A US expert on the Titanic wreck believes tourist visits will resume despite the catastrophic implosion of the OceanGate last month that killed people.
President of Royal Mail Ship Titanic, Inc., Jessica Sanders shared thought about the submersible implosion that took the life of her colleague, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who was one of the five victims, on the doomed vessel.
‘It’s difficult because this one ended in a tragedy. But do I think the response is you should never be able to go? Then that contradicts a person that I deeply respected.’
Sanders said Nargeolet believed, ‘it shouldn’t be just for a handful of people who can afford to get there.’
She shared his conviction: ‘Everybody should be able to see the artifacts, and it shouldn’t be just a millionaire, a billionaire or the military or a filmmaker that can go down to the wreck site.
It has been weeks since the submersible likely imploded during a voyage to the wreckage of the Titanic, 12,500 feet beneath the Atlantic Ocean’s surface before it imploded.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61, perished on June 18 along with British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood, 48, his 19-year-old son Suleman and Nargeolet, 77.
Canadian police are considering whether ‘criminal, federal, or provincial laws’ were broken in the lead-up to the Titan submersible disaster.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police will examine ‘the circumstances that led to the deaths’ of the five crew on board the sub and decide ‘whether or not a full investigation is warranted’.
It comes as a marine engineering professor claimed electrical failure could also have contributed to the disaster, following suggestions it was made from inappropriate materials.
Sanders, whose organization locates and preserves artifacts from the Titanic, shared her concerns about tourist visits to the site and keeping the integrity of the 1912 shipwreck.
‘There have been a lot of expeditions in the last couple of years. They say that they didn’t do anything … We just need to verify,’ Sanders told the New York Post.
She also spoke about her concerns and the risks involved when the OceanGate Titan began tourist expeditions.
The investigation is active but it appears that it is unlikely that the debris, which was located 1,600 feet from the bow (front) of the ship, caused damage to the Titanic wreck, she said.
Sanders pointed out that her team is trying to figure out a way to ‘bring the wreck site to the public,’ so their only option is not venturing into the deep sea.
OceanGate’s website still included pages advertising trips to the Titanic – just weeks after the disaster.
A page titled ‘Titan Expedition – Explore the Titanic’ was still available on Thursday, which offered a chance to dive to the shipwreck in the company’s submersible.
