How is Elon Musk connected to OceanGate’s missing Titanic submersible?

OceanGate Expeditions’ submersible with five people onboard that went missing en route to the Titanic wreckage three days ago and is still to be found, could prove to be a PR disaster for Twitter CTO Elon Musk.

Connection with the vessel off the coast of Newfoundland, and no contact has been established with the vessel so far. While the vessel had only 96 hours of oxygen left when it vanished in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday, the air supply is dwindling and it presently has only 24 hours of breathable air left. A massive-scale search and rescue is being conducted by the US and the Canadian Coast Guard as they race against time to save the five people on the submarine including  OceanGate CEO, Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, and French pilot Paul Henri-Nargeolet.

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Elon Musk’s connection to OceanGate’s missing Titanic submersible

Musk, who has chosen to not speak on one of the biggest news in the last three days, is indirectly connected to the missing submersible, named Titan. Within two hours of the dive on Sunday, June 18, The submersible lost communication with the command ship which relies on Musk’s Starlink service for communication.

Although there is no evidence implicating Starlink in the submarine’s disappearance at the moment, it does raise the possibility of a communication malfunction between the submersible and the command ship.

OceanGate has previously praised Musk’s Starlink technology for allowing it to successfully carry out Titanic wreckage explorations. “Despite being in the middle of the North Atlantic, we have the internet connection we need to make our #Titanic dive operations a success – thank you @Starlink!” the company posted on Twitter, alongside a photo of the submersible in the middle of the North Atlantic.

Also Read | Rescue team for missing Titanic submersible heard ‘Banging’ from area: Report

In a separate post, OceanGate said, “The wreck of the Titanic lies about 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. Without any cell towers in the middle of the ocean, we are relying on @Starlink to provide the communications we require throughout this year’s 2023 Titanic Expedition.”

According to experts, it is more than likely that in addition to the possible failure of internet service, other technical aspects of the submersible also malfunctioned. Otherwise, one of its seven resurfacing mechanisms would have kicked in resulting in and it would have resurfaced after losing communication, which has not yet occurred.