Has the Titanic jinx struck once again?
Hope was lost last night for five men missing on a deep-sea voyage to the famous wreck.
A huge air-sea rescue operation by US and Canadian planes and naval ships across the wild North Atlantic found debris from the submersible Titan.
I hoped against hope the mission would succeed. On board there were three Britons, including famous explorer Hamish Harding.
However, I can’t help but contrast the international, multi-million-dollar effort to rescue wealthy marine tourists with the fate of impoverished migrants lost while trying to cross the Mediterranean.
At least 79 – and possibly 500 – died days ago when their smuggler boat went down off Greece.
The Greek navy is accused of failing to prevent the overloaded vessel capsizing.
These men, women and children are nameless. They are not rich. They spent their life savings, or got into debt, in search of a better life.
But when they were in peril on the sea, there was no international military rescue mission to save them from certain death by drowning.
How terrifying it must have been for families trapped below deck as the trawler went down.
I don’t imagine their undersea graveyard will become a scene of ghoulish tourism like the Titanic, last resting place for more than a thousand souls.
Brits who paid £200,000 each for the 3,800m dive signed a waiver. They knew the risks. Hapless migrants are conned by exploiters into believing they’re safe. The latest victims didn’t have life jackets.
Reform of maritime exploration safety rules may follow the Titan tragedy, whatever the outcome. Nothing will change in the trafficking business.
******
One by one, Tory politicians are being found out by the Hallett Inquiry into the Covid pandemic.
David Cameron and George Osborne (remember them?) denied responsibility for England’s unpreparedness.
But the inquiry heard that years of Tory austerity left the NHS short of beds, PPE, ventilators and medical staff when the virus struck.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, health secretary for six years, admitted the Government failed to ask “searching questions” to avert catastrophe.
And deputy premier Oliver Dowden, then a Cabinet Office minister, confessed that emergency preparations for a pandemic were “paused” in favour of planning for a no-deal Brexit.
The guilty men put ideology before preparedness, condemning tens of thousands to death and long-term illness.
******
Firefighters rescued red panda Ponzu, aged seven, from a high tree after he escaped from his pen in Gdansk zoo to evade the “relentless” attentions of mate Maja. Perhaps he is not like other pandas.
******
Kilnsey Crag, the 170ft limestone monster that broods over beautiful Wharfedale, is for sale. Its unidentified private owner wants £150,000.
You can’t do anything except run up and down it, or attempt the challenge of climbing its awesome overhang.
An obvious buy for the nation. What about it, National Trust?
