The record-holder for being the youngest person to ever explore the wreck of the Titanic has said he would never have boarded the Titan submersible.
Sebastian Harris descended 12,500 feet to visit the historic wreck with his father G Michael Harris when he was just 13 years old.
Harris, who descended on a Russian Mir II sub with his dad and a pilot for the 12-hour journey, said such trips were ‘inherently dangerous’ and criticised safety aboard the Titan sub, designed by Stockton Rush.
Rush, 61, founded OceanGate in 2009 and was among five people killed when the Titan lost contact on Sunday morning during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic costing $250,000 per ticket.
After a frantic search debris consistent with an implosion was discovered on the sea bed on Thursday, 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic.
It is possible the experimental carbon fibre hull was unable to stand the repeated cycles of pressurisation caused by multiple trips to the sea floor.
Harris said he would never have stepped foot on the sub.
“I can’t say that I would go on it, no,” he told The Sun. "The Mir submersible I went on had several hundred dives logged before we set off.”
He said the tragic events should act as a wakeup call to those willing to spend money on such adventures.
“I think the biggest takeaway from all this is anybody who is interested in this kind of tourism needs to do their due diligence and kind of take their safety into their own hands and have a very clear understanding of what they’re dealing with," he added.
“There’s no blame to be had on the four individuals [aboard the Titan] in any way, shape, or form, but I think if one good thing comes from all this, it’s just like the sinking of the Titanic was super impactful on maritime safety regulations, that something similar happens here too.”
Even in the tried and tested Mir II sub Harris said a hiccup with the oxygen supply caused him to lose consciousness and their sub nearly crashed into the mothership on resurfacing.
“These activities are inherently dangerous. A 13-year-old doesn’t really have a sense of their own morality, so I was blissfully ignorant to a degree, but in different circumstances that could’ve ended in tragedy.”
He criticised the construction of the Titan, which does not have a hatch that can be opened by the crew on surfacing.
He said, “you are placed in an open cylinder and then bolted into place. That isn’t consistent with submersible safety standards and it would’ve made [any potential] rescue very, very challenging.”
In 2018 more that three dozen industry leaders, deep-sea explorers and oceanographers warned Rush in a letter that the company's 'experimental' approach could have ‘catastrophic’ consequences.
The first tourist trip took place in 2021.
The implosion on Sunday killed Stockton Rush alongside French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77; British billionaire businessman Hamish Harding, 58; and British-Pakistani father and son Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman.
The MV Polar Prince, the mothership that towed the doomed underwater vehicle into the Atlantic Ocean before its “catastrophic implosion” returned to port yesterday.
As soon as the boat was secured dockside at the coastal town of St John's, Newfoundland, it was boarded at 8am ET by a team of US and Canadian federal investigators who are now set to determine how the implosion took place.
A coastguard source told the Sunday Mirror: “None of the crew was allowed to disembark until all had been interviewed by investigators.
“Both US and Canadian governments are taking the death of the five men extremely seriously and want to know every detail about how they came to die.”
