Two engineers behind a 2018 effort to flag concerns about the submersible missing in the North Atlantic say the vessel has not had the design and safety scrutiny typical in their industry.
William Kohnen, president and CEO of the California-based engineering firm Hydrospace Group, says it’s hard to know what went wrong on the Titan submersible because the vessel isn’t classed.
He said in an interview that classification involves a recognized third-party agency reviewing a craft’s design and construction to ensure it has been tested properly and is safe.
He says classification is not required by law, but the Titan’s disappearance on its descent to the Titanic wreck on Sunday may increase pressure to change that.
In a 2019 blog post addressing why Titan was not classed, OceanGate said the classing process can inhibit innovation and does not address piloting errors, which it said are the cause of most marine accidents.
He says the vessel’s disappearance about 700 kilometres off the southeastern coast of Newfoundland Sunday is “horrible.”
“These are literally the things that keep us up at night because we don’t want to be responsible for one of these stories. We take this seriously,” he said of his subsea engineering colleagues. “It’s heartbreaking.”
