One of the few subs capable of taking crews as deep as Titan is owned by an NZ resident
Friday, 23 June 2023
The five passengers aboard the missing Titan submersible have died, US officials confirmed on Friday morning (NZ time).
Titan was taking tourists to see the wreck of the Titanic.
Debris from the craft was found on Friday morning.
Only a few submersibles in the world were capable of reaching the ocean floor: Titan and a craft known as DSV Limiting Factor.
One of the few crewed submersibles that can dive as deep as Titan’s destination is owned by a New Zealand resident.
Only a handful of subs in the world were capable of taking people far enough into the ocean to visit the Titanic – one was Titan, the other is owned by tech billionaire and Gabe Newell, who holds NZ residency.
DSV Limiting Factor is a deep ocean submersible, used for crewed exploration missions at the bottom of the sea.
It is one of only two submersibles, the other being Titan, that offer commercial trips up to 11,000m (36000ft) below the ocean surface. Other submersibles are almost exclusively used for research or military purposes, or cannot travel as deep.
Since October 2022, Limiting Factor has been owned by Newell, who was visiting New Zealand when the coronavirus pandemic closed the country’s borders in March 2020 and later became a resident.
**READ MORE:
* Live: Debris found in search for Titan submersible missing at site of Titanic
* Missing Titanic submersible: Ex-US Navy captain explains how 'difficult' the rescue operation is
* What are submersibles, how do they communicate, and what may have gone wrong?
**
Why does tech billionaire Gabe Newell own a submersible?
Most think of Gabe Newell as the CEO of one of the world's largest PC gaming distributors.
He is chief executive and co-founder of Valve – which developed games such as Counter Strike, Half-Life and Team Fortress – and owns game distributor Steam. Newell is worth US$4 billion (about NZ$6.4b), according to Forbes.
He also owns an oceanic exploration firm called Inkfish.
Newell purchased the DSV Limiting Factor, along with its research vessel and sonar system, from ocean explorer Victor Vescovo in October 2022.
It was not for personal use, but for Inkfish, which will dedicate the system to a multi-year scientific mission to continue explorations of the world’s deepest, unexplored areas of the oceans.
Limiting Factor is commercially certified for extensive and repeated dives at full ocean depth and has been extensively used for oceanographic exploration.
How far down is the Titanic?
When the RMS Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, the ship came to rest at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean, about 3800 metres (12,500ft) below the ocean surface.
The world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, would only reach 828m (2717ft) into the ocean from sea level.
At 3800m below sea level, you can expect pressures about 380 times greater than the atmospheric pressure we’re used to on the surface of Earth.
The US Coast Guard said on Friday morning (NZ time) that debris discovered by rescuers was consistent with a “catastrophic implosion of the vessel.”
The submersible Titan was reported overdue on Sunday night (local time) about 700km south of St John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre.
Newell now lives back in the United States and has been contacted for comment.