The U.S. exploration company OceanGate used “intimidation tactics” to “evade regulatory scrutiny” in the years leading up to the June 2023 Titan submersible tragedy, according to findings released by the U.S. Coast Guard Tuesday.
Those conclusions are part of an over 300-page report released by officials into the incident, which killed five people onboard when the sub imploded underwater while on an expedition to see the wreckage of the Titanic.
“This marine casualty and the loss of five lives was preventable,” Jason Neubauer, who led the Coast Guard’s investigation into the incident, said in a statement Tuesday.
“For several years preceding the incident, OceanGate leveraged intimidation tactics, allowances for scientific operations, and the company’s favorable reputation to evade regulatory scrutiny,” the Coast Guard report said. “By strategically creating and exploiting regulatory confusion and oversight challenges, OceanGate was ultimately able to operate TITAN completely outside of the established deep-sea protocols.”
The report outlines several key causes behind the Titan submersible’s demise. That included the fact that the “design and testing processes for TITAN did not adequately address many of the fundamental engineering principles that would be crucial for ensuring safety and reliability in such an inherently hazardous environment,” the report said.
The report also faulted OceanGate for its continued use of the Titan sub even though the vessel had previously been damaged in “a series of incidents that likely compromised the integrity of the hull and other critical components of the submersible.”
On the day of the tragedy, the sub’s hull “experienced a critical event that compromised the structural integrity of its pressure vessel, resulting in an instantaneous and catastrophic implosion,” according to the Coast Guard’s investigation.
The Coast Guard report also found that OceanGate had a “toxic” safety culture and corporate structure, and that its operational practices were “critically flawed.”
That included a workplace environment which “used firings of senior staff members and the looming threat of being fired to dissuade employees and contractors from expressing safety concerns.”
In February 2018, OceanGate’s former director of marine operations filed a whistleblower complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, alleging he was dismissed because he voiced safety concerns about the “first TITAN hull’s development and testing plans.”
In response to the complaint, OceanGate filed a lawsuit against the former employee, accusing him of violating a confidentiality agreement he had signed with the company.
That whistleblower complaint was not processed in a timely fashion by relevant U.S. federal agencies, according to the Coast Guard’s report, and the ex-employee withdrew the complaint, citing the “emotional toll of the ensuing legal battle.”
“The two-year investigation has identified multiple contributing factors that led to this tragedy, providing valuable lessons learned to prevent a future occurrence,” Neubauer said.
Among those killed aboard the doomed vessel was Stockton Rush, co-founder of OceanGate, the Washington state company that owned the Titan. The implosion also killed veteran Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood; and British adventurer Hamish Harding.
The Coast Guard’s findings pointed the finger of blame largely at Rush, who investigators said ignored warnings about the hull damage that had been identified during a previous exploration in 2022.
“Mr. Rush’s overconfidence influenced OceanGate’s personnel, contractors, and mission specialists, creating an environment where safety concerns were ignored or underemphasized in favor of operational continuity,” the Coast Guard’s analysis found.
Had Rush survived the tragedy, the Coast Guard said that it would have recommended the U.S. Department of Justice to consider pursuing a criminal investigation into his actions, which the report said “exhibited negligence that contributed to the deaths of four individuals.”
In a statement following the release of the Coast Guard report, Jane Shvets, legal counsel to OceanGate, said: “We again offer our deepest condolences to the families of those who died on June 18, 2023, and to all those impacted by the tragedy. After the tragedy occurred, the company permanently wound down operations and directed its resources fully towards cooperating with the Coast Guard’s inquiry through its completion.”