Titan diagram released by OceanGate shows how there’s only room for ONE person to extend their legs
A frightening diagram shows just how cramped the OceanGate Titan’s occupants are, with only room for one person to stretch their legs.
Promotional material for the now infamous expedition to the Titanic’s famed wreckage has surfaced on Twitter, revealing the claustrophobic seating configuration.
The diagram, prepared by OceanGate, shows how only one person can fully stretch their legs inside the cramped 7-meter submarine.
The submarine lost communication with its operator, OceanGate Expeditions, less than two hours after its dive to the shipwreck on Sunday, with five people on board.
Since then, a large-scale rescue operation involving aircraft and a fleet of ships has been sent to the area 400 miles southeast of Newfoundland, Canada, as oxygen supplies in the submarine dwindle.
Promotional schedules released by shipping company OceanGate show just how cramped the inside of the submarine is for five people
French explorer PH Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush are among those trapped on the submarine
Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman are also on board, along with British billionaire Hamish Harding
An interior shot shared by OceanGate shows just how tight the space is for five people to share. CEO Stockton Rush can be seen here holding the game controller that powers the submarine
NBC tech editor Ben Goggin tweeted the seat configuration illustration, saying, “I found an old PDF advertising the Titanic-bound Titan submarine. It shows a “typical seating configuration” for 5 people.
‘Only 1 person can stretch his legs. This looks like hell, folks.’
One of Pakistan’s richest men, Shahzada Dawood, is aboard the ship alongside his son Suleman, British billionaire Hamish Harding, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet.
A glimmer of hope lit up the bleak search earlier today when the Coast Guard announced that “thumping” noises had been detected underwater.
It remains unclear whether the thump came from the submarine, but it has now become the ‘focus’ of the mission.
Some experts say the fact that the sounds were even detected could suggest the submarine is closer to the surface than initially feared.
According to OceanGate’s website, the submarine can last up to 96 hours underwater with five people consuming oxygen.
After being flooded for four days, the stock in the tight space has dwindled to less than 24 hours.
OceanGate Expeditions is one of the few companies offering the tours, with tickets costing up to $250,000
Only one person in this promotional photo released by OceanGate can be seen with their legs stretched out
The wreck of the Titanic lies 12,500 feet underwater – some 11,000 feet deeper than many U.S. and British Navy submarines can dive
The search is complicated by how far offshore the wreck of the Titanic is. It is located 900 miles east of Cape Cod and 400 miles southeast of Newfoundland in a remote, choppy stretch of the Atlantic Ocean.
Submarine search and rescue expert Frank Owen told the BBC his hopes of recovery increased “with some magnitude” when he learned that the sounds had been detected.
‘There are a few reasons for that. First, on board this vessel is a retired French Navy diver.
“He’d know the protocol for alerting search forces… on the hour and half, you’re banging like crazy for three minutes.
‘Below about 180 metres, the water temperature drops very quickly. That creates a layer that the [sonar signal] bounces off.
“But when you’re in water of the same depth, it usually goes straight,” he said.
Rescue ship Deep Energy is the latest ship to join the ongoing search for the ship in the mid-Atlantic.
The large ship has deployed remote-controlled submarines to search for the Titan underwater.
This is the last sighting of the submarine, in a photo shared by Hamish Harding’s company
This image, shared by the US Coast Guard, shows Deep Energy at the search location for the missing submarine
So far they haven’t been able to detect any sign of it or where the banging came from.
In addition to Deep Energy, there multiple C-130 aircraft and Boeing Poseidon P-8s are also involved in the search.
The Coast Guard has now searched 10,000 square miles of the ocean’s surface to no avail.
Their primary hope is to find the Titan “bobbing” on the ocean’s surface.
In that scenario, it would likely be lifted onto His Majesty’s Canadian Ship Glace Bay, which is underway and has a decompression chamber on board.
If the Titan is trapped underwater and unable to surface, the rescue becomes more complicated.
The crew dived to the ocean floor to investigate the Titanic’s wreckage
First, the rescue crews will have to find it and direct a hoist cable 4 miles underwater.
If they can hook a tackle or claw onto the submarine, it should raise the ship slowly enough to work with the underwater pressure – 400 times that of sea level.
Once on the surface, the Titan can only be opened from the outside.
There are growing questions about the safety measures and manufacturing of the 21ft Titan, which some experts likened to a slap-dash can haphazardly put together from cheap parts.
OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush, who is trapped in the submarine, boasted in an interview with CBS last year that the Titan was “safe.”
He claimed that NASA, Boeing and the University of Washington had all agreed to the submarine’s construction to ensure its safety.
NASA and the University of Washington are distancing themselves from the project.
They said in statements to ABC News that they had been consulted but were not involved in building or testing the submarine.