Missing Titanic sub: Live updates on crew killed after ‘catastrophic implosion,’ debris found

After RMS Titanic sank on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic in 1912, governments on both sides of the ocean took a hard look at whether more could have been done to protect the some 2,200 people aboard, including the more than 1,500 who died.

The result was the Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS). Passed in 1914, its framework stands to this day, with many of its rules directly evolving from the Titanic tragedy.

With the implosion of the submersible Titan as it dived down to the wreck of the Titanic this week, killing all five people aboard, experts say there may be a new push for rules governing new high end, big dollar tourism of the kind being practiced by OceanGate Expeditions, the company that ran the Titan.

The unsinkable ship: When the Titanic set sail from Southampton, it was the world’s largest ocean liner, built with state-of-the-art maritime technology that many thought made it unsinkable.

Such was the belief in the Titanic that safety regulations of the day were not updated to keep pace with the technology.

Lessons from Titan: Maritime experts and historians have noted the Titan submersible operated outside of the regulations prompted by the Titanic disaster, and did not need to conform to safety regulations, since it operated in international waters.

While innovators and explorers may push the limits — or even break the rules — for scientific advancement, experts say there should be a higher safety threshold for paying passengers, like three of the dead aboard Titan, and that a rethink of the international rules governing such expeditions may be in order, just as they were re-examined after the Titanic sank.

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