submersible were found, it was decided that the sub imploded, which correlated with an anomaly picked up by the US Navy in the same area.
The Coast Guard later reported that all 5 passengers were confirmed dead, and rescue efforts were halted.
“Loved ones start calling into the Coast Guard and saying, ‘Can you give us an update?’”
“And we’ll give them regular updates on each mission, and if they want, we can even show them the patterns we’re searching and every effort being expended to saved their loved ones,” he said.
The Post has sought comment from OceanGate and the Coast Guard.
The Titan, made of carbon fiber and began running annual tours in 2021, went missing on its third expedition.
American, Canadian, and French search and rescue personnel are looking for the missing submersible hundreds of miles off the coast of Newfoundland.
The US Coast Guard has estimated that the four-day oxygen supply in the submersible would run out on Thursday morning.
