Rob McCallum, a veteran submersibles expert who started bringing tourists to Titanic wreckage in the 2000s using Russian submarines – and who was among industry members voicing concerns about OceanGate before the catastrophe – said that submersibles jettison weight to control their buoyancy.
Submersibles “don’t carry a flight data recorder, and so you are reliant on communications between the submersible and the ship above – unless the log shows a concern from the submersible, then we’ll never know,” said McCallum, who has operated multiple commercial submarines to about 11,000 meters .feature published on 1 July detailed McCallum and other industry members’ efforts to sound the alarm about OceanGate’s vessels.
Worried, given its seemingly crude design and lack of redundant safety features, McCallum told the magazine that “there were multiple points of failure”, including that its control system used Bluetooth. “Every sub in the world has hardwired controls for a reason – that if the signal drops out, you’re not fucked.” Cyclops I got stuck during a shallow-water test dive.
“I know that our engineering-focused, innovative approach flies in the face of the submersible orthodoxy, but that is the nature of innovation,” Rush said. “Titan and its safety systems are way beyond anything currently in use.”