The Titan submersible plunged thousands of metres into the eerie depths of the North Atlantic Ocean in search of the site of the Titanic’s sinking when it imploded, killing all five people on board.
Among the passengers on the doomed deep-sea vessel, which left Canadian shores on June 18, 2023, were its American CEO and pilot, a French sailor, two businessmen and one of their sons – the youngest passenger at 19 – who brought his Rubik’s Cube on the voyage in hopes of breaking a world record.
The exact causes of the disaster, which has captivated the world and fueled speculation on social media about the likelihood of the passengers’ survival, are the subject of a two-week U.S. Coast Guard investigative hearing that began Monday in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Officials said several aspects surrounding the cause of the failure will be examined, including “historical events prior to the accident, regulatory compliance, crew member duties and qualifications, mechanical and structural systems, emergency response and the submersible industry.”
Among the witnesses scheduled to testify before the Navy’s inquiry are engineers and executives from OceanGate, the Washington state company that developed and operated the Titan, including its co-founder Guillermo Söhnlein.
At a news conference Sunday, Jason Neubauer, chairman of the Navy’s Board of Investigation, said the goal of the hearing was to provide necessary safety recommendations to federal and international agencies so that “no family suffers such a loss again.”
He added that the council will also determine the extent of any negligence or misconduct, and that any potential criminality will be reported to the Justice Department.
OceanGate has come under intense scrutiny following the disaster, an event that is almost unprecedented in the submersible industry. (Submersibles differ from submarines in that they are typically smaller and require support vessels or platforms for launch and return.)
Experts familiar with the Titan’s design have publicly cited several cost-cutting factors that could have led to the implosion. These include the fact that the 10-ton sub was built with experimental materials like carbon fiber, which they say has not been pressure-tested over time at such extreme depths, and the fact that the sub’s hull was designed to accommodate more passengers instead of a more familiar spherical shape.
On its website at the time, OceanGate claimed that the Titan was made of “titanium and filament-wound carbon fiber” and had proven to be “a safe and comfortable vessel” capable of “withstanding the enormous pressures of the ocean depths.”
On its website, OceanGate now simply states that it “has suspended all exploration and commercial operations.”
The Titan lost contact with its support ship, the Polar Prince, nearly two hours into its descent to see the wreck of the Titanic, which lies at a depth of about 13,000 feet. OceanGate promised travelers a roughly two-and-a-half-hour journey to the site, with an additional four hours to tour the famous sunken liner before returning.
But when the Titan failed to return on schedule, the Polar Prince contacted the Coast Guard. Debris from the Titan was found four days later during a search operation, and while public opinion was fascinated by how long its passengers could last in a cramped, airless tube, authorities said they probably died instantly in a “catastrophic implosion” because the craft was unable to withstand the pressure of the water on the high seas.
Among those killed were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61, who piloted the Titan; French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, who used to visit the Titanic wreck site; British tycoon Hamish Harding, 58; and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his teenage son, Suleman.
Passengers paid $250,000 each for the opportunity to tour the wreck of the Titanic, the Associated Press reported.
In the aftermath of the Titan implosion, Söhnlein, the OceanGate co-founder who left the company in 2013, insisted that Rush was “very committed to safety.”
“Stockton was one of the most astute risk managers I’ve ever met,” Söhnlein said, adding, “When I was there, we were always very transparent with anyone who was going to join us on expeditions about the risks involved.”
But others have issued warnings.
Former employee David Lochridge, who was hired to conduct manned submersible tests, claimed in a 2018 counterclaim against OceanGate that he was fired after warning that the Titan’s carbon hull had not been properly tested to ensure it could descend as deep as the Titanic.
Lochridge said in court documents that after complaining that passengers’ lives would be in danger, he was given “10 minutes to immediately clear his office.”
OceanGate initially sued Lochridge for breach of contract, but the two sides later settled. Lochridge is expected to testify at the Coast Guard hearing Tuesday.
More information on the implosion of the Titan submersible
Meanwhile, Nargeolet’s estate filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit last month, alleging negligence, recklessness and ongoing carelessness by OceanGate and others who played a role in its construction. The lawsuit is still ongoing, and a former OceanGate technical director, Tony Nissen, is named as a defendant and is expected to appear at the Coast Guard hearing Monday.
Neubauer, the chairman of the Navy’s board of inquiry, said Sunday that the investigation had been one of the most complex for the Coast Guard, because of the nature of the Titan incident and the extreme depths at which it occurred, making recovery of evidence difficult.
Peter Girguis, a Harvard University professor and adjunct oceanographer in applied ocean engineering and physics at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said he hoped the hearing would spark an “honest conversation about what led to this tragedy” while noting that OceanGate’s Titan is not typical of how members of the submersible industry adhere to best practices in design and safety.
The depths of the ocean must continue to be explored, he added, but he said there was also a broader discussion to be had about whether activities, such as the Titanic tour promoted by OceanGate, on the high seas outside U.S. jurisdiction should be regulated.
“We need to support innovators who think outside the box, but we need to make sure they don’t cause bodily harm or death to others who aren’t complicit in that action,” Girguis said. “The Titan submersible didn’t just sink with its inventor, it sank with paying passengers.”
