Crenshaw questions Coast Guard response to Titanic sub
- The five people on the missing submersible are believed to be dead
- Sub lost contact with support vessel 1 hour and 45 minutes into the trip
- Crenshaw says there were two assets that should have been used in search
FILE – The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Warren Deyampert is docked as a member of the Coast Guard walks past, Tuesday, June 20, 2023, at Coast Guard Base Boston, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
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(NewsNation) — U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) says he has “real questions” about Coast Guard authorities and their decision-making process in the search for the tourist submersible that went missing while on a journey to view the wreckage of the Titanic.
“What’s gonna happen in the future? Should we put these people in charge of future recoveries? Should we?” he said in an interview on Fox News. “They can’t seem to make proper decisions.”
Five people on board the Titan submersible, owned by OceanGate Expeditions, embarked on the trip Sunday, June 18, but support vessel Polar Prince lost contact with them about one hour and 45 minutes into the dive.
It was the U.S. Coast Guard that took the lead in efforts to locate the Titan. On Thursday, officials and OceanGate found debris near the Titanic, and confirmed it was from the submersible. All five passengers on board, British businessman Hamish Harding; OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood; his son Suleman Dawood and pilot and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, are believed to be dead.
Rear Adm. John Mauger with the First Coast Guard District said at a news conference Thursday that, “The debris is consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber.”
Crenshaw argued on Fox that emergency crews should have deployed a remotely operated vehicle called a 6K ROV and Magellan submarine early on in their search.
“The problem is they’re not they’re not employing an asset that can actually go down there and confirm its location, and then employing this other asset, the Magellan, that can actually pick it up,” he said. “And by the time they even decide to do it, it’s too late.”
He said the Coast Guard’s failure here was to “not put all your options on the table.”
“It begs the question — could this have been resolved differently if leadership had just acted sooner and actually put options on the table instead of just assuming, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter because they’re dead?'” Crenshaw asked.
NewsNation has reached out to the U.S. Coast Guard for comment.
