Five days after the submersible known as Titan went missing during its descent toward the ocean floor, search officials concluded that the vessel suffered a "catastrophic implosion," killing everyone onboard.
Debris from the sub was found about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic.
"This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor, and the debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel," US Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger said.
The five people on board included:
- Stockton Rush, the founder and CEO of OceanGate, the sub's operator.
- Hamish Harding, a British businessman.
- Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood, who were part of a prominent Pakistani business family.
- Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a Titanic expert and acclaimed French diver.
For full coverage of this developing story, go check out our live updates.
The saga of the Titan — a mini-van-sized submersible named after the ship that became a parable about the folly of man's unchecked hubris — has captivated people around the world.
There is still a lot we don't know about its demise, or what comes next.
But already, the Titan's implosion is putting its operator's safety procedures under the microscope.
As we wrote here yesterday, Rush, the 61-year-old CEO and pilot, had a history of prioritizing innovation over regulation.
OceanGate Expeditions strayed from industry norms by declining a voluntary, rigorous safety review of the vessel, according to an industry leader.
At least two former OceanGate employees years ago expressed safety concerns about the vessel's hull, including the thickness of the material used and testing procedures.
The company also faced a series of mechanical problems and inclement weather conditions that forced the cancellation or delays of trips in recent years, according to court records. The scuttled excursions led to a pair of lawsuits in which some high-paying customers sought to recoup the cost of trips they said they didn't take. The complaints alleged that the company overstated its ability to reach the Titanic wreckage.
OceanGate did not respond to the claims in court and could not be reached for comment.
Several reporters who boarded the Titan noted some of these issues.
For one, Discovery Channel's "Expedition Unknown" host Josh Gates and his team decided after a 2021 test dive of the Titan against filming a segment on the vessel as it "became clear to us at that time that there was a lot that needed to be worked out with the sub," he said.
"A lot of the systems worked but a lot of them really didn't. We had issues with thrusters and issues with computer control and things like that. Ultimately, it was a challenging dive," Gates told CNN's Anderson Cooper Wednesday.
"We were inside Titan for two or three hours," he said. "There were a lot of things that weren't really ready for prime time, it seemed."
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