Titan Sub Implosion Was Not First Close Call—Three Others Only Just Escaped

The tragic incident that killed five Titanic explorers near the shipwreck they'd gone to see at the bottom of the ocean followed a string of near misses at the scene, former passengers have claimed.

Expeditions to the Titanic in 1991, 1995 and 2000 all had close calls that could have cost those on board their lives, according to Canadian news channel CBC.

The revelations have come just days after the U.S. Coast Guard revealed that everyone on board had been killed following a "catastrophic implosion" of a submersible known as Titan, a tourist craft run by sea exploration firm OceanGate. The company had advertised the journey as a once-in-a-lifetime trip to view the famous ship that sank in April 1912, killing more than 1,500 passengers and crew.

The world held its breath for days after it initially appeared the captain and his four passengers may still have been alive, trapped beneath the sea in a broken-down craft whose air would have been rapidly running out.

After the vessel vanished on Sunday, a huge international rescue effort was launched, but debris was found on Thursday and it became clear that everyone on board would have been killed instantly; Captain and OceanGate founder Stockton Rush, 61; British adventurer Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani-British businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood; and the French underwater explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77.

It seems unlikely the men's remains will ever be recovered, meaning they will now lie forever at the site of the mass grave they had tried to visit.

The ill-fated Titanic lies about 350 miles from the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, some 12,500 feet beneath the Atlantic Ocean's surface. Just 10 subs in the world are reportedly capable of reaching such depths, but OceanGate's Titan was the only one not certified as safe by any regulatory body.

After the tragedy, it was alleged that company boss Rush had ignored repeated warnings from his own staff and other industry experts who had tried to raise concerns that his carbon fiber vessel was dangerous. One critic described Rush as a "lone wolf" who disregarded the safety of his passengers.

Even subs that have undergone rigorous testing procedures have previously found themselves in trouble, according to the CBC report written by freelance contributor Ainsley Hawthorn.

The crew of a Canadian-Russian-American expedition that went down to the wreck in 1991 suffered a heart-stopping incident when their Russian Mir submersible became caught in the debris of the Titanic itself. The vessel called to its sister ship, another Mir sub also participating in the dive, which was able to see that its landing skid had become caught under a tangled mass of cables. That craft's crew was able to instruct the captain how to maneuver to escape the snare.

The expedition's leader, Canadian undersea expert Dr. Joe MacInnis, said that having appropriate backup at the scene saved their lives. "We had that second pilot, that second sub, self-rescue capability, so we were very fortunate," he said.

Another incident occurred six years later, when James Cameron became trapped in a sandstorm whipping up the seabed in 1995. The Hollywood film director had been filming the wreck for his hit movie Titanic, which was released in 1997.

As the sub he was in battled against the fierce currents, the batteries' power began to drain away. The sub tried to surface immediately, but it felt as though it hit a wall just 80ft up, and the craft was pushed down to the bottom of the sea again. The same thing happened when they tried again, as a downdraft current pushed their weakened vehicle down. They were forced to wait in darkness and near-freezing temperatures to give the battery a chance to rest, and on their third attempt they managed to break through to the surface, after an agonizing five-hour ordeal.

The third close call recounted by CBC occurred in 2000, when science journalist Michael Guillen was offered the opportunity to visit the Titanic. A current swept up the vessel and slammed it into one of the Titanic's propellers, smashing off chunks of rusty debris and trapping the sub.

"Our sub was like a giant mosquito compared to the propeller. Huge pieces of the Titanic started falling down on us and I knew we were in trouble," he said. After a tortuous hour of rocking backwards and forwards under the skilful piloting of Russian Viktor Nischeta, the craft managed to wriggle free and was able to surface. Guillen, who had always been afraid of water, said he had been convinced he was going to die down there, after hearing a voice in his head telling him: "This is how it's going to end for you." But as they finally rose to the surface, Nischeta cheerfully announced: "No problem!"

The Titan tragedy is now set to face a lengthy investigation and possible lawsuits, as the families grieve for the victims. One professional sub pilot, Ofer Ketter, has warned that the entire industry risks being tainted by a "one-off, extreme" incident involving a "non-compliant player" who he alleged had not prioritized safety.

Newsweek has reached out to OceanGate by email seeking comment on claims it had ignored safety warnings.

Correction 06/26/2023 1.43 p.m. ET: The Titanic sank in 1912, not 2012 as previously stated.