The missing tourist submersible catastrophe that has gripped the globe may thwart future research opportunities at the shipwreck site of the RMS Titanic in the depths of the North Atlantic, an expedition executive said.
"The chances of any future research being carried out on the wreck of Titanic is extremely slim. Probably not in my lifetime," David Scott-Beddard, the CEO of UK-based Titanic exhibition company White Star Memories Ltd, told CNN.
Scott-Beddard added, "I imagine there will be an inquiry no doubt after this disaster, and much more stringent rules and regulations will be put in place."
Disaster unfolded for the OceanGate Expeditions' Titan sub and the five people on board shortly after it started a dive on Sunday to the wreck site of the iconic passenger liner that lies 12,500 feet below the ocean's surface.
The 21-foot carbon-fiber and titanium vessel lost communication with its mothership less than two hours into its journey to the bottom of the ocean floor off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
It is not clear how close the submersible was to the Titanic wreck when it lost contact.
Extensive search efforts by land, air, and sea have been underway to locate the sub, which has likely already run out of oxygen. The US Coast Guard estimated on Monday that there was 70 to 96 hours of breathable air on the vessel when it took off.
In the aftermath of the disaster, it emerged experts had previously raised safety concerns about the Titan sub.
A former OceanGate employee alleged in a 2018 lawsuit that the sub's safety could be compromised by poor "quality control and safety" protocols that "paying passengers would not be aware" of.
Meanwhile, Scott-Beddard told CNN that the Titan disaster will "without a doubt" have a significant impact on the chances for people to visit and study the wreckage in the future.
Michael Poirier, a trustee for the Titanic International Society nonprofit, agreed that there will likely be a "pause" in voyages to the wreck site.
"Now you're going to have to look at the submersibles ... and making sure they're up to date and making, they're up to code," Poirier told Insider.
Going forward, Poirier said he predicts journeys to the site will be for "more archaeological" and "less commercial" purposes.
The wreck site of the Titanic was first discovered in 1985 — 73 years after the ship sunk after it hit an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 people — and since then dozens of expeditions have been conducted to explore and research the site.
Paid commercial sightseeing trips to view the wreckage, like those offered by OceanGate, are a more recent development.
"Titanic is one of those unreachable, unattainable things for most of us, unless you've been working in research and have been lucky enough to dive to the wreck in the past," Scott-Beddard told CNN.
"She sits majestically on the sea bed," he said, as he called it "incredibly rare for a ship that sunk to be sitting upright."
