In 2005 when he was just 13 years old, Sebastian Harris, son of Titanic expedition leader G. Michael Harris, became the youngest person to dive at the site of the infamous Titanic shipwreck .
Together with his father, Harris journeyed 12,850 feet below the surface of the icy North Atlantic Ocean in a Russian Mir II submersible.
In total, the trip took 12 hours – about half of which was spent exploring the wreck of the storied Titanic – and earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The record is still in place today and a plaque placed on the ship’s bridge commemorates the accomplishment.
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing said the young Harris: disaster nearly struck.
He explained: “During our dive, we had a small safety issue. Suddenly our oxygen levels started to drop and I fell unconscious while we were diving down.
“Fortunately my father and our pilot did not experience the same issue, otherwise it may have been fatal, and thankfully we had oxygen meters inside of the sub that were showing lower oxygen levels than normal. So we cranked it up and then I was back in the game.
“But these sorts of small issues can and do happen with regularity, so the certification and safety of these vehicles is so important.
“These activities are inherently dangerous. A 13-year-old doesn’t really have a sense of their own morality, so I was blissfully ignorant to a degree, but in different circumstances that could’ve ended in tragedy.”
In a discussion with the US Sun recently, Harris theorized that the sub – named Titan, and created by OceanGate Expeditions – had likely suffered a catastrophic implosion during its descent, killing all those on board instantly. Interestingly, within 48 hours, Harris’ hypothesis was proven correct.
The debris of the imploded vehicle was found by authorities on the ocean floor 1,600ft from the Titanic’s bow that was later confirmed to belong to the missing vessel.
In the days since the sub first lost contact, questions and historic concerns regarding the safety and design of the Titan have come to light.
There have been some concerns since 2018 whether or not OceanGate has been meeting up with standadrds and best practices since it started providing tours of the Titanic site in 2021.
Harris had reportedly stated : ”It seems like maybe they weren’t taking all available precations and I think many folks in the industry will find that incredibly frustrating.
A former staff of OceanGate Expeditions hired to protect the safety of submersibles and their passengers and crew also reportedly years ago claimed that CEO Stockton Rush – who died on the sub – and other company executives ignored warning signs the Titan may be unsafe.
Similar concerns, along with the claim that the company had ignored industry-wide safety standards, were echoed in a letter delivered to the company that same year by the Marine Technology Society.
According to The New York Times, the group warned that the “current ‘experimental’ approach adopted by OceanGate… could result in negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic)”. Unfortunately, the vehicle suffred a catasstrohic implosion.
With more information coming to light still, Harris said it’s his belief that certain corners may have been cut by OceanGate in their design of the Titan.
“It seems like maybe they weren’t taking all available precautions and I think many folks in the industry will find that incredibly frustrating,” he said.
“When you look at the totality of evidence and the construction of the submersible it doesn’t look good for them.
“The Mir I dove in had a dog hatch at the top of the submarine, which from my understanding is there if you need to open it at the surface and there’s enough time for two or three people to get out.
“But what we’re dealing with in the Titan, there’s no dog hatch, you are placed in an open cylinder and then bolted into place.
“That isn’t consistent with submersible safety standards and it would’ve made [any potential] rescue very, very challenging.
“They don’t have the same tracking devices that you would find on a Mir I or Mir II and so it’s very frustrating to see everything that has happened.”
McCallum urged Rush to stop using the sub until an independent body assessed it, emails reportedly obtained by BBC News showed he further warned that Rush may be putting his clients’ lives at risk.
“I think you are potentially placing yourself and your clients in a dangerous dynamic,” he wrote to Rush in March 2018. “In your race to Titanic, you are mirroring that famous catch cry: ‘She is unsinkable'”.
Rush responded that he was “tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation.”
“We have heard the baseless cries of ‘you are going to kill someone’ way too often,” Rush retorted. “I take this as a serious personal insult.”
McCallum reportedly said on numerous occasions he urged the company to seek certification for the Titan before using it for commercial tours.
However, the vessel was never certified or classed. Instead, passengers were asked to sign lengthy waivers, acknowledging the craft’s lack of certification and their chances of death, two ex-passengers told The U.S. Sun.
The tense exchange ended between McCallum and Rush ended after OceanGate’s lawyers threatened legal action against him, he said.
For his part, Harris said he never would’ve stepped foot on the Titan – even at first glance of the vessel. I can’t say that I would go on it, no,” he said. “The Mir submersible I went on had several hundred dives logged before we set off.
“In 2000, my father and some of his colleagues almost had a catastrophic incident when diving the Titanic, but ultimately they were successfully recovered.
“What happened was they basically came up to the surface in very rough seas and the large ship – their main ship – landed on top of the submarine and it was a very bad deal.
“But even in the face of that, I felt safe diving in the Mir submersibles. But I couldn’t get on the Titan.
I don’t know the full specifications of the sub but I understand that it was carbon fiber with basically a six-foot bowl at each end.
“There was no way to get yourself out of the sub, which I’d have an issue with.
“And I just don’t think tourism at these kinds of depths is necessarily warranted.”
Unfortunately, the five passengers aboard the vessel were confirmed dead.
They were named as OceanGate CEO and founder Stockton Rush; British Billionaire Hamish Harding; the legendary French diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet; British-based Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood.
“This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor and the debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel,” said Mauger.
In an interview with the BBC , James Cameron, the director of the 1997 film Titanic who has been to the wreck more than 30 times, also accused Rush and OceanGate of cutting corners.
Cameron claimed that OceanGate didn’t get the Titan certified because they knew it wouldn’t pass the necessary tests.
“I was very suspect of the technology that they were using. I wouldn’t have gotten in that sub,” he said.
“I felt in my bones what had happened. For the sub’s electronics to fail and its communication system to fail, and its tracking transponder to fail simultaneously – sub’s gone.”
Cameron also suggested there was a “terrible irony” in the loss of the Titan and its crew, likening it to the 1912 sinking of the Titanic itself.
