OceanGate adviser rips US rescue response — but firm faces claim it took 8 hours to raise alarm
An adviser for OceanGate Expeditions blamed government bureaucracy for allegedly slowing down the rescue effort for the missing Titanic tourist submersible — but authorities claimed the company waited eight hours before reporting the disappearance.
Attorney David Concannon, who pulled out of Sunday’s dive at the last minute, told NewsNation that the equipment and crew needed to rescue the five missing passengers cannot be deployed until the Coast Guard authorizes the mission.
“They are mobilized. They’re sitting on the tarmac, ready to go,” Concannon said of the crew who surveyed the Titanic last year. “This equipment has been on the tarmac for hours.
“When I communicate with the US government, I get ‘out of office’ replies, not from everyone, but from key people that have a signoff on this,” he added. “That’s unacceptable. I don’t want to discourage the government officials that are helping because they’re doing their jobs, but we need to do it quicker.”
The US Coast Guard has repeatedly stated that its main focus at the moment is to first locate the submersible before deploying any vessel capable of rescuing those who vanished 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
Officials also told the Daily Mail on Tuesday that it took OceanGate Expeditions nearly eight hours to report its missing five-man tourist submersible after it lost contact with the vessel.
OceanGate Expeditions, a private company that allows tourists to visit the infamous shipwreck for $250,000, submerged at around 8 a.m. Sunday, the Mail reports.
At about 9:45 a.m., the submersible lost contact with its accompanying ship, the Polar Prince, and it wasn’t until 5:40 p.m. that officials received word of the missing Titan sub, Coast Guard sources told the Mail.
Tourist submersible exploring Titanic wreckage disappears in Atlantic Ocean
What we know
A submersible on a pricey tourist expedition to the Titanic shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean has vanished with likely only four days’ worth of oxygen. The US Coast Guard said the small submarine began its journey underwater with five passengers Sunday morning, and the Canadian research vessel that it was working with lost contact with the crew about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.
It was later found that a top-secret team with the US Navy detected the implosion of the Titan submersible on Sunday, but did not stop search efforts due because the evidence was “not definitive” and a decision was made to “make every effort to save the lives on board.”
Who was on board?
The family of world explorer Hamish Harding confirmed on Facebook that he was among the five traveling in the missing submarine. Harding, a British businessman who previously paid for a space ride aboard the Blue Origin rocket last year, shared a photo of himself on Sunday signing a banner for OceanGate’s latest voyage to the shipwreck.
Also onboard were Pakistani energy and tech mogul Shanzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman, 19; famed French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush.
- Missing Titanic sub live updates
- Debris discovered near Titanic site during frantic search for missing crew on OceanGate sub
- Daughter of missing Titanic diver remains hopeful: ‘I think we have to trust’ search crews
- Titanic tourist Hamish Harding’s family slams OceanGate for delay in reporting missing sub
- Coast Guard knew Titan sub imploded Sunday, but continued search anyway — here’s why
What’s next?
“We’re doing everything we can do to locate the submersible and rescue those on board,” Rear Adm. John Mauger told reporters. “In terms of the hours, we understood that was 96 hours of emergency capability from the operator.
Coast Guard officials said they are currently focusing all their efforts on locating the sub first before deploying any vessel capable of reaching as far below as 12,500 feet where the Titanic wreck is located.
Mauger, first district commander and leader of the search-and-rescue mission, said the US was coordinating with Canada on the operation.
The debris recovered from the US Coast Guard’s Titan submersible search site early Thursday included “a landing frame and a rear cover from the submersible.”
After search efforts to recover the stranded passengers proved futile, and bits of debris from the submersible were found, it was decided that the sub imploded, which correlated with an anomaly picked up by the US Navy in the same area.
The Coast Guard later reported that all 5 passengers were confirmed dead, and rescue efforts were halted.
OceanGate and the Coast Guard did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for additional information.
News of the delay comes as authorities race against the clock to rescue the five passengers, with OceanGate noting that the submersible has at most 96 hours, or four days, of oxygen installed.
With that time ticking down, Concannon urged officials to speed up the search and have rescue-capable submarines at the location.
“We have people whose lives are at stake. You have to move. We have assets that are ready to go and they’re sitting and waiting,” he said.
Canadian and US officials have launched a full-scale search of the area where the submersible was last located, with planes and ships deployed to look for the vessel.
Rear Adm. John Mauger, who is overseeing the search-and-rescue mission for the missing submersible, told reporters Monday that the Canadian Coast Guard has deployed multiple sonar buoys capable of detecting the submersible even at the bottom of the Atlantic.
Mauger has also acknowledged that it is possible that the Titan might have gotten stuck in the 111-year-old wreckage of the Titanic lying 12,500 feet deep in the ocean.
Experts have cautioned that few craft can reach that depth, and even if they could, it’s unlikely they could attach to the submersible and tow it up to the ocean’s surface.
If the submersible is located at the wreckage site and pulled to safety, it would go down in history as the deepest-ever rescue mission.
