OceanGate sub pilot job opening sparks backlash on TikTok

A job advert posted by the company that operated the doomed Titanic submersible that imploded last week in the Atlantic Ocean has sparked backlash on social media.

TikTok users have hit out at the since-deleted job posting by embattled OceanGate Expeditions, following the tragedy that killed all five of its passengers. According to the advertising featured on the company’s website and on Indeed, OceanGate was accepting applicants for a sub pilot position.

The company noted that it had an “urgent opening” and was looking for committed individuals with a “combination of strong mechanical and interpersonal skills,” and experience working with submersibles and boats as well as operating complex systems to support dive operations, Insider reported. Among other requirements, applicants were asked to be comfortable in a confined space and be able to fit through a 28-inch diameter ring.

OceanGate not only hosted tours to the wreck of the Titanic, but also to the Azores Archipelago in Portugal and to the Bahamas. One pilot, one “content expert” and three mission specialists — or fee-paying passengers without any previous experience needed — participated in every dive, according to the company’s website.

The post was removed sometime on Friday, a day after the US Coast Guard confirmed that the vessel’s chambers were found 1,600ft from the wreck of the Titanic on the ocean floor, but not without being noticed by furious sleuths that criticised the timing.

“Remember when everyone was saying “Don’t kill yourself for a job that would replace you within two weeks?” one user commented on a TikTok, while another argued, “It was a scheduled post. that’s how our job engine works...”

Although it is unclear when the job posting went up, it was likely well before OceanGate made international headlines as its sub vanished. However, TikTok users argued that the company should have been cautious enough to remove the posting as a four-day frantic search for the submersible unfolded.

It comes amid reports that OceanGate closed its headquarters in Everett, Washington State, following the Titan’s implosion, which killed CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son Suleman Dawood.

OceanGate’s leasing agent said in a statement to The Seattle Times that the company would be closing indefinitely.

The US Coast Guard has announced investigations into the circumstances that led to the vessel’s malfunction. Canadian officials also revealed on Saturday that audio and commands between the Titan and its mothership Polar Prince will be analysed as part of their probe.

The chair of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, Kathy Fox, said that the mothership’s crew was interviewed to “collect information from the vessel’s voyage data recorder and other vessel systems that contain useful information,” according to CNN.

The investigations come after the BBC reported that emails from Mr Rush showed he had dismissed safety concerns over the Titan submersible. In the exchanges with deep-sea exploration specialist Rob McCallum, OceanGate’s chief executive said he was “tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation”.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit filed by a former OceanGate employee in 2018 and obtained by The New Republic listed “visible flaws” with the vessel that were reportedly ignored by senior management. Submarine experts had also signed a letter expressing “unanimous concern” with the company’s decision not to seek outside evaluation and testing before bringing passengers down to the Titanic.

The Independent has contacted OceanGate for comment on the allegations.