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The Titan submersible that imploded on its way to the Titanic wreck did so because of bad engineering and a lack of testing, according to U.S. officials.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the design process for Titan was “inadequate” and that the vessel failed to meet basic strength and safety standards.
OceanGate, the company that built it, did not properly test the sub, so it never knew how strong it really was. The craft was also damaged before its final dive and should have been retired from service.
Titan imploded in June 2023, killing all five people aboard, including OceanGate’s founder and CEO, Stockton Rush.
The passengers had each paid up to $250,000 to visit the Titanic site. Those who died were deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, and adventurer Hamish Harding.
The sub was 6.7 meters long with a carbon-fiber body and titanium ends. It was the second version of OceanGate’s sub; the first had been scrapped after failed tests. The implosion occurred at a depth of 3,363 meters—just short of the Titanic wreck, which lies at 3,880 meters.
The NTSB also found serious problems with OceanGate’s safety culture. Some employees claimed safety mattered, but others described an atmosphere where warnings about design faults were ignored. A former director of marine operations and a technician both said they had raised concerns that were dismissed.
One technician objected to OceanGate’s practice of calling paying passengers “mission specialists” to skirt U.S. laws that ban transporting paying customers in experimental craft.
He said when he warned Stockton Rush, Rush replied that if the Coast Guard caused trouble, he would “buy himself a congressman and make it go away.”
OceanGate has since shut down.
The NTSB said U.S. and international rules for small passenger and pressure vessels were too weak to prevent this disaster. It urged the U.S. Coast Guard to review and update regulations for any future manned deep-sea craft.
Source: BBC.
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