An expert who raised concerns about the Titan submersible five years ago has told Sky News that his warnings were not heeded.

Back in 2018, William Kohnen had expressed fears that the vessel’s design and construction were not being tested by an independent third party.

In a letter to OceanGate – the company that owns the missing sub – he had warned that a “single negative event” could undo an “enviable” safety track record that spanned 40 years.

‘Debris field’ found in search for Titan – live updates

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1:12

‘Why were you worried about Titan?’

On behalf of industry experts, Mr Kohnen had written: “Our apprehension is that the current experimental approach adopted by OceanGate could result in negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic) that would have serious consequences for everyone in the industry.”

Speaking to Sky News after a “debris field” was found at the search site for Titan, Mr Kohnen said: “Father Neptune has absolutely no patience for humanity – if we get it wrong, we get it wrong and we pay the price.

“If we play in this game, we have to be absolutely sure of ourselves.

“We say we have rules and regulations – well they come because of mistakes, because of things we have learned, and we embody that in a process of certification.”

The five men on board the submersible have died – with the US Coast Guard confirming that the vessel had suffered a “catastrophic implosion”.

Mr Kohnen’s letter, from the Marine Technology Society, had been addressed to OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush, who was the sub’s pilot.

Questions remain about Titan’s mechanical and safety issues

It was the outcome that nobody wanted but everyone feared.

As time passed in this search, the prospect of a happy ending diminished.

Coordinators had spoken of hope but throughout they had managed expectations – emphasising the scale of the challenge, calling it “enormously complex”, in an offshore environment they described as “incredibly unforgiving”.

So there was a sense of inevitability about the announcement that debris had been found – the Coastguard news conference on Boston’s harbour side was laced with sorrow, if not surprise.

Questions will continue to be asked about the Titan, its condition and suitability to make the trip.

Mechanical and safety issues remain a big part of this story.

There has been much criticism of the vessel’s structure before, during and after it went missing.

OceanGate, the company that owned the Titan, issued a statement in which it described the five on board as “true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure”. No doubt.

No doubt, either, that in pursuit of adventure, they deserved transport they could count on.

Misplaced trust cost them their lives as they sought a glimpse of the Titanic.

Disasters do tend to attract disaster.

Maritime investigators will consider whether, in the case of the Titan, this was one waiting to happen.

As well as lacking international safety certification, an old PlayStation controller is used to steer Titan, which Mr Rush defended as “super durable”.

OceanGate’s website adds: “The use [of] off-the-shelf components helped to streamline the construction and makes it simple to operate and replace parts in the field.”

Read more:
What it’s like in a fully-certified submissible
All Titan search vessels are now in place
Fate of missing passengers may rest on one man

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1:33

‘Two friends of mine are gone’

Mr Kohnen had argued that it was critical for the company to spend additional time and expense on adhering to industry standards – but Mr Rush had claimed regulators were holding OceanGate back and stifling innovation.

“OceanGate was taking a strategy of ‘well, we intentionally break the rules because we can do it better and faster’,” Mr Kohnen said.

He explained: “Nobody has made a five-person submersible going 4,000m. Most of the submarines – there’s 10 submarines that will go 4,000m or deeper in the world – they are all certified and they tend to be three-people vessels with one pilot and two occupants for research.

“To do five passengers, it does push the envelope and you’ve got to do the numbers right.”

Mr Kohnen added that there are vessels capable of sending passengers to depths of 6,000m and 7,000m, but each went through a certification process.

“Submitting it to third-party review on a new design, we’re doing ourselves a favour and following the North Star in our industry,” he said.

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2:35

Ex-Titan passenger: ‘It was not safe’

Arthur Loibl – who travelled aboard Titan as a passenger in 2021 – told Sky News that he felt the vessel “was not safe”, and “everybody was nervous” on the trip.

Communication with Titan was lost last Sunday during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck in the North Atlantic off the coast of Canada.