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Titan tragedy: Eerie video shows robot arms salvaging wreck of sunken sub|Watch
The video shows a remotely operated vehicle attaching ropes and equipment to what seems like the end cap of the sunken submersible.
A newly released video by the Marine Board of Investigation shows robot arms picking through the Titan submersible wreckage. The video shows a remotely operated vehicle attaching ropes and equipment to what seems like the end cap of the sunken sub.
The camera of the remote vehicle shows a close-up view of two robot arms at one point, manoeuvring the retrieval equipment. A shark is seen swimming up to the wreck.
An aerial view showed a dust-like cloud erupting with the remotely operated vehicle lifting off the ocean floor. This clip is among several videos and images the Marine Board of Investigation has released in recent days, as part of the Coast Guard’s ongoing public hearing into the 2023 tragedy. The implosion of the sub led to the tragic deaths of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French diver Paul Henry Nargeolet, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman.
The hearing
The new footage was released after a co-founder of OceanGate told the hearing on Monday, September 24, that he hopes the tragedy does not ruin such missions. “This can’t be the end of deep ocean exploration. This can’t be the end of deep-diving submersibles and I don’t believe that it will be,” said Guillermo Sohnlein, who left the company before the tragedy.
OceanGate's former director of marine operations David Lochridge, however, previously testified that the company only wanted to make money. He claimed the company "wanted to be able to qualify a pilot in a day” and alleged that a PlayStation controller was used to operate the sub. He revealed that the Titan was the “only submersible that wasn't fully classed” by safety agencies. Lochridge also criticised late CEO Rush for being unprofessional in the journey, adding that his relationship with the company had "broken down" in 2016, because “maybe came across as the troublemaker" for being outspoken on several issues.
