OceanGate: ‘I was due to be onboard the doomed Titan submersible’

A sailor who had a place booked on the doomed Titan submersible journey in which five passengers died has spoken of the moment he heard it had disappeared.

Graham Padden, a former commercial diver from Liverpool, was disappointed when he was unable to raise the $250,000 (£197,000) fee in time to join the voyage.

The experimental submersible imploded during its voyage to the site of the Titanic wreck on 18 June 2023, instantly killing all five on board.

A major international search and rescue effort was launched when it lost contact with the surface. It was confirmed four days later that it had been destroyed.

Mr Padden, who now lives in Southport, told the BBC he had “always been interested” in the Titanic since his days as a merchant sailor working on the Cunard-owned Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship.

The 62-year-old said he had reached out to Kyle Bingham, director of operations at OceanGate, the expedition company that had announced its intention to venture to the wreck site.

Mr Bingham was interested in offering Mr Padden a place due to his diving experience and the heart-warming backstory of his previous work on a Cunard vessel.

Mr Padden said: “I never had any safety concerns because I knew that the sub Titan had done many, many voyages before.”

He said he had some money saved from an inheritance, and tried to raise the rest, but fell short by about half.

Mr Bingham suggested that Mr Padden vacate his place on the June voyage, and attempt to raise the money for a future date.

However neither man knew Titan was unable to withstand the pressures needed to reach the Titanic wreck site, which lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of about 3,800m (12,500ft).

Mr Padden said: “I checked my WhatsApp messages as we do from time to time, and there it was from my son, ‘Dad, dad, you’ll never guess, have you seen this? Look what happened to that sub’.”

“I went on to the media and there it was. I had this huge, sharp intake of breath.”

Mr Padden said he “followed the story around the clock”.

However, based on his knowledge of the unforgiving environment the sub was operating in, said he did not hold out much hope.

Onboard the submersible were Stockton Rush, the chief executive of OceanGate; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French deep-sea explorer and Titanic expert; businessmen Hamish Harding; Shahzada Dawood and Mr Dawood’s son, Suleman Dawood.

US court documents uncovered after the implosion indicated that Mr Rush had ignored safety warnings about the submersible’s ability to handle the enormous pressures involved.

Despite the disaster, Mr Padden told the BBC he would not pass up any future opportunities to visit the Titanic site.

He said: “I’m still spiritually drawn to the Titanic, the wreck, to all the Liverpool sailors that are down there, because it is a grave.

“I wouldn’t want to pass up that moment.”

Mr Padden is standing as a parliamentary candidate in Knowsley for the Workers Party of Britain.

Also standing are Alexander Hitchmough for Reform; Patricia Jameson for the Social Democratic Party; Sherrie McDaid for the Conservatives; Annelise Midgley for Labour; Kate Tipton for the Lib Dems and Graham Wickens for the Green Party.