Front Burner - Five men, a tiny sub and a massive search

Episode Date: June 22, 2023

Canadian and U.S. Coast Guard officials are undertaking a desperate search in a vast swath of the North Atlantic, after five men in a small sub embarked on a risky dive to the wreck of the Titanic, 3,800 metres below the surface. Passengers each paid $250,000 for a spot in the cramped submersible, which has no chairs, one small portal, a consumer-grade gaming controller to operate the vessel, and a limited amount of oxygen to sustain life. On this episode, Timothy Bella, a national reporter with the Washington Post, shares the latest details of the search, the expedition that’s gone awry, and the company offering the pricey opportunity for tourists to see the Titanic for themselves, OceanGate. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Saroja Coelho. A massive search effort has been underway in the North Atlantic since Sunday, around the spot where the Titanic sank in 1912. And that's no coincidence.

The missing vessel is a small submersible with five people on board, and it was diving to the Titanic's wreck, which is nearly 4,000 meters underwater. The company, OceanGate, offers trips in the sub down to the famous wreck. It takes your breath away when you first see it. All of a sudden, it's right there, and it's real. It's no longer in a book. It's no longer just something in your imagination or something you tried to picture. It's the real ship. But OceanGate's sub, the Titan, lost contact with the surface an hour and 45 minutes

after it slipped beneath the waves of the Atlantic. We begin with an urgent search and rescue operation that is currently underway in the Atlantic Ocean. Search teams from the U.S. and Canada are racing against time. The clock is ticking for five people who went missing underneath the Atlantic. Officials say the sub had enough oxygen to keep the crew and passengers alive for 96 hours. But at roughly the time that this episode lands in your podcast feeds, that time has passed. Timothy Bella has been covering the search for the Titans since it began on Sunday. He's a national reporter with the Washington Post. Joining me now

with the details of this story. Hi, Timothy. Hi, how's it going today? Well, I think everybody's very consumed with this story. It is terrifying. It's fascinating. I want to humanize it for a moment and just ask you about who is on board. Yeah, so in the days since this started, we have found out much more about who these people are. There is Hamish Harding, who is a British businessman. There is Hazada Dawood, who is a British Pakistani businessman who's on board with his 19-year-old son, Suleiman.

There is Paul Henry Nargalat, who is a long-time Titanic explorer and also a French diver. And the fifth person is actually Stockton Rush, who is the CEO of Ocean Gate Expeditions, the company that owns the Poveria vessel that everyone has been searching for since Sunday. So they come from money and enjoy adventure. And the story has just been so captivating. Captivating is right. Every single detail, it feels like the press is absolutely holding on to. You just mentioned that the search has been underway since Sunday afternoon.

That's when communication with the sub was lost. What do we know about who is taking part in the search? It's really been an incredible effort so far from the U.S. Coast Guard to the Canadian Coast Guard with aircraft, with sonar equipment from all along the East Coast. And this has just been a 24-7 operation in an area that is so wide right now. The search area has stretched out to over twice the size of Connecticut now. So it's been an extensive effort so far, and it's one that has just been nonstop since Sunday afternoon. nonstop since Sunday afternoon. It strikes me this ever-growing search area is not then as easy as identifying where the Titanic is and trying to figure out where the Titan sub is in relation to it, that it could have floated or rolled or even come to the surface somewhere. Is that the thinking about why the space keeps growing? Yes, it's still unclear why the space keeps growing.

I know when the submersible plant down there, vast area that spans hundreds of miles. But the Coast Guard has emphasized that they are holding out hope. So a couple of things. One, I think when you're in the middle of a search and rescue case, you always have hope. That's why we're doing what we do. There is the company that's responsible for the sub involved here as well. What's their role in the search? So Ocean Gate Expeditions has been conducting these Titanic missions for the last decade or so. Titanic was amazing.

Totally enjoyable experience. You can't believe that you're there this is a remarkable event in my life you can lose track it's so legendary that it's real this is feasible and they are expensive journeys cost people 250 000 and fifty thousand dollars each to go on this eight-day expedition down some twelve thousand thirteen thousand feet to explore the wreckage of the titanic itself and ever since sunday the company has been cooperating with uh authorities both in the u.s and canada and and has obviously given the support to families of those missing, including its own CEO, Stockton Rush. We're recording this on Wednesday afternoon.

As you and I are speaking, the search is continuing. And one of the reports that we've been hearing is that there was a banging sound in the area where the sub disappeared. What do you know about that? Yeah, so the Canadian forces purported early on Wednesday that there was a sonar purport of banging noises coming from the North Atlantic and that all of the search and rescue efforts were being directed to that area. The Coast Guard has not specified exactly where in that 900 mile stretch. And the Coast Guard has emphasized they don't know if the sounds they heard are actually coming from that vessel. With respect to the noises specifically,

we don't know what they are, to be frank with you. The P3 detected noises. That's why they're up there. That's why they're doing what they're doing. That's why they put sonar buoys in the water. The good news is, what I can tell you is we're searching in the area where the noises were detected, and we'll continue to do so. Given that new information, rescue teams have put all of their efforts toward those banning sounds in hope of finding this vessel before the oxygen runs out or is expected to run out by early Thursday morning. you've been speaking about this big rescue that's underway and all of these resources but do we have an idea about some of the equipment that's being used here what kind of resources are going into the actual physical search yeah it's a combination of things in the air. There are a number of different aircraft on the surface itself. There are other ships, other sonar being deployed and other equipment that is actually going down several thousand feet in order to pick up any sign of any life, any noise possible, because you have to think this is a 22 foot long

vessel that is somewhere in the North Atlantic, as far down as 13,000 feet. I hate to use this term, but it really is finding a needle in a haystack in some ways, just because there's so much space and so much area to actually cover here that given that this is a race against time and the available oxygen hours they have left here, it's going to take so much to pull this off. So it really has been an incredible effort so far from the United States and Canada in this search, but more is needed and they are still searching. I want to give people a chance to try and imagine the space that these five people are inside of. I saw a video from Inside the Sub and I want to try and recreate that. Could you describe where it is we think they're sitting right now?

Sure. So for passengers who have been inside of this Titan, including a correspondent from CBS News, he had described it as being in a minivan without seats. When they seal you in, and they do seal you in, by the way, there are 18 bolts that seal you in from the outside. It's a one-of-a-kind. And as such, there were parts of it that seemed to me to be less sophisticated than I was guessing. You know, you drive it with a PlayStation video controller. Put that vehicle about 12,000 feet underwater and a couple of computer screens.

And there's just one round window in there. It's very tight quarters. And you better understand that when you are several thousand feet underwater. understand that when you are several thousand feet underwater. It's also a bit surprising when you get that video tour of the inside to find out that there is a game controller and other bits of technology in there for moving this vessel that feel like pretty typical consumer grade equipment that anybody could go down to the store and buy. When I say game controller, I mean an actual console from gaming. Taking a completely new approach to the sub design, and it's all run with this game controller

and these touchscreens. So if you want to go forward, you press forward. If you want to go back, you go back, turn left, turn right, go down, go up. And it's Bluetooth, so I can hand it to anybody. And it's meant for a 16-year-old to throw it around and super durable. We keep a couple of spares on board. Yeah. I'm surprised you, given how cutting edge this sub is supposed to be and the immense danger that people are in when they're inside of it. Yes and no. Yes, in that you see a controller that you can buy at a GameStop or on Amazon for 30 or 40 bucks.

And you're like, what is going on? And then on the other hand, more government agencies, at least in the United States, have adopted these video game controllers in other ways and other projects. Now, it is kind of different when it comes to a project like this in a private company that is engaging in a submersible tour like OceanGate is, but it isn't super rare to see that. But still, it has gotten a lot of people talking, at least online, of why this company that is charging people so much money, why did they just kind of take a shortcut here? Let's talk about the company then for a moment, because it is a luxury trip that is being offered for an enormous sum of money. What can you tell me about OceanGate? OceanGate has been in operation for about a decade now, and they have operated these annual trips down to the wreckage to explore the Titanic. Stockton Rush said last year that

many of these people who take on these tours are really hardcore Titanic enthusiasts. Some have mortgaged their own homes and others have just saved up money over decades for this one chance, this one opportunity to be there, to be that close to history. We have a number of nautical archaeologists and deep-sea marine biologists as well as our own crew that will go. There are five individuals can go on each dive. Three of those are what we call mission specialists. So those are the folks who help finance the mission, but they are also active participants. So why we're not a fan of the tourist term is because these are crew members, and we teach them how to operate the sonar, how to operate the communication systems.

It really does appeal to a certain type of person. I can tell you in the case of two of the passengers, they are billionaires, so they've got some money to actually toss around here. But the company itself is really interesting because it did open itself up to some criticism when it comes to the safety precautions that were actually taken when Stockton Rush participated in an interview last year on CBS News. So this is not your grandfather's submersible. We only have one button. That's it. It should be like an elevator. You know, it shouldn't take a lot of skill.

He openly acknowledged that his biggest worry was if, for some reason, his vessel could not make it back up to the actual surface. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years.

I've talked to millions of people, and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo, 50%. That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a

financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. I have to ask a question that really isn't intended to come across as cold or with any kind of dismissal of the value of life here. But this is a high-risk trip, and there are immense public resources being put into a rescue in a space that you've described as ever-growing. Has there been a response to that, to the amount of investment of time and energy that's going in to finding five people who arguably have placed themselves in enormous danger? in enormous danger. I don't think that element has specifically come up as much. And I only say that because I do think there has been so much fascination with this story and the efforts in finding these people and hoping that they are alive in a situation that a lot of people think is an impossible one. Now, I do think if this does

change from a search and rescue mission into a recovery mission, and if these people are presumed dead, you might start to hear more and more of the criticism that could come along with spending an exorbitant amount of money on a search for a ship that is definitely lost and could be forever lost. There's a story about a lawsuit that took place in 2018 that's now catching our attention again. A former sub pilot who was also the director of marine operations for Ocean Gate at the time flagged safety issues and concerns. And then he was promptly fired. What do you know about that? issues and concerns. And then he was promptly fired. What do you know about that? Yeah. So this came up when David Lockridge, who claimed that Ocean Gate profused to actually pay a manufacturer to build a viewport that would meet the required depth of more than 13,000 feet.

And Lockridge said in court filings that paying passengers would not be aware or informed of this. Now, Ockridge and Ocean Gates settled that lawsuit that same year. But given everything that has come up with the submersible missing and the questions surrounding safety, it has only raised more concerns about what this company was doing and who was there in terms of any type of oversight. I'd like to be remembered as an innovator. I think it was General MacArthur said, you're remembered for the rules you break. And, you know, I've broken some rules to make this. I think I've broken them with logic and good engineering behind me.

The carbon fiber and titanium, there's a rule you don't do that. Well, I did. It's picking the rules that you break that are the ones that will add value to others and add value to society. At the same time that we're learning all of these extra details about the safety, about what happened, we've also heard about the price of this trip. It's widely reported that for the passengers, a trip on the Titan costs a quarter of a million dollars. What does a person get for that enormous price tag? They get an eight-day expedition in the middle of an ocean and just hand themselves over to a beauty of nature

in a way that a lot of people don't get to experience. Now, there is food on board, there is water and other beverages, but it's hard going to the bathroom on there. I mean, there's a makeshift bathroom set up there and it's kind of gross if I'm being honest. So we're coming into the sub. This is the only toilet available on a deep diving submersible. Best seat in the house. You can look out the viewport. We put a privacy screen in, turn up the music, and it's very popular.

You get the experience of being super close to history with a company that afforded this, appeared to not have huge issues. And I think if you are a nerd who just loves this subject, there is no price too high to actually go down there. What does Ocean Gate say about the purpose of these trips? Is there any scientific or research value here? Or is this purely a sightseeing tourist experience for people who can afford it? I would say it means more toward being a sightseeing experience for those who have these deep pockets. It sounds like there's a real thrill-seeking element here, you know, taking this tiny vessel into the deep, deep waters. Oh, for sure. I mean, even if you look at a couple of people on board, These are the real seekers who love adventure.

In the case of the former French Navy commander who was on board, he's gone down to the Titanic wreckage multiple times. One challenge that I'm understanding here is that the actual operating of the craft or any deep sea submersible is communication under that kind of water, under that kind of pressure. If everything is working properly, how would Titan normally communicate with the ship at the surface? Yeah, so there's not a lot of ways a submersible can actually communicate with another research vessel at the surface. But the best way has always kind of been what's called these acoustic calls. And that involves a lot of sonar to actually going back and forth. And it's a sophisticated way to actually get that message across without any wires. And I know in the case

of the Titan, if they did lose comms after about an hour and 45 minutes, and according to other people who have been aboard that vessel, that's not irregular. As the sub descends, and again, you're going down, you know four kilometers as you get you know it's really at several hundred feet you begin to lose all ability to uh you know there's no light obviously but you lose ability to communicate as well so there's no gps and so you're restricted to text messaging and the text messaging is incredibly slow and the ship on the surface is trying to locate you, triangulating various signals that it's getting to try and figure out where you are. But it's very, very difficult to

do that at the depths that you're at. In this case, they understood that the comms were in really rough shape. And we soon understood that this vessel was totally lost. And it was a race against time, and it's been a sprint ever since. Do you get the sense that a disaster like this could give people a moment of pause, that affluent adventurers might think twice before signing up for something as dangerous as this? I think it probably will, just because it's rare to have something like this that has captured people the way that it has. I know we often hear about hikers who climb Mount Everest or people who take on extreme sports or go skydiving. people who take on extreme sports or go skydiving. In this case, though, it's really striking just because of the history involved, the money involved, the fact that some of the safety measures have now been called into question. It's kind of going to be an interesting case study of how this incident and how this story has gripped the whole world so far and how that is going to affect not just tourism,

but this industry as a whole when it comes to submersibles and exploring Titanic wreckage or anything in general involving a submersible. The picture that you've given us is a pretty grim one, especially as the clock is counting down. As I said, we're speaking on Wednesday. We go to air with this on Thursday. What are the possibilities for the outcome of this story? Where do you see this landing for these five people? of this story? Where do you see this landing for these five people? Well, for these five people and their families, I really do hope that they are found and are found before their oxygen runs out. By the time this is out, people will know if the vessel has been found in time or what the next steps will be. And I just fear for the worst here. Just on a personal level, I do. Just speaking as a person instead of as a journalist, I do think it's going to take a miracle in a lot of ways.

As a journalist, I do think it's going to take a miracle in a lot of ways. And I believe in miracles. I do. But I just hope it happens because as of now, it's not looking great. Tim, thank you so much for spending some time with me and explaining to me what's going on in this very difficult story. Thank you so much. And that's it for today. I'm Saroja Coelho. This has been FrontBurner.

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