Five key concerns regarding a manned submarine mission to view the Titanic wreckage may have been missed, as the hunt to find the crew continues.
The vessel went missing in the Atlantic Ocean with five people on board, with claims now that warning signs may have been ignored.
The OceanGate Expeditions vessel was headed to view the Titanic shipwreck on Sunday, but it lost contact around an hour and 45 minutes after it submerged.
Five people are on board, including British businessman Hamish Harding, with the group paying close to £200k each for the experience.
It is thought there may only be around 24 hours of breathable air left, if the air has been being used up at a steady level.
Prior concerns about the vessel before the manned mission have been circulating since the disappearance, reports the Mirror.
'Trip could result in death'
The passengers were warned before entering the vessel that the submarine had not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and the trip "could result in death". Journalist David Pogue was on an expedition to the North Atlantic and has shown the forms he had to sign before they set off.
Reading the contents of the form to CBS, he said: "'It has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, disability, motion trauma, or death'."
He also criticised the inside of the vessel, as it was the size of a van, and said the company used "off-the-shelf components" and lights from a camping shop.
Simpsons writer Mike Reiss, who was on the same trip, said: "To get on the boat that takes you to the Titanic, you sign a massive waiver that you could die on the trip.
"On the list, they mention death three times on page one and it's never far from your mind. As I was getting on the submarine, [I thought] this could be the end."
Other people reported power failures, radio outages and flickering lights.
Flaws led to 'extreme danger' warning
OceanGate fired and sued David Lochridge, their director of marine operations, five years ago. The firm said he breached his non-disclosure agreement for saying passengers might be endangered in the craft when it reached "extreme depths".
It is reported in court documents that David criticised "visible flaws" in the ship’s carbon fibre hull, "prevalent flaws" in a scale model, flammable materials onboard and safety issues.
The paper added that any trip could "subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible."
Almost 40 top leaders warn of 'catastrophe'
Marine Technology Society were contacted in 2018 about the "catastrophic" concerns about the vessel, from around 40 top leaders from the marine industry. The New York Times has revealed the contents of a letter, in which executives, oceanographers and explorers all signed to say they expressed "unanimous concern".
The letter said that OceanGate had been, at a minimum "misleading" as the firm claimed that the vessel would meet or exceed safety standards for a risk assessment, while not having any plans to have the submarine formally certified.
Submarine firm bosses 'avoided US regulations'
Engineer Bart Kemper said in an interview that OceanGate had "sneakily and purposefully" avoided certain US regulations by deploying the vessel in international waters. Salvatore Mercogliano, an associate professor of maritime history at Campbell University in North Carolina agreed with Mr Kemper's claims.
The Titan gryd loaded onto a Canadian ship and then dropped into the North Atlantic, despite being owned by an American firm.
This means it does not need to register with a country, fly a flag or follow a number of maritime rules.
"It’s kind of like a boat on the back of a trailer. The police will ensure the trailer meets the requirements to be on the road, but they really won’t do a boat inspection," he said.
Previous technical issues
Although OceanGate successfully carried out the same trip multiple times in 2021 with no deaths, a lawsuit listed numerous safety issues.
David Concannon, a lawyer and explorer, wrote the lawsuit document. He said: "On the first dive to the Titanic, the submersible encountered a battery issue and had to be manually attached to its lifting platform."
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