Potential Titan passenger says sub was ‘being tossed around pretty roughly on a daily basis’
Arnie Weissman, editor-in-chief of Travel Weekly, had booked a trip on the OceanGate vessel in May. However, his trip was cancelled due to bad weather
The editor-in-chief of Travel Weekly has revealed that the Titan submersible was "being tossed around pretty roughly on a daily basis.” Arnie Weissman, editor-in-chief of Travel Weekly, had booked a trip on the OceanGate vessel in May. However, his trip was cancelled due to bad weather.
Arnie, however, cannot help but wonder if technical concerns led to the trip being cancelled. He recalled in an editorial for Travel Weekly that he had warned late passenger Hamish Harding about the sub, which was coming under daily pressure. The vessel was being towed behind its support ship routinely, instead of being kept on its deck. The vessel even partly sank when the platform where it was being towed got submerged. "He asked me for my impressions of the operation. I told him candidly. He raised his eyebrows," said Arnie.
"I said that I thought many of the problems with my nondive may have arisen because this was the first season that the Titan was being towed behind its support ship rather than being kept on its deck. I said I thought the sub and platform were being tossed around pretty roughly on a daily basis," he wrote. He recalled how OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was concerned about the Titan being tangled in "ghost nets.”
Stockton, along with British billionaire Hamish Harding, French diver Paul Henry Nargeolet, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, after as a result of a catastrophic implosion of the Titan submersible.
After the tragedy, several emails and messages between experts and Stockton went viral after his death, revealing that he dismissed repeated warnings that the submersible was not safe. It has also been reported that Stockton employed college-aged interns to design the electrical systems for the Titan submersible.
Passengers on board the Titan submersible were not referred to as “passengers,” but as “mission specialists” to avoid legal trouble if anyone died, former consultant to OceanGate Rob McCallum told The New Yorker. These customers reportedly paid $250,000 for a place on the Titan.
