Sub-standard: Mexican actor shares how doomed Titan submersible’s batteries suddenly drained during 2022 trip to Titanic, forcing tour to end early – with communications also blacking out for two hours
- Alan Estrada was part of the crew aboard the Titan submersible that made the voyage to the Titanic wreckage on July 3, 2022
- He told of how the sub’s battery suddenly began to drain just an hour into a four hour Titanic site visit, forcing the mission to abort early
- Estrada also confirmed that the Titan had been plagued by communication issues
An actor who once traveled to the Titanic on the missing Titan sub shared how the vehicle’s batteries suddenly drained during the expedition, forcing it to end early.
Alan Estrada shared chilling details of how the Titan’s energy source quickly drained to 40 percent power during a July 2022 mission to see the ill-fated ocean liner.
That saw Mexican-born Estrada and his fellow submariners’ time spent at the wreck slashed from four hours to one so they could return to the surface before the sub lost power.
Speaking on his YouTube video about the trip, he said: ‘For safety reasons this is completely understandable when the last battery – the submersible has two batteries – when the second battery has only 40 percent left, it is necessary to return to the surface for safety.
‘This means that the four hours that they tell you that you are going to be down there are not fulfilled
Estrada – best known for his YouTube channel – still managed to snap a stunning selfie of him standing in front of the Titan’s porthole, with the Titanic’s iconic bow visible in the depths.
The vlogger also told of how the Titan suffered a two hour communications blackout during his voyage.
Mexican actor Alan Estrada told DailyMail.com that the Titan submarine lost communication for two hours during the July 3, 2022 voyage to the Titanic wreck at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean
He is one of multiple people who’ve spoken about communications issues that plagued the sub, which went quiet an hour and 45 minutes into an expedition to the Titanic Sunday with five people on board.
The Titan has not been seen since, with a frantic hunt for the vessel continuing Wednesday, hampered by the 12,000ft depth it is feared to have reached.
Estrada, whose trip on the sub was paid for by sponsors, says it was originally-scheduled for July 2021, but pushed back by a year due to unspecified ‘difficulties’ with the Titan.
‘My biggest concern was obviously losing my life,’ Estrada told DailyMail.com. ‘All the people who made this expedition … we are aware of the risks we are taking. It’s not a surprise.’
Estrada also shot this incredible photo of the Titanic’s famous bow. The ocean liner sunk on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in April 1912, killing around 1,500 passengers
The OceanGate 22-foot carbon fiber and titanium vessel called the Titan is driven with a PlayStation remote control
Estrada paid $1250,000 for the trip – the going rate when he originally signed-up two years ago. The price had soared to $250,000 per passenger by the time of Titan’s disappearance.
The YouTuber said he was aware of the risks the voyage entailed – but went anyway.
‘Because it is an experimental submersible, many things can happen and we were aware that not only something could happen that could put your life at risk,’ Estrada explained. ‘But the dive probably could not be done successfully if the weather was not in your favor.’
Speaking on his clip about the communications issue, Estrada said: ‘After 1,000 meters Scott, the pilot, detects a failure in his communication system.
‘It is vital that we cannot communicate with the surface, otherwise we can get lost and drift in the middle of the ocean.’
The submarine had descended about 6,500 meters when the pilot released a ballast tank from each side to help it float back upwards. A short while later, the vessel regained communication with the ship at the surface and resumed its journey.
OceanGate’s tourist submersible has been missing since Sunday with five people aboard, but a Canadian rescued aircraft detected noises from the vessel on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard
Stockton Rush, full name Richard Stockton Rush III, is the CEO of OceanGate and is one of five people who boarded its Titan submersible to visit the site of the Titanic wreck
Among those taking part in the expedition is billionaire Hamish Harding (pictured), CEO of Action Aviation in Dubai. He excitedly posted to social media about being there on Sunday
Estrada spoke after CBS Sunday Morning reporter David Pogue revealed Monday his troublesome experience on the Titan – which saw it suffer yet more communications issues.
The difficulties caused the submarine to be reported missing for two and a half hours – a similar amount of time to the blackout suffered during Estrada’s expedition.
And German adventurer Arthur Loibl said that his August 2021 trip to the Titanic on Titan was a ‘suicide mission’ after it suffered a host of electrical problems, with parts even falling off the doomed sub.
On Sunday, the Titan submarine carrying five passengers, including Stockton Rush, the CEO of the company, lost communication with tour operators about 35 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland and disappeared after it embarked on its mission.
Billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Shahzada Dawood, 48, a UK-based board member of the Prince’s Trust charity, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, are also reported to be stuck in the sub.
A Canadian rescue aircraft was able to detect noises coming from the deep-sea vessel on Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed.
OceanGate have provided tourists with the opportunity to explore the Titanic wreckage for a number of years
Shahzada Dawood, 48, a board member of the Prince’s Trust charity, and his so 19-year-old Sulaiman Dawood (pictured together) are on board the missing submarine
The five on board Titan are believed to have fewer than 20 hours of breathable air left to sustain them, although on Wednesday a US Coast Guard spokesman refused to be drawn on exactly how long was left.
He said banging noises had been picked up by planes hunting for the sub on Tuesday and Wednesday. It has been speculated those bangs were made by the Titan’s occupants to try and attract attention, but searchers have not been able to confirm that this is the case.
Three U.S. Air Force cargo airplanes delivered heavy machinery and submarines to Canada on Tuesday night to help recover the crew.
The equipment was taken off the planes by a military loader then put onto the trucks by a forklift truck.
One load contained a giant red roll of thick cable and two large machines with a blue frame and a sign on the side saying ‘high voltage.’ While the exact purpose of the cable was unclear, it appeared to have enough length to go deep into the ocean.
Another load contained two heavy-duty Hyundai winches with ‘6000 kg line pull’ written on the side of each.
‘I wish with all my heart that they find them,’ Estrada said. ‘Today is a crucial day for this rescue. I hope they find them safe and sound.’
Inside Titan, the submersible that vanished on expedition to the Titanic wreckage
DailyMail.com is here to answer your questions about the missing submarine.
How big is the Titan submersible?
Dimensions for the vessel are 670 cm x 280 cm x 250 cm, and it is able to descend to depths of 4,000 meters.
The vessel weighs 10,432kg, and can travel at a maximum speed of three knots, which is created by Four Innerspace 1002 electric thrusters.
It boasts Sub C Imaging 4k Rayfin camera, Teledyne 2D sonar, 40,000 lumens of external light and a 2G Robotics laser scanner.
Electronics and thruster control pods are housed outside the pressure hull to increase space available for crew and equipment onboard.
It also has a toilet on board, which offers guests little privacy as it is right next to the window.
How is the Titan controlled?
The vessel is controlled by a reinforced Playstation controller, though it doesn’t have a GPS system and is guided by text messages sent by a team above water.
According to the website, Titan communicates with the topside comms and tracking team via text messages which are exchanged via a USBL (ultra-short baseline) acoustic system.
A large digital display streams a live feed from multiple exterior 4K cameras and also acts as a door to the aft equipment bay.
Who designed the vessel and what is it made of?
The Titan was built and designed with an aerospace-grade carbon fiber hull mated with titanium end caps and a dome.
A team of engineers at NASA¿s Marshall Space Flight Center consulted with OceanGate¿s engineers during the development of the submersible.
Late in April, the company highlighted that it had moved Titan for final preparations for the 2023 Titanic Expedition.
It boasts a filament wound carbon fiber hull – the largest of any manned submersible – and two titanium hemispheres.
The forward dome hinges to serve as the access hatch for easy entry and exit, which also has the largest viewport of any deep-sea manned submersible.
Titan has a fiberglass hull insert to prevent condensation from dripping on the crew and to eliminate electrical ground faults
How long do the dive sessions last?
Dives can last up to 10 hours each, with participants spending a total of 10 days at sea onboard a larger ship.
In an interview last year, the company’s CEO Stockton Rush told CBC that their subs had capacity for five people and can go to the depths of the Titanic ¿ which is half the depth of the ocean.
He said: ‘There’s no switches and things to bump into, we have one button to turn it on.
‘Everything else is done with touch screens and computers, and so you really become part of the vehicle and everybody gets to know everyone pretty well.’
The 2023 expeditions are only the third the company has carried out in the Titan, with the sub making ten dives to the wreckage in 2022 over several weeks.
It is unclear exactly how many have been completed in total by the Titan, but it is understood that this trip is not the first this year.
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