OceanGate Suspends All Sub Explorations After Titan Implosion

OceanGate Expeditions, the company that built and operated the Titan submersible that imploded during a tourist trip to the sunken Titanic late last month, said it has suspended all of its explorations.

The Washington state-based company announced the decision in a banner atop its website.

Five people were killed, including the company’s CEO and co-founder Stockton Rush, after the vessel descended into the North Atlantic Ocean on June 18.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it has recovered debris from the sub as well as presumed human remains. It is investigating the cause of the disaster and whether there was any “act of misconduct, incompetence, negligence, unskillfulness, or willful violation of law” that contributed to the deaths.

OceanGate’s unique, carbon fiber-hull submersible had ferried tourists to the Titanic since 2021, despite safety concerns raised by a former employee and a group that included industry leaders, deep-sea explorers and oceanographers. In a 2018 letter to Rush, the group warned that performing the dives in a vessel that had not undergone long-term safety tests was “experimental” and “could result in catastrophe.”

The company’s website continues to advertise dives to the site of the historic shipwreck, which rests approximately 2.5 miles beneath the ocean surface, as well as dives in Portugal’s Azores archipelago. Seats are listed as starting at $250,000.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for further comment on Thursday.