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Desastre do submersível Titan infographic
A infografia mostra as conclusões do inquérito da Guarda Costeira dos EUA.
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OCEANOGRAFIA

A missão assombrada do Titan

By Duncan Mil

September 23, 2024 - O submersível experimental Titam que implodiu numa viagem aos destroços do Titanic, matando os cinco tripulantes a bordo, teve uma varia dias antes do mergulho final, soube um inquérito público.

Two former directors of OceanGate, the company behind the Titan submersible, told a U.S. Coast Guard inquiry that the company could have prevented the tragedy.

The inquiry is hearing two weeks of evidence into the deadly implosion of the experimental submersible in June 2023.

OceanGate’s former scientific director, Steven Ross, said that just days before its final mission, a malfunction with a ballast tank valve caused the vessel to adopt a 45-degree-inversion with its stern facing upward.

Ross said the incident had caused passengers to “tumble about,” leaving one passenger “hanging upside down” and others clinging on.

Ross added that he did not know whether OceanGate had inspected the Titan’s hull for damage after the incident.

Former OceanGate’s Director of Marine Operations, David Lochridge, labelled the submersible unsafe in 2018.

“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” said Lochridge. Each of the four passenger spaid $125,000. “There was very little in the way of science.”

“Stockton liked to do things on the cheap,” Lochridge testified, referring to OceanGate’s CEO and founder, Stockton Rush.

The bodies of the sub’s five occupants -- Sulaiman Dawood, 19, his business tycoon father, Shahzada, 48, British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58, famed Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, and Stockton Rush, 61 -- are unlikely to be recovered.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 23/09/2024; STORY: Graphic News
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