Diver who almost boarded Titan complains about search efforts

American diver Concannon, who cancelled plans to board the Titan on June 18 at the last minute, complained that "bureaucracy" had slowed down the search effort.

"I was supposed to go on this tour, but I had to cancel to deal with another emergency," diver David Concannon wrote on Facebook on June 19, announcing that he would not be on the missing Titan submersible.

Concannon added that after the Titan submersible crashed, he was asked to help ensure everyone on board could return safely. "Of course I immediately agreed," he wrote.

Concannon is an advisor to OceanGate Expeditions, a Washington state-based company that began offering tours of the Titanic wreck for about $250,000 per person in 2020. Concannon has extensive experience in deep-water exploration and has visited the Titanic wreck several times.

Concannon complained that the rescue effort was being hampered by US government "bureaucracy", with a plane carrying equipment from the British island of Guernsey unable to take off for the scene until it received clearance. "We need to do things quickly. We don't have minutes or hours," he told US broadcaster NewsNation .

“When I contacted the US government, I got the answer that they were ‘out of office’, not from regular staff, but from key people who had the power to approve this. It was unacceptable,” he added.

Diver David Concannon. Photo: Sun — Diver David Concannon. Photo: *Sun*

The Titan submersible went missing on June 18 while carrying five people on a tour of the Titanic wreck at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, at a depth of nearly 4,000 meters, about 600 kilometers from Newfoundland, Canada. US and Canadian authorities are deploying a series of planes, ships and equipment to search for and rescue Titan.

Rescuers are racing against time, as Titan only has enough oxygen for 96 hours, as of 6:00 a.m. on June 18. At a press conference at 1:00 p.m. on June 20 (0:00 a.m. on June 21, Hanoi time), Jamie Frederick, a US Coast Guard official, estimated that the remaining oxygen would only last for 40 hours.

The US Coast Guard said on June 21 that a Canadian aircraft assisting in search operations "detected a loud noise underwater" but subsequent searches "yielded negative results."

Ngoc Anh (According to Sun )

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