The Titan submersible, created by OceanGate, imploded on June 18 during an attempt to explore the Titanic wreckage. Aboard the submersible were five individuals, including the CEO of OceanGate. In an effort to save those five lives, an estimated $1,200,000 million was spent by the United States government. This has raised many questions regarding how ethical the submersible was, and how deep sea explorations will be impacted in the future.
The five men aboard the Titan each paid $250,000 to explore the wreckage. The cost of the search and rescue mission was more expensive than the tickets together. The price paid by the United States government is rumored to be $1.2 million, yet the exact amount has not been released to the public. The U.S. was joined by Canada, France, and the United Kingdom. Additionally, many private companies contributed remote-operated vehicles, potentially requiring the Department of Defense to pay them. Many citizens believe that the bill should not be paid by the government, but rather by OceanGate, the company responsible for the wreck. Paul Zukunft, the retired admiral of the U.S. Coast Guard from 2014 to 2018 announced, “If a private citizen goes out, and his boat sinks…We go out and recover him. We don’t stick them with the bill after the fact.” This portrays the ethical consideration of whether responsibility for the wreck should lead to financial compensation as well.
Furthermore, the Titan received an influx of attention from news outlets and social media, which sparked fury in the public. On June 18, just five days prior to the implosion of the Titan, a boat with 750 migrants from Libya overturned. This is estimated to have resulted in the death of 600 individuals. The Greek government was unable to assist the refugees in time, partly due to the difficulty in towing a distressed boat. The public felt this tragedy did not receive as much widespread coverage as the Titan submersible.
This raised the debate of whether the lives of five wealthy people were more significant compared to those of 600 people. Professor Laleh Khalili stated, “A libertarian billionaire ethos of ‘we are above all laws, including physics’ took the Titan down. And the unequal treatment of this and the migrant boat catastrophe is unspeakable.” Many others weighed in about the urgency of rescuing the lives of five wealthy individuals versus the distressed migrants, including former President Barack Obama. Obama expressed his distaste at the fact that the Titan received more publicity than the migrant boat. In addition to receiving more publicity, the Titan also had a more extensive search and rescue operation.
However, others believe that the efforts put forth to rescue the Titan were entirely justifiable. The Canadian minister of fisheries, oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard, Joyce Murray, explained, “There is nothing too much. We just need to do what we can. These are human beings, these are human lives, and we need to do what we can to save them.” This debate over the circumstances surrounding the submersible proves to be a point of contention for the future. OceanGate has suspended all future explorations since the implosion. The exact cause of the failure is still being investigated by the Canadian government. While the future of OceanGate’s explorations is unknown, it is clear that more expeditions will continue to explore what lies under the sea.
