UK naval expert and former submarine commander, Ryan Ramsey has called for an end of trips to the wreck of the Titanic.
Mr Ramsey told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that the site was essentially a location where many people had died and as such tourism trips should stop.
When asked about the possible reasons for the catastrophic implosion of the OceanGate submarine this week with the death of five people on board, Mr Ramsey said there were two potential reasons for the implosion – one that there had been a catastrophic failure of the pressure chambers or secondly that the hatch failed which tied in with the fact that there had been constant communications until they stopped suddenly.
The only positive aspect of the finding of debris close to the wreck of the Titanic was that the families of the five men on board would now get some form of closure as would the rescue forces, he said.
“But it's a tragedy and this is the conclusion of that tragedy.” The debris found at the site would now have to be analysed in an effort to discover what happened, he explained. However, it was very unlikely that the bodies could be recovered.
“They probably just need to focus on why this happened and hopefully give closure to the families that way.”
The investigation could offer conclusions and lessons for the wider maritime community, many of whom questioned why such a trip had been allowed to happen.
“Most submersibles and definitely submarines are regulated. They go through really thorough safety checks, very, very stringent maintenance and all that. So unless they're completely capable of sailing and tested and I think in this particular case, just from the literature that's available and footage it appears to have been less regulated than many others.
"And I think that will be the question, not to find blame because that's pointless, but actually to turn around and go 'right, what more can we do to make sure that this is regulated and is safe'?”
When asked if he thought such deep sea dives should be banned, Mr Ramsey said “I'm torn with this because in essence, lots of these events, commercial or otherwise, test the limits of human endurance, pushes our limits a bit. But in this particular case, the Titanic was a graveyard, lots of people died when the ship went down. And I think trips to the Titanic in particular should probably stop.”
