OceanGate Suspends Operations After Titan Submersible Implosion

OceanGate Expeditions, the owner and operator of the Titan submersible, said it is suspending all exploration and commercial operations after five people were killed during its expedition to the Titanic wreckage last month.

The company said its operations were suspended in a brief statement on its website. OceanGate didn’t immediately respond Thursday to a request for more information. The company had two Titanic missions for June 2024 that were still listed on its website Thursday.

Stockton Rush, the founder and chief executive of OceanGate, died on the submersible. The other victims were Paul-Henry Nargeolet, who was considered a leading authority on the Titanic; Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, members of one of Pakistan’s richest families; and Hamish Harding, a British aviator and explorer.

The U.S. Coast Guard said the vessel is believed to have suffered a catastrophic implosion while traveling to the Titanic’s wreckage. The Titan lost contact with the outside world shortly after the dive began, setting off an urgent search that transfixed millions for days.

A top secret military acoustic detection system heard what the U.S. Navy suspected to be the Titan’s implosion shortly after the submersible disappeared, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. 

Last week, wreckage from the Titan, including presumed human remains, was handed over to the U.S. Coast Guard. The incident is under investigation.

Rush founded Everett, Wash.-based OceanGate in 2009, with the ambition to use the deep-sea exploration company to expand people’s appreciation and understanding of the ocean. The company completed its first missions to the Titanic in 2021.  

Submersibles operate outside the boundaries that regulate other vessels. OceanGate faced complaints from some in the industry when it didn’t do an independent safety verification for the Titan. In a 2018 letter, the Marine Technology Society’s committee on manned underwater vehicles said the decision risked a potentially disastrous failure for the Titan.

The committee’s chairman said Rush told him certain safety processes, like those mentioned in the letter, unduly constrain innovation. 

A spokesperson for OceanGate previously declined to comment on the 2018 letter.

The Titan’s demise intensified the spotlight on its carbon-fiber hull. Most other submersibles used for either research or exploration are made from titanium or high-grade steel, both of which are heavier and require a bigger support ship to launch. Carbon fiber can fatigue after multiple trips, and is vulnerable to small cracks or chips under pressure, several materials science experts said.

Rush had maintained that the inherent danger in the deep-sea exploration OceanGate did was tempered by a commitment to safety. 

“We risk capital, we don’t risk people,” he said in a talk last year. 

Write to Talal Ansari at [email protected]