OceanGate Suspends All Operations Following Titan Implosion, Surprising No One

Considering the events of last month, when the biggest and most famous OceanGate sub went "missing" and was then determined to have imploded as it reached its destination on the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean, killing all five people onboard, the announcement is hardly surprising.

Titan, the submersible in question, was the biggest story of June 2023, not just because it added to the human count of the Titanic or because it was packed with billionaires looking for extra (but not cheap) thrills, but because of rising buzz that it had existed at the fringe of legality, defying all safety regulations and ultimately the laws of physics.

"OceanGate has suspended all exploration and commercial operations," a notice on the OceanGate website says, ironically right above the "Learn more" button for the Titan dives. Titan is no more, but the company still offered dives on other subs when the post went live. Further explanations are not offered. Not that any are still needed for what is ultimately a common-sense decision, but it would have still been interesting to hear of the company's plans, if any.

On June 18, Titan, which CEO Stockton Rush was piloting, lost communication with the mothership one hour and 45 minutes after it began its descent to the Titanic. This was the first dive of 2023, and it had been delayed repeatedly by bad weather and all sorts of malfunctions with the sub.

An international search was launched. In case of a comms blackout, a sub will reemerge to the surface to send its whereabouts coordinates for retrieval because it can't "see" where to proceed next. In other words, Titan needed guidance from the mothership in order to make its way to the Titanic. When communication was lost, one of three things was likely to have happened: it could have suffered another malfunction but had already made its way back up to the waterline, or maybe it had become trapped or stuck underwater. The third possible scenario was that of an implosion caused by the mounting pressure as it descended.

On June 22, 2023, authorities proclaimed all five men onboard the sub dead. Titan had suffered a "catastrophic implosion" at the moment it lost contact with the mothership, as confirmed by debris recovered near the Titanic. The U.S. Navy had picked up an acoustic signature of the implosion when it happened, but authorities continued the search until debris was found – and after the 97-hour oxygen window expired.

OceanGate duly mourned the loss of its CEO and the other four "explorers" in a press statement, refraining from comments until the most recent – and final – announcement.

A tragedy just waiting to happen

That's how the Titan was described by experts and people from other companies offering similar services, as this damning expose reveals. In the days following the submersible's disappearance, there were countless rumors about the loopholes Rush must have exploited to get his unclassified and untested vessel to carry passengers to such depths while claiming pioneering work. Smoke and mirrors is all it was, based on the accounts of several people with good knowledge of what went on behind the scenes.

David Lochridge, OceanGate's former director of marine operations, is one of these people. He was fired by Rush in 2018 for compiling a comprehensive report on the many things that could go wrong with the sub when taken to such depths, from the lacking failsafes to the improvised quality of certain features, the acrylic porthole that wasn't the correct thickness, and the hull itself, which featured a carbon fiber midsection – an unprecedented combination of carbon fiber and titanium in a vessel that had to withstand pressure of the kind that breaks up carbon fiber with repeated exposure. Which is probably what happened.

OceanGate may be keeping mum on the Titan tragedy, but everyone else seems eager to spill. Former employees, associates, and field experts are talking to the press, painting a picture of a man who, blinded by his ego, set out to take an existing submersible developed for lower depths and retrofit it into something he could load up with people and send down to the Titanic, safety and common sense be damned. In doing so, Rush ignored several warnings, skirted laws, bypassed regulations, and defied the laws of physics – not so much for money, but for the eternal glory of being hailed a pioneer of deep-sea exploration.

The picture painted in the aftermath of the Titan implosion of how OceanGate operated shows a company willing to do anything to do Rush's bidding. "Well, you’re dead either way" is what Rush told a concerned "mission specialist" who kept bugging him with questions on safety in case of a malfunction before he eventually backed out of a planned dive. A "die by the sword" kind of ending for Rush.