The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has confirmed that the Titan submersible imploded because of poor engineering and a lack of safety checks.
The sub was owned by OceanGate and went missing in June 2023 during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic.
According to the investigation, OceanGate failed to test the Titan properly before its final voyage. The report said the company did not know how strong the sub actually was and ignored signs of possible damage. This caused the vessel to collapse under pressure thousands of meters below the surface.
All five people on board died instantly. They included OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush, British explorer Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The NTSB found that OceanGate had a weak safety culture. Some employees raised concerns about design problems and risky practices, but those warnings were ignored.
A former technician revealed that the company called paying passengers “mission specialists” to avoid safety laws for experimental vehicles.
The report also said that current U.S. and international rules were not strong enough to make sure companies like OceanGate followed proper safety standards. It urged the U.S. Coast Guard to improve regulations for deep-sea vessels carrying people.
