Nearly 10 days after the Titanic submersible imploded and killed all five passengers on its journey to the wreckage, the company that operated the vehicle, OceanGate, is still advertising trips to the Titanic shipwreck on its website, as per a report in the Independent.
According to the website, the undersea exploration company is planning two trips to the Titanic next year, from June 12 to June 20 and June 21 to June 29, at a price of $250,000. The cost covers one submersible dive, private lodgings, all necessary training, expedition equipment and all meals while on board.
On the first day, the company said that the passengers would arrive in the seaside city of St. John’s to meet their expedition crew and board the vessel. “(It) will take you to the wreck of the RMS Titanic. You’ll familiarize yourself with life on a working vessel as we begin the 400-nautical-mile-journey to the wreck site.”
As per the outlet, the company had closed these expeditions “indefinitely” after its Chief Executive Officer Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French diving expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son Suleman died when the firm’s sub imploded while on its way to Titanic wreckage.
According to the Independent, the company had advertised a job posting for a sub pilot position on its website as the search operations for the missing sub were going on. It was later removed after the company faced severe backlash.
Recently, experts recovered presumed human remains from what is left of the Titan sub, as per the US Coast Guard. Mangled debris recovered from the small submersible was offloaded in eastern Canada, which brought to an end a difficult search-and-recovery operation.
A debris field was found on the seafloor, 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, which sits more than two miles (nearly four kilometres) below the ocean’s surface and 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.