A German explorer who paid to see the wreck of the Titanic on the missing Titan submarine two years ago has called the voyage a ‘suicide mission’.
Arthur Loibl, 60, dove 12,500 feet to the wreck site in the Atlantic Ocean in August 2021 and said he was ‘incredibly lucky’ to survive.
Her story has echoed much since the Oceangate tourist ship disappeared into the abyss on Sunday, with past reports highlighting how much of the material was bought off the shelf. It was also said to be unproven to dive to the depths required to reach the famous Titanic wreck.
Speaking to German tabloid Bild, Loibl recalled that the first submarine they tried didn’t work, had to give up trying to dive a second time, parts fell off and his mission went into the water five hours late due to electrical problems.
This, Loibl suspects, may have caused Titan’s disappearance.
German explorer Arthur Loibl (right), 60, dove 12,500ft towards the wreck in the Atlantic Ocean in August 2021 and said he was ‘incredibly lucky’ to survive
Speaking to German tabloid Bild, Loibl (pictured) recalled that the first submarine they didn’t work on, the second time they had to give up trying to dive, parts fell off and its mission went into the water five hours late due to electrical issues. the problem
‘Then it was a suicide mission!’ Loibl tells Build.
Germans also know a thing or two about taking risks. He has previously traveled to the North and South Poles and flown over Russia in a MiG-29 fighter jet.
But of all his adventures, ‘Titanic was the most extreme,’ he says.
He paid 100,000 euros and booked the trip through an English company that organizes special safaris, Bild reported.
He said, the beginning of the campaign was grand.
‘The first submarine did not work, then a dive at 1600 meters had to be abandoned. My mission was on the 5th, but we also went into the water five hours late due to electrical problems,’ he recounted to the publication.
Shortly before the sub’s launch, Loibl said the brace on the stabilization tube – which is used to provide balance during the ship’s descent to depth.
‘It was reattached with zip ties. It didn’t bother me,’ she tells Bild.
As for the conditions inside the ship, the explorer said they were challenging.
On her voyage, she was joined by French explorer Paul-Henri Nargiolet, 73, and Oceangate CEO and pilot Stockton Rush, 61.
Both are currently on the Titan and have been missing since Sunday, along with British explorer Hamish Harding and Pakistani national Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman.
The 22 feet long Titan can carry five passengers. No seats, a single toilet (a black curtain drawn for ‘privacy’). At a depth of about 3,200 feet, sunlight can no longer penetrate the darkness of the sea.
‘You need strong nerves, you shouldn’t be claustrophobic and you need to be able to sit cross-legged for ten hours,’ says Loibl. ‘There must be hell. There is only 2.50 meters of space, it’s four degrees, there are no chairs, no toilets.’
When he read Titanic, he described a feeling of euphoria.
Inside Loiball, the Titan traveled around the wreck of the Titanic twice and once even touched down on its deck, he said, before making the return journey.
Loibl said he has been closely following news of the missing submarine and the ongoing search operation — which is moving quickly.
‘I feel bad, I’m nervous, my stomach is sinking. I was incredibly lucky then,’ he told Bild. Like many, he is hoping for a miracle.
As for his next adventure, Loibl said he hopes to go into space with Virgin Galactic for $250,000. But after the ‘drama’ surrounding the missing Titan ship, he said, ‘my extreme pursuit is now in question.’
Pictured: German explorer Arthur Loibl (second from right) and four others, including French explorer Paul-Henri Nargiolet, 73, and Oceangate CEO and pilot Stockton Rush, 61 – who are currently missing on Titan
German explorer Arthur Loibl is seen with French explorer Paul-Henri Nargiolet
Family and friends of the missing Titan passengers have been in agony for 24 hours, as experts warn that the ‘chance of finding them alive’ is fading – with traces of oxygen within the submarine dwindling.
The Titan lost contact with tour operators about 435 miles south of St. John’s Newfoundland while sailing off the coast of Canada on Sunday.
The discovery of the rumble last night raised new hopes that the passengers were still alive and that they might be desperately hitting the side of the craft so they could be detected on sonar.
But 12,500 feet below the surface, and with perhaps only two ships on Earth capable of rescuing them, time is running out to find the craft.
Experts say rescuers searching for his orca-sized submarine face a mammoth task that will test the limits of technical knowledge – with very little chance of success.
Teams from around the world are racing against the clock to find the ship and its five crew members before they run out of oxygen – until midday Wednesday.
But plunging a 20,000-square-kilometer area of the North Atlantic to a depth of more than two miles isn’t easy.
‘It’s pitch black there. freezing cold The seabed is muddy, and it is unstable. You can’t see your hands in front of your face,’ Titanic expert Tim Maltin told NBC News Now. ‘It really is a bit like being an astronaut in space.’
U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick told reporters Tuesday that his agency was coordinating the search.
But, he said, it was incredibly difficult and far beyond what the Coast Guard would normally deal with.
‘Although the US Coast Guard has assumed the role of coordinating search and rescue missions, we do not have all the skills and equipment necessary for a search of this nature,’ he said.
‘This is a complex search effort, requiring multiple agencies with subject matter expertise and specialized equipment.’
Frederick explained that rescuers were using different methods as they combed the vast area for the Titan, which lost contact with its mothership just two hours after the Titanic sank to its watery grave.
‘Search efforts have focused on both surface searches by C-130 aircraft with visual and radar, and with P-3 aircraft we were able to drop and observe sonar buoys.’
So far, searches have proved fruitless.
The effort is being augmented Tuesday by a giant pipe-laying vessel containing a remotely piloted vehicle expected to be deployed to Titan’s last known location.
Jules Jaffe, who was part of the search party for the Titanic in 1985, said there are two possible explanations for the sub’s disappearance. “Either it’s a mechanical failure or an electrical fault,” he told AFP in La Jolla, California.
‘I’m hoping it’s an electrical failure, because they have weight, one of their safety mechanisms is to lighten themselves. So if you are heavier than water you will sink, if you are lighter than water you will float.’
Jaffe, a research oceanographer at the University of San Diego, said rescuers will be looking at the surface, the water column and the seabed.
‘The worst place for them to be would be at the bottom of the ocean, which would mean the vehicle itself had exploded or gotten stuck in some way.’
Adding to the challenge: the enormous pressure underwater is four kilometers, about 400 times greater than at the surface. Such pressures put enormous stress on the equipment and very few ships can survive at this depth.
According to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, nuclear submarines typically operate at only 300 meters.
Jamie Pringle, professor of forensic geosciences at Keele University in Britain, said if the mini-sub had settled on the ocean floor, it would have been very difficult to detect.
Among those taking part in the campaign is billionaire Hamish Harding (pictured), CEO of Action Aviation in Dubai. She excitedly posted on social media about being there on Sunday
Shahzada Dawood, 48, a board member of the Prince’s Trust charity, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, (pictured together) are on board the missing submarine.
Oceangate expedition CEO Stockton Rush (right) along with French Navy veteran PH Nargiolet (left) are believed to be taking part in the expedition.
The Boston Coast Guard is currently searching for the missing vessel. The iconic shipwreck sits under 12,500 feet of water about 370 miles off Newfoundland, Canada.
‘The bottom of the sea is not flat; There are a lot of hills and canyons,’ Pringle said, according to NBC.
Further complicating seabed forecasting is the area of the Titanic’s wreckage – which the adventurers visited.
‘I mean, it’s a wreck, probably all kinds of treacherous things that wouldn’t be very friendly for a small boat,’ said Jaffe.
‘The chances of finding them in the wreckage in the next 36 hours, I think, is virtually impossible.’
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