On 18 June 2023, Titan, a submersible operated by American tourism and expeditions company OceanGate, imploded during an expedition to view the wreck of Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. On board the submersible were Stockton Rush, the American CEO of OceanGate; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French deep-sea explorer and Titanic expert; Hamish Harding, a British businessman; Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani-British businessman; and Dawood's son Suleman.
Communication between Titan and its mother ship, Polar Prince, was lost 1 hour 45 minutes into the dive. Authorities were alerted when it failed to resurface at the scheduled time later that day. After the submersible had been missing for four days, a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) discovered a debris field containing parts of Titan, about from the bow of Titanic. The search area was informed by the United States Navy's (USN) sonar detection of an acoustic signature consistent with an implosion around the time communications with the submersible ceased, suggesting the pressure hull had imploded while Titan was descending, resulting in the instantaneous deaths of all five occupants.
The search and rescue operation was conducted by an international team led by the United States Coast Guard (USCG), USN, and Canadian Coast Guard. Support was provided by aircraft from the Royal Canadian Air Force and United States Air National Guard, a Royal Canadian Navy ship, as well as several commercial and research vessels and ROVs.
Numerous industry experts had raised concerns about the safety of the vessel. OceanGate executives, including Rush, had not sought certification for Titan, arguing that excessive safety protocols and regulations hindered innovation.
Background
OceanGate
OceanGate is a private company, founded in 2009 by Stockton Rush and Guillermo Söhnlein. From 2010 until the loss of the Titan submersible, OceanGate transported paying customers in leased commercial submersibles off the coast of California, in the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Atlantic Ocean. The company is based in Everett, Washington, U.S.
Rush realised that visiting shipwreck sites was a way to get media attention. OceanGate had previously conducted trips to other shipwrecks, including its 2016 dive to the wreck of Andrea Doria aboard their other submersible Cyclops1. In 2019, Rush told Smithsonian magazine: "There's only one wreck that everyone knows... If you ask people to name something underwater, it's going to be sharks, whales, Titanic".
Titanic
Titanic was a British ocean liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912, after colliding with an iceberg. More than 1,500 people died, making it the deadliest sinking of a single ship at the time. In 1985, Robert Ballard located the wreck of Titanic on the ocean floor, from the coast of Newfoundland. The wreck lies at a depth of about . Since its discovery, it has been a destination for research expeditions and tourism. By 2012, a century after its sinking, 140 people had visited the wreck site.
Titan submersible
Formerly known as Cyclops 2, Titan was a five-person submersible vessel operated by OceanGate Inc. The , vessel was constructed from carbon fibre and titanium. The entire pressure vessel consisted of two titanium hemispheres with matching titanium interface rings bonded to the internal diameter, carbon fibre-wound cylinder. One of the titanium hemispherical end caps could be detached to provide the hatch and was fitted with a acrylic window. In 2020, Rush said that the hull, originally designed to reach below sea level, had been downgraded to a depth rating of after demonstrating signs of cyclic fatigue. In 2020 and 2021, the hull was repaired or rebuilt. Rush told the Travel Weekly editor-in-chief that the carbon fibre had been sourced at a discount from Boeing because it was too old for use in the company's airplanes. Boeing stated they have no records of any sale to Rush or to OceanGate. OceanGate had initially not sought certification for Titan, arguing that excessive safety protocols hindered innovation. Lloyd's Register, a ship classification society, declined OceanGate's request to class the vessel in 2019.
