The submersible remains of Titan brought ashore after a fatal implosion
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OceanGate Expeditions, the company that launched the doomed Titan submersible trip to the wreck of the Titanic, has ceased operations.
A small message in the upper left corner of OceanGate’s website reads: “OceanGate has suspended all exploration and commercial operations.”
The announcement comes two weeks after the submersible exploded while carrying five people, sparking an international search, rescue and recovery operation.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son Suleman Dawood died in the explosion.
The company has come under scrutiny in the weeks since the tragic accident, as former employees, former passengers and industry insiders have criticized OceanGate for embarking on a potentially dangerous journey in the submersible of questionable design.
OceanGate’s decision to halt operations comes just after the company’s former chief financial officer claimed he quit after CEO Stockton Rush asked him to captain the Titan after he fired the original chief pilot of the ‘ship, David Lochridge.
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The head of the key sub-Titanic recovery team dodges the question about OceanGate
Since the submersible Titan imploded, killing five people on board, the topic of extreme tourism has been hotly debated online and by professionals.
But when asked what the CEO of Pelagic Research Services, the company that helped oversee the submersible recovery mission, thought of the voyages OceanGate took on the Titanic, he said he didn’t have a strong opinion.
“I don’t necessarily have an opinion on that, it’s a robust ongoing investigation at this point,” Edward Cassano said at a news conference last week.
Cassano helped lead the team of pelagic search services people who used their remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to find the wreckage of the submersible last week.
Ariana BaioJuly 7, 2023 07:00
Watch: Resurfaced documentary footage shows Titan spinning out of control
Resurfaced documentary footage shows Titan spinning out of control
Megan SheetsJuly 7, 2023 04:00
Physicist calls for ‘pause’ on all tourist trips to Titanic wreckage
A physicist has called for an end to all tourist trips to the Titanic wreck after a frantic four-day search for the Titan submersible ended and experts said all five people on board died in an explosion.
Michael Guillen, a former physics instructor at Harvard University who himself had a near-death experience near the wreckage of the Titanic, said the ocean is a “merciless beast” and that the remains of the Titanic is a “hallowed ground” where all activities should cease.
“Certainly, we have to stop, stop all the Titanic trips, I think, and figure out, you know, what kind of restrictions we have to put in,” he said in an interview with GB News.
“This isn’t a ride. This is serious business. The ocean is a merciless beast, really. It’s ready to swallow you.”
Guillén entered the depths of the Atlantic aboard a Russian scientific research vessel in 2000 when he was a correspondent for the ABC network.
Joe SommerladJuly 7, 2023 02:00
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush downplayed ‘very loud bang’ on previous Titanic side trip
OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush dismissed concerns about a “very strong stock” during a previous dive on the doomed Titan submersible.
Rush was filmed talking to passengers for an episode of the BBC’s The Travel Show in 2022 when he mentioned that a crew member had heard a disturbing sound coming from the submarine while on the surface of the ocean.
He said the noise was “not a soothing sound” but played down the danger, adding that “almost every submarine in the deep makes a noise at some point.”
It’s unclear what caused the noise, but former OceanGate employees and industry insiders have said they repeatedly raised concerns about the Titan’s construction since it imploded in a dive on the wreck of the Titanic, killing Rush and four other people on board.
The diver’s “experimental” carbon fiber helmet was not suitable for extreme depths in deep-sea exploration, and glue had leaked from the seams of the ballast bags, whistleblowers said.
Joe SommerladJuly 7, 2023 01:00
OceanGate touted the “very safe” sub in the promotional video weeks before the doomed voyage
OceanGate Expeditions released a promotional video boasting of its “very safe” submersible two months before the ship catastrophically imploded in the depths of the Atlantic while diving on the Titanic wreck.
The company’s CEO Stockton Rush, billionaire British explorer Hamish Harding, renowned French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman were killed in the ill-fated expedition after the submarine lost contact with its mother ship. June 18
In the wake of the tragedy, past passengers who previously took the 12,000-foot dive aboard the Titan have shared several concerns they had with OceanGate’s safety measures. However, a promotional video posted 10 weeks before the implosion on OceanGate’s YouTube channel advertised the $250,000-per-ticket trip as extremely safe.
Joe SommerladJuly 7, 2023 00:00
Watch: OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush Reveals Titanic Submersible Built ‘Out of Camping Parts’
‘Missing’ OceanGate CEO reveals Titanic submersible built ‘out of camping gear’
Joe SommerladJuly 6, 2023 10:00 p.m
Watch: The head of the search and rescue company is visibly excited as he describes the search for Titan
The head of the search and rescue company, visibly emotional, describes the search for Titan
Joe SommerladJuly 6, 2023 9:00 p.m
Why did the Titanic sub explode?
In the days after OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and his four paying crew members disappeared on their dive on the Titanic wreck, experts had several theories about their fate.
On June 26, those worst fears were confirmed when the U.S. Coast Guard announced that it had found pieces of the submersible Titan strewn on the ocean floor about 1,600 feet from the bow of the ill-fated ocean liner.
But what exactly caused Titan to implode? While we still don’t know the truth of what happened, we do know enough to have an idea of what might have sealed the diver’s fate.
That of the Independent Io Dodds reports
Joe SommerladJuly 6, 2023 8:00 p.m
Titan’s underwater victims spent their final moments listening to music and gazing at the sea
Passengers aboard the sunken Titan submersible probably spent their final moments listening to music in the dark and watching sea creatures in the depths, it has been revealed.
All five aboard the tourist submarine Titanic were confirmed dead on June 22 after the ship suffered a “catastrophic explosion”.
The submarine’s tail cone was found about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic wreck after a frantic five-day search operation in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Father and son Shahzada Dawood, 48, and Suleman Dawood, 19, were among the victims.
Christine Dawood, Shahzada’s wife and Suleman’s mother, explained the preparations carried out by Stockton Rush, the ship’s pilot and founder and CEO of OceaGate, the company that led the trip.
“It was like a well-oiled operation — you could tell they had done this many times before,” Ms. Dawood said of a briefing given to passengers in an interview with The New York Times.
Joe SommerladJuly 6, 2023 7:00 p.m
OceanGate Expeditions ceases operations after the sub-implosion of the Titanic kills five people
OceanGate Expeditions, the company that launched the doomed Titan submersible trip to the wreck of the Titanic earlier this summer, has ceased operations.
Five people, including the company’s CEO, Stockton Rush, died when the carbon fiber submersible imploded due to the extreme pressures of the deep ocean.
A small red message in the upper left corner of OceanGate explains that the company has ceased operations.
“OceanGate has suspended all exploration and commercial operations,” the message reads.
Ariana BaioJuly 6, 2023 6:30 p.m
