: The tour company whose submersible craft went missing during a Titanic wreckage expedition ignored calls to get its vessel independently checked and certified, believing this would stifle innovation.
“When OceanGate was founded the goal was to pursue the highest reasonable level of innovation in the design and operation of manned submersibles,” the company wrote.“Bringing an outside entity up to speed on every innovation before it is put into real-world testing is anathema to rapid innovation.” Frederick said acoustic analysis was now under way but acknowledged this was an “extremely difficult” period for the families of the five people who are on the Titan: British billionaire Hamish Harding; British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman; French maritime expert Paul Henri Nargeolet and OceanGate chief executive Stockton Rush.
It is still not clear why the submersible disappeared about one hour and 45 minutes into its dive on Sunday when it lost contact with its command ship, the Polar Prince. “Your marketing material advertises that the Titan design will meet or exceed the DNV-GL safety standards, yet it does not appear that Oceangate has the intention of following DNV-GL class rules. Your representations, at minimum, are misleading to the public and breaches an industry-wide professional code of conduct we all endeavour to uphold.”