![OceanGate Titan submersible]()
Next time your wife tries to question your ratchet straps, just show her this picture.
It's been over a year since an ill-fated submersible imploded while on a trip to visit the wreckage of the Titanic, setting off a multi-national search for the vessel and killing everyone onboard.
The submersible, named the Titan, was owned by OceanGate Explorations, a private company that operated trips to the wreckage of the Titanic for up to $250,000 per passenger. Five people were aboard the vessel when it left on Sunday, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British explorer Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year old son, Suleman, and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
OceanGate came under heavy criticism following the disaster after more and more information was revealed about their...well, lax safety protocols.
In a 2022 report by the CBC, the OceanGate founder and CEO gave a tour of the Titan, revealing the bare-bones interior that holds five people in a space about the size of a minivan. The submersible was also controlled by a Logitech video game controller and featured lights from Camping World.
Rush often bragged about the company's ability to pull off the expeditions in an experimental vessel that hadn't been approved by government regulators, which he considered red tape that only served as a barrier to innovation.
But many people had raised red flags about the Titan, and this week the US Coast Guard is conducting hearings into the disaster and the company responsible for it.
During the hearings, photos were released showing the wreckage of the Titan embedded in the ocean floor. And one thing that folks online were quick to notice: A ratchet strap, still wrapped tightly around the submersible.
https://twitter.com/fuckitimarobot/status/1836556648879399316
Of course the integrity of the ratchet strap probably doesn't come as any surprise to anybody out there who's ever given one a tug and said "that's not going anywhere" as they admired their work.
https://twitter.com/drsuffy/status/1836801923971752399
But still, if I'm getting ready to board a submersible that's going to take me miles down into the ocean and I see it's held together by ratchet straps, I think I would reconsider getting on. Not that I don't trust the ratchet strap (obviously those have proven to be effective), but if they're using ratchet straps, who knows what else they're using to hold the thing together.
https://twitter.com/dmarknewman/status/1836855073697071598
