OceanGate said it has broken yet another deep-sea diving record, by transporting a crew of four on an abyssal descent of nearly 4,000 meters.
With only a handful of submersibles in the world that can reach these depths, OceanGate’s Titan is said to be the only submersible capable of carrying five people beyond a depth of 3,000 meters.
“ This dive was another important step toward opening deep-sea exploration to more people and places. We are developing technologies and designing submersibles and infrastructure that is making underwater exploration more accessible than ever before .” said Stockton Rush , CEO and Chief Pilot, OceanGate.
The dive, which was validated by a representative from Lloyd’s Register, took two hours to reach the ocean floor at approximately 2.34 miles beneath the surface outside Little Harbor near the Great Abaco Island in The Bahamas.
In addition to submersible pilot, Stockton Rush, Joel Perry, President, OceanGate Expeditions, Karl Stanley, owner of Roatan Institute of Deepsea Exploration and Petros Mathioudakis, Field Technician, 2G Robotics, joined the record-breaking dive.
The dive crew spent an hour capturing 4K images and testing the 2G Robotics underwater laser scanner while conducting a survey of the ocean floor. The images, video and data captured will be used as real-world calibration for the Titanic Survey Expedition that OceanGate Expeditions has planned for June through August this year.
“ This mission was a life-changing experience for me, and it was incredibly exciting to be part of this record-breaking crew ,” said Petros Mathioudakis , 2G Robotics Field Technician. “ The dive provided hands-on experience ahead of the Titanic expedition, and the information we gathered throughout the dive will help streamline how we capture data, perform scans, and catalog data while at sea this summer .”
Beginning June 2019, Titan will transport adventurous citizen explorers to a depth of 3800 meters to explore the RMS Titanic during the first manned mission to the historic site since 2005.