Global Courant
Pelagic Research Services CEO Ed Cassano got emotional Friday as he described the intense efforts to save the five people aboard the missing Titan submarine.
The company held a press conference at its headquarters in East Aurora, NY shortly after returning home from 10 days on the ocean involved in a search that caught the world’s attention.
Cassano spoke of the moment on June 18 when they realized the submarine had probably suffered a catastrophic implosion, inevitably killing all five men on board.
“By 12 a.m. unfortunately a rescue turned into a recovery,” he said before sighing with tears in his eyes. “We have to apologize. We are still demobilizing. Lots of emotions. People are tired.”
Pelagic Research was called in by OceanGate Expeditions at 5:45 PM that Sunday, shortly after the company realized the submarine had disappeared.
Cassano said they immediately mobilized their team, sending some directly to Newfoundland to be ready for the search, and some to their New York headquarters to prepare their remote-controlled vehicle, Odysseus.
Pelagic loaded his equipment onto C17 aircraft and took off for St. John’s over the course of June 19-20. (Pelagic Research Services)
Monday morning they were at Buffalo Niagara Airport, where they were met by three C-17 aircraft to transport the Odysseus, and the equipment needed to unload it. They arrived in St. John’s on Tuesday and had 70,000 pounds of equipment unloaded from the plane and loaded onto a ship in port within 5½ hours.
They left on Wednesday morning and arrived at the Titanic wreck site on Thursday morning, where they were immediately assigned to lead the underwater search.
They were surrounded by other ships, which were only 75 meters away from the huge ship Deep Energy.
The Odysseus 6K ROV takes to the water off Newfoundland in search of the submarine Titan. (Pelagic Research Services/Facebook)
Cassano said Deep Energy lost an ROV before they got to the scene, pushing it past its maximum depth capability. The Titanic is in nearly 4,000 feet of water and the Deep Energy ROV has a rating of 2,700.
“We pushed some things,” Cassano said of the limits they faced. “Everyone was pushing some things on this mission.”
The Odysseus was in the water at 5:30 a.m. NT, and Cassano said it didn’t take long to see the first pieces of the Titan’s wreckage.
What the rescue could have looked like
Cassano said they were prepared for four scenarios – ranging from the Titan getting stuck on the ocean floor to total destruction.
However, they entered the water fully prepared to save the ship. The crew had attached a lifting mechanism to the core of the Odysseus, which allowed them to hold the submarine if it was found intact.
“The plan was to seize the Titan,” he said. “Then we would start attaching beacons. We had extra beacons with us, so if we lost her, other resources could follow her. And then we would attach this heavy lift capability to the submarine. At that point we would start to put away .”
The Titan submarine, piloted by OceanGate Expeditions to explore the wreckage of the sunken SS Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland, dives in an undated photo. OceanGate Expeditions/Handout via REUTERS NO RESALE. NO ARCHIVES. THIS IMAGE IS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. (OceanGate Expeditions/Handout/Reuters)
The Odysseus would carry the Titan up about 10,000 feet, after which the other ROVs involved in the search would jump in to help. The Deep Energy – a ship that normally lays pipes on the seabed – would then use its heavy lifting line and pull the Titan to the surface.
Unfortunately it has all been for naught. The Titan is believed to have imploded on Sunday, before anyone had been called to the rescue.
Pelgaic and OceanGate knew each other
The search was made all the more serious by the fact that many of those involved knew each other.
The deep-sea exploration community is small, Cassano told reporters.
“We are very sad that we were unable to recover a viable submarine, but otherwise the system performed,” Cassano said. “There are definitely things we’ll think about along the way, but we haven’t had time for that yet.”
Pieces of Titan submarine disembarked in NL
Crews were seen in St. John’s early Wednesday unloading pieces from the Titan submarine, which was destroyed in a deadly deep-sea implosion near the Titanic’s wreckage.
He declined to comment on what he thought of OceanGate’s experimental approach — the fact that they have not submitted to a peer-reviewed certification process, despite charging passengers a $250,000 fee.
“I have no opinion on that,” he said. “Explorers, people who want to be on the ocean and go to the depths, it’s very engaging. We certainly share those desires. Our whole company is designed to support research and science at depth. There was a passion and fun for exploration .”
As for what the rescue and recovery mission will cost – Cassano had only two words.
“A lot of.”
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