OceanGate: Firm that owned the submersible Titan suspends commercial operations

The firm that owned the submersible Titan has suspended its commercial operations, it announced on its website.

OceanGate said it has “suspended all exploration and commercial operations” following the implosion of the vehicle last month while on a voyage to the undersea wreckage of the Titanic off the coast of Canada.

The company had planned two trips to the ruins for June 2024 its website showed.

All five people on board were killed, including UK citizens Hamish Harding and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, alongside OceanGate Expeditions’ chief executive Stockton Rush and the submersible’s pilot, French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

Presumed human remains were recovered from the wreckage of the submersible a week ago, along with pieces of debris from the craft.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the vessel’s collapse, which has called into question the regulation surrounding such deep-sea voyages.

A former employee of OceanGate, David Lochridge, had raised concerns over “safety and quality control issues regarding the Titan to OceanGate executive management”, but was reportedly “met with hostility” before later being sacked, according to court filings dating back to 2018.

Read more:
What happened to the vessel?
The stories of the ‘true explorers’ on board

An extensive search and rescue operation – involving vessels on the water, aircraft and remotely operated vehicles (ROVS) underwater – had been carried out after Titan lost communication with the Polar Prince mother ship, an hour and 45 minutes into the two-hour descent to the Titanic on 18 June.

It was revealed the five on board the doomed submersible spent their last moments listening to pre-loaded music in darkness and had prepared for the journey by eating a restricted diet along with wearing insulated clothing for the colder depths.

Tributes were paid to the victims with Mr Harding described as “a guide, an inspiration, a support and a living legend” by his family, while the Dawoods were “best friends” who “belonged together”.

The first British diver to visit the Titanic wreck called Mr Nargeolet an “extraordinary explorer and an incredible individual”, while Mr Rush was described as a “risk-taker” with a “vision who wanted to push things forward”, by one of his friends.