Adventure Sub Expedition To Titanic Disappears

A deep-diving five-person submarine operated by OceanGate Inc is missing off the coast of Newfoundland Canada, near the wreck of the Titanic. The race is on to locate the 21-foot submarine and rescue the up to five occupants before an estimated 96-hour “life support” window starts to close.

While details are still being released, the U.S. Coast Guard says the submarine launched on Sunday morning, during a tourist-like expedition to view the wreckage of the Titanic, some 12,500 feet below sea level. Operators lost contact approximately an hour and forty-five minutes into the dive.

As of this time, it is unknown if the submarine is lost on the surface of the water, bobbing the waves or sitting on the seafloor.

Rescuers are accounting for either option. A U.S. Coast Guard C-130 long-range patrol aircraft is currently searching for the overdue “research submarine”, and the Rescue Coordination Center Halifax is “assisting with a P-8 Poseidon” that has underwater detection capabilities.

This scenario is a long-feared nightmare for Coast Guards everywhere.

As the global market for extreme tourist adventures has emerged in the maritime, aiming at taking tourists the polar icecaps, the deep seafloor, or to other unique and isolated places, Coast Guards have actively worried that adventure tourism has raced ahead of government regulation, and has put little thought into addressing catastrophic accidents in areas where government support is unlikely.

While Coast Guards can support surface searches, most governments have little to offer the missing mariners if they are trapped underwater.

On the part of the U.S., the decline in America’s submarine rescue capabilities has been dramatic. In 1960, the U.S. Navy boasted nine dedicated submarine rescue ships and two fleet tugs fitted out for undersea rescue work. Today, the service lacks a single dedicated undersea rescue vessel.

The U.S. Coast Guard, the lead agency for America’s at-sea lifesaving missions, has no undersea rescue capabilities whatsoever. Submarine rescue is now a largely privatized endeavor that should, as a matter of routine, work hand-in-hand with the growing and under-regulated fleet of civilian submersible operators.

Undersea Rescues Are Complex, Lengthy Endeavors:

If the missing submarine is stuck on the sea floor, the outlook is grim. Undersea rescues are complex, dangerous things, and, with the demise of America’s dedicated submarine rescue ship fleet, the first task of just getting to the search area is often the hardest.

It takes time to summon what little aid is available. In 2017, to help Argentina locate the missing—and subsequently lost—ARA San Juan (S-42) submarine, America’s elite Submarine Escape and Rescue team was slow to deploy.

The U.S. rescue team first struggled to arrange the eight flights needed to transfer some 365 tons of gear to Argentina. The first airlifter landed 43 hours after activation, and the last landed 77 hours later. Then, lacking a dedicated ship, the team chartered a “vessel of opportunity,” but then needed four days to tear the stern bulkhead off the ship and then needed twelve more hours to load gear aboard.

Only then could the team head to the search area. In the current situation, help would have not even left the pier before the submarine’s life support ran critically low.

Even if rescuers did arrive, few platforms can operate at the depths of the Titanic.

Private-sector assets might be the last resort. The U.S. Navy has largely privatized their salvage and rescue support teams and has little in the way of life-saving support to offer. The last dedicated U.S. submarine search and rescue craft, the fleet’s two unique Pigeon Class (ASR 21) vessels, were cut from the fleet in the mid-nineties and scrapped in 2009 and 2012 respectively.

Only two general salvage ships remain in the U.S. inventory, and they lack the specialized capabilities required to carry out a rescue at the ultra-deep depths of the Titanic.

Private sector specialists like James Fisher and Sons plc can do better under certain circumstances. They are able to move quickly. In 2022, the company demonstrated it could load the NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS) onto a vessel and embark in 18 hours. With the war in Ukraine sidelining many large Antonov AN-124 airlifters, the company recently demonstrated the NSRS could be put aboard a U.S. C-5 Super Galaxy. But, again, even if they can get to the site, they may have little to offer at such depths.

Regardless of outcome, the incident is a grim sign of things to come. As civilian undersea activities increase, governments should begin a discussion into how these private sector specialists can backfill missing governmental capabilities—or if governments should reconstitute long-disestablished undersea rescue capabilities so they can better monitor civilian undersea activities and help out when things go wrong.

High-Risk Maritime Tourist Organizations May Need To Stop and De-Risk:

If Russia, the U.S., NATO and others can work together to standardize rescue fittings and, on occasion, coordinate submarine rescue activities, then civilian authorities should be forced to work together to better regulate the growing fleet of private civilian and adventure-tourism-oriented submarines.

Maritime regulators would be well within their remit to demand tourism-oriented “expeditionary” or “research” submarine operators employ standard rescue features—akin to those already adopted aboard military submarines—and order operators to have government-approved rescue plans in place, with assets ready to arrive on site well before life support systems would be at risk of collapse.

Put bluntly, the undersea is no place for amateurs. It is a harsh and unforgiving environment, with little margin for error. Tourists chasing an emotional charge or some burst of adrenaline are certainly entitled to risk their lives, but, as those customers may be poorly equipped to evaluate risk, the government—if they are going to be asked to backstop search and rescue when things go wrong—can step in to give these “seekers” a good chance of survival.

Regulation of the world’s growing civilian submarine fleet can help ensure private and commercial sub operators do what they need to do to minimize risk, adding safety features and maintaining contingency plans that do a bit more than simply turning the catastrophe over to the nearest or most capable Coast Guard, and, in effect, walking away, protected by a legion of lawyers and some iron-clad liability releases.