Doomed Titan sub had only ‘14% success rate’

OceanGate’s experimental submersible aborted almost 90 per cent of its dives to the Titanic despite its $375,000 ticket price, company documents reveal.

The experimental tourist sub that killed five people in a “catastrophic implosion” only reached Titanic depths 13 times out of its 90 attempts, according to company documents.

The 14 per cent success rate comes despite the whopping ticket price of $A375,000 per passenger on the OceanGate expedition.

In a four-page liability waiver that highlights the possibility of death three times on the first page, passengers diving on the Titan sub are informed only 13 attempts have reached the 3,800-metre depth of the massive shipwreck.

“The experimental submersible vessel has conducted fewer than 90 dives, and 13 of those dives reached the depth of the Titanic,” the waiver reads. “Prior to my participation in the Expedition there have been as few as 13 dives to Titanic depths in the submersible.”

The Titan submersible’s 13 successful dives out of 90 attempts is equivalent to a 14 per cent success rate. Or, another way to look at it, 86 per cent failure rate. Picture: Supplied

The waiver details, published by Insider, described the vessel as “experimental” three times and described several ways passengers could die, including “extreme pressure”, “unpredictable” conditions, and gasses, pure oxygen servicing and high-voltage electrical systems.

The 86 per cent failure rate of the Titan’s 90 attempts to reach the Titanic comes amid new allegations of a cavalier attitude during aborted test dives in the lead-up to its commercial operations.

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush shrugged off the safety concerns of a documentary film cameraman by saying “well, you’re dead anyway”.

“It seemed to almost be a nihilistic attitude toward life or death out in the middle of the ocean,” said Brian Weed, a camera operator for the Discovery Channel’s “Expedition Unknown” documentary series.

Weed and colleague Josh Gates joined a test voyage of the Titan submersible in Puget Sound, Washington, in 2021 as a pre-curser to joining the debut voyage to the Titanic just months later.

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was alleged to have a “cavalier attitude” towards safety concerns. Picture: Supplied

After being locked in the sub, which could only be opened from the outside, Weed asked what would happen if they needed to abort the dive and suddenly surface far from its mothership with only four or five days of oxygen on board.

“What if they don’t find you,” Weed asked Rush, who replied: “Well, you’re dead anyway.”

“It felt like a very strange thing to think,” Weed told Insider, adding that Rush’s point was that, “If you’re out there, and they don’t find you in that many days, you’re just going to die anyway -- it’s over for you, so what does it matter if you can’t get out of the sub on your own”.

The test dive was aborted after a series of mechanical issues, communications problems, and Rush’s apparent “cavalier attitude” to “basic safety”, Weed told the outlet.

OceanGate announced an end of deep-sea expeditions to the wreckage of the Titanic after a catastrophic implosion killed Rush along with British adventurer Hamish Harding, 58; French veteran Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77; British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son Suleman.

All five on board the Titan were killed instantly in a “catastrophic implosion”. Picture: Supplied

Almost three weeks after the experimental Titan submersible crushed all on board, the organisation said that it has “suspended all exploration and commercial operations”.

No further details were given beyond the small red text at the top of the company’s website.

Originally published as Doomed Titan sub had only ‘14% success rate’