The U.S. exploration company OceanGate used ” intimidation tactics” to “evade regulatory scrutiny” in the years leading up to the June 2023 Titan submersible tragedy, according to findings released by the U.S. Coast Guard Tuesday.
Those conclusions are part of an over 300-page report released by officials into the incident, which killed five people onboard when the sub imploded underwater while on an expedition to see the wreckage of the Titanic.
“This marine casualty and the loss of five lives was preventable,” Jason Neubauer, who led the Coast Guard’s investigation into the incident, said in a statement Tuesday.
“For several years preceding the incident, OceanGate leveraged intimidation tactics, allowances for scientific operations, and the company’s favorable reputation to evade regulatory scrutiny,” the Coast Guard report said. “By strategically creating and exploiting regulatory confusion and oversight challenges, OceanGate was ultimately able to operate TITAN completely outside of the established deep-sea protocols.”
The report outlines several key causes behind the Titan submersible’s demise. That included the fact that the “design and testing processes for TITAN did not adequately address many of the fundamental engineering principles that would be crucial for ensuring safety and reliability in such an inherently hazardous environment,” the report said.
The report also faulted OceanGate for its continued use of the Titan sub even though the vessel had previously been damaged in “a series of incidents that likely compromised the integrity of the hull and other critical components of the submersible.”
The Coast Guard report says OceanGate had a “toxic” safety culture and corporate structure, and that its operational practices were “critically flawed.”
“The two-year investigation has identified multiple contributing factors that led to this tragedy, providing valuable lessons learned to prevent a future occurrence,” Neubauer said.
Among those killed aboard the doomed vessel was Stockton Rush, co-founder of OceanGate, the Washington state company that owned the Titan. The implosion also killed veteran Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood; and British adventurer Hamish Harding.
