Doomed Titan sub was 'fraught with danger', says first Brit to dive to Titanic

07 March 2024 , 23:33

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Dik Barton has visited the Titanic wreckage 22 times

A Titanic diver who has visited the vessel's wreckage 22 times and became the first Brit to reach the wreck site, said the Titan submarine expedition was "fraught with danger".

Dik Barton, the first British person to dive to the Titanic wreck, says even with all safety measures, rigorous preparation and risk mitigation put in place to lessen the dangers associated with the Titan, the plan to descend 2.5 miles below the surface in a submersible wasn't feasible.

Numerous things may go wrong, including damage to the submersible's integrity and structure as well as an internal fire. Failures in the power, communications, and navigation systems are possible, Barton said, while batteries inside subterranean infrastructure have a limited energy supply.

READ MORE: Five unanswered Titan sub questions - wreckage size, remains of dead and mysterious banging sounds

All five Titan passengers perished (COURTESY OF THE DAWOOD FOUNDATION AND FAMILY)

“So if you think about it where you have a potentially flammable environment with an unstable environment that’s wet, a raft of things from that perspective can go wrong. It's fraught with danger."

Haunting new Titanic video shows deterioration and where iceberg first spotted

When the Titan vessel was on a deep-sea expedition to the Titanic wreck last June, it vanished in the middle of the Atlantic.

After a desperate five-day search, it was discovered that tapping noises had been heard from the search area by sonar buoys, raising the possibility that the crew was still alive. However, it was eventually found that all five of the passengers on board had perished when the missing Titan collapsed.

A mechanical noise that emerged after the Titan's failure was mistaken as a distress signal (Channel 5/ITN Productions)

Tragically, Shahzada Dawood, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding, co-founder of OceanGate Stockton Rush, and his 19-year-old son Suleman perished on the dive.

And now the Royal Canadian Air Force crew, who oversaw the extensive search, has publicly revealed the source of the enigmatic pounding noises for the first time. The producers of a new Channel 5 program that explores the accident, The Titan Sub Disaster: Minute by Minute, have received the never-before-heard audio.

Dik said it takes a courages explorer to abandon an expedition because of a gut feeling or thought.

The two-part series, premiering tonight, follows the rescuers as they initially perceive the sounds of hammering that occurred every thirty minutes.

“It’s fascinating to hear but what the whole operation was about was to effectively rescue five individuals from a hazardous environment, an obviously terrifying ordeal. The rescue fraternity never stops until it's conclusive." He stated that it takes a courages explorer to abandon an expedition recovery and rescue mission because of a gut feeling or thought.

"That signal was too strong—any hint of hope is always taken advantage of and adhered to." The 64-year-old Dik, who makes an appearance in the movie, was the president of RMS Titanic Inc. for 22 dives down to the ruins. After listening to the tape, he says he wouldn't consider it to be a distress call because of its inconsistent nature.

Mataeo Smith