As an international search continued for a vessel that disappeared after setting out for the underwater wreckage of the Titanic, a man who was one of the submersible company's first customers characterized a dive he made to the site two years ago as a 'kamikaze operation.'
After Washington state-based OceanGate announced its own operation a year later, he jumped at the chance, paying $110,000 for a dive in 2019 that fell through when the first submersible didn't survive testing.
"Imagine a metal tube a few meters long with a sheet of metal for a floor. You can't stand. You can't kneel. Everyone is sitting close to or on top of each other," Loibl said. "You can't be claustrophobic." The dive was repeatedly delayed to fix a problem with the battery and the balancing weights. In total, the voyage took 10.5 hours.
He described Rush as a tinkerer who tried to make do with what was available to carry out the dives, but in hindsight, he said, "it was a bit dubious."The OceanGate submersible carrying Rush, Nargeolet, a British adventurer and two members of a Pakistani business family disappeared Sunday after setting out for the wreckage of the famed ship, which struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew.
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