Youngest person to ever explore Titanic wreckage says he would NEVER set foot on Titan
The youngest person to ever explore the wreckage of the Titanic has revealed that he would never have set foot on the Titan.
Sebastian Harris was just 13 when he joined his father G. Michael Harris and a pilot on a 12,500-foot descent to see the remains of the historic ship in 2005.
He recalled the “inherently dangerous” nature of the journey and said he briefly lost consciousness during the expedition.
Harris added that he would not have gone on the trip on the Titan submarine which imploded and killed all five men on board due to the enormous water pressure.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet and Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman were killed in the disaster on June 18.
Youngest person to ever explore the Titanic wreckage has revealed he would never have set foot on the Titan
Sebastian Harris (left) was just 13 when he joined his father G. Michael Harris and a pilot at a 12,500-foot elevation to see the remains of the historic ship
Five men were killed during an expedition aboard the OceanGate Titan, pictured here, while trying to see the wreckage of the Titanic after it imploded
Polar Prince, a support vessel for the OceanGate Expeditions that had five people on board to explore the wreckage of the sunken Titanic, will return to Newfoundland on Saturday
The Polar Prince was chartered by OceanGate for the ill-fated expedition in June 2023
Harris, who set a Guinness World Record at the age of 13, was on a Russian Mir II submarine with his father for a 12-hour trip to see the wreckage of the Titanic.
He said he would not undertake the perilous journey aboard the Titan.
“I can’t say I would go through with it, no,” he said The sun. “The Mir submarine I went on had logged several hundred dives before we left.”
Harris said the tragedy should be used as a teaching moment to ensure people interested in adventure tourism do their research.
“I think the biggest takeaway from all of this is that anyone interested in this type of tourism should do their due diligence and take their safety into their own hands and have a very clear understanding of what they’re dealing with,” he added.
“There is nothing to blame on the four persons [aboard the Titan] in any way, shape or form, but I think if there’s one good thing to come out of all this, it’s like the sinking of the Titanic had a major impact on maritime safety regulations, something similar is happening here as well.”
He spoke out about the problems on the ship he was on, saying he briefly lost consciousness during the journey.
“During our dive we had a small safety issue. Suddenly our oxygen levels started to drop and I passed out as we dove down,” Harris said.
‘Luckily my father and our pilot didn’t experience the same thing, otherwise it could have been fatal.
“But these kinds of minor problems can happen on a regular basis, so the certification and safety of these vehicles is so important.”
They had a near fatal moment while diving to see the Titanic.
“What happened was they actually surfaced in very rough seas and the big ship, their main ship, landed on top of the submarine and it was a really bad deal,” he added.
Harris, who set a Guinness World Record at the age of 13, was on a Russian Mir II submarine with his father for a 12-hour journey to see the wreckage of the Titanic
Harris highlighted the preventative measures aboard Mir for his trip to view the Titanic wreckage, which were absent from OceanGate’s Titan
Harris said the OceanGate tragedy should be used as a learning opportunity to ensure people interested in adventure tourism do their research
“These activities are inherently dangerous. A 13-year-old doesn’t really have a sense of his own morality, so I was blissfully ignorant to some extent, but in other circumstances that could have ended in tragedy.’
Harris highlighted the preventative measures aboard Mir for his trip to view the Titanic wreckage, which were absent from OceanGate’s Titan.
He said: ‘The Mir I dived in had a dog door on the top of the sub which I believe is there if you need to open it on the surface and there is enough time for two or three people to get out.
“But what we’re dealing with in the Titan, there’s no dog door, you’re placed in an open cylinder and then screwed down. That is not in line with submarine safety standards and it would have done it [any potential] rescue very, very challenging.’
The submarine Titan had been missing since 9:45 a.m. Sunday after launching into the Atlantic Ocean at 8:00 a.m.
A large-scale rescue mission was launched to recover the missing submarine and crew after it disappeared 400 miles southeast of Newfoundland, Canada, as the submarine’s oxygen supplies continued to dwindle.
It was announced on Thursday that, despite the frantic search to find the submarine and crew, all had perished during the descent to the wreckage of the Titanic.
French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet (left) was on the Titan submarine with Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate expedition
British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding (left) and Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who was just 19, died aboard the Titan
The ship went missing during a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic, which lies 12,500 feet underwater and is about 600 kilometers from Newfoundland, Canada
“The implosion would have produced significant broadband noise that the sonar buoys would have picked up,” US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said at a press conference.
It would have been instant death for the men who each paid to see the famous shipwreck.
In a heartbreaking blow to their families, experts say there is little chance of recovering any of their remains.
“This is an incredibly brutal environment down there. The debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the ship. We will continue to work and search the area down there – but I don’t have an answer to the outlook at this point,” said Paul Hankin, a deep-sea expert involved in the quest said.