The Coast Guard’s final report on the tourist submersible that disappeared on a dive to the Titanic concluded that the disaster, which killed the operator and four passengers, resulted from a series of safety and design failures.
“This marine casualty and the loss of five lives was preventable,” said Jason Neubauer, who led the two-year inquiry for the Marine Board of Investigation, which issued a more than 300-page report Tuesday morning.
The submersible, known as the Titan and operated by a company called OceanGate, disappeared in June 2023 on a trip to view the wreck of the Titanic ocean liner. It lost contact an hour and a half into the dive, and prompted a sprawling search effort in the dark depths of the Atlantic Ocean. The craft’s remains were discovered on the fourth day by a remote-operated vehicle.
Numerous investigations, hearings and news reports have documented failures in the submersible’s construction and operation, which were echoed by the Coast Guard report. “The board determined the primary contributing factors were OceanGate’s inadequate design, certification, maintenance and inspection process for the Titan,” the investigative board said in a news release.
The five people killed in the Titan’s implosion were its operator, Stockton Rush, as well as explorers Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet and two members of a wealthy Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and Suleman Dawood.
The board’s report said the passengers “were exposed to approximately 4,930 pounds per square inch of water pressure” when the vessel imploded, “resulting in the instantaneous death of all five occupants.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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