The first fatal accident aboard a deep-sea tourist submersible is sure to prompt calls for more safety rules, but industry experts say any new measures may be impossible given the international nature of the business. Reuters.

• How to explain the “catastrophic implosion” of the submarine “Titan” / Chronology of the tragedy that happened in a fraction of a millisecond

The tragedy of the submarine Titan, which exploded during an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic, is an isolated case, and experts point out that the manufacturer chose not to certify the ship in violation of industry conventions.

All five people aboard the Titan, built by OceanGate Inc of Everett, Wash., have died, authorities said Thursday, five days after the submersible went missing in the Atlantic and set off a sensational search race of the whole world

Industry experts say these are the first known casualties in more than 60 years of civilian deep-sea diving.

In the ocean, where the Titan operates along with other submersibles, there are no regulations or governments that control international waters.

Filmmaker James Cameron, who became a deep-sea explorer in the 1990s while exploring and filming the Oscar-winning blockbuster Titanic, co-owns Triton Submarines. He says he would support a regulation requiring vessel certification, but that legislation would have to be passed in every country where submersibles operate.

“If they’re carrying passengers, whether they’re scientific observers or citizen researchers, they have to be certified,” said Cameron, who is part of a small and tight-knit underwater vehicle community known as the Manned Underwater Vehicle (MUV). industry. ).

The owner of the Titan was warned about the certification

OceanGate did not respond to questions about its decision to forego certification by third parties in the industry, such as the US Bureau of Navigation or the European company DNV.

Of the 10 submersibles in the world capable of diving as deep as the Titanic — nearly 4,000 meters from the surface — only OceanGate’s Titan has not been certified, said Will Konen, chairman of the Society for Marine Technology’s Manned Submersibles Committee. (MTS) viewing group.

Most tourist submersibles explore coral reefs and other natural phenomena at depths of 500 meters or less.

In 2018, Konen wrote a letter warning Stockton Rush, OceanGate’s chief executive, that Titan’s refusal of third-party certification could have a “disastrous” result. Rush, the pilot of the Titan, is one of those killed in the submersible’s accident.

US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said at a news conference Thursday announcing the explosion of the submarine Titan that “questions about the rules that apply and standards will certainly be a focus of future reviews.”

Absence of production rules

Ofer Ketter, president of SubMerge, an underwater operations and consulting company based in Costa Rica, says he has reassured his clients that what happened to Titan is unlikely to happen in the more hospitable depths most explored by private submersibles. .

He says regulators can now focus on operations — how and when such vessels sink — but no government currently regulates the production of private submersibles.

“Facts are facts” when it comes to the experimental path OceanGate has taken, he says.

“Professionals in this field are sitting at home right now, holding their heads, saying, ‘What the hell, how do we explain this to the world, how do we separate what most of us do from what OceanGate did?'” Ketter said. , writes News.ro with reference to Reuters.

Justin Manley, president of the Marine Technology Society, says the OceanGate incident could lead to increased surveillance.

“It’s not that regulations don’t matter, but they probably won’t be able to impose themselves on the industry,” Manley said.

They are looking for answers at the bottom of the ocean

Experts continue to explore the ocean floor to find out how the “catastrophic implosion” killed all five passengers of the Titan. Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) will be used to map the wreckage field.

Officials did not know whether there was a devastating explosion when the submersible stopped communicating about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.