The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its final report on the implosion of the Titan submersible in June 2023, concluding that faulty engineering and inadequate testing by OceanGate caused the disaster that killed five people.
The report, published on Wednesday, stated that the carbon fibre pressure vessel used in the Titan contained multiple anomalies and failed to meet necessary strength and durability requirements. OceanGate, the Washington-based company that owned the submersible, did not adequately test the experimental vessel before the voyage to the wreck of the Titanic, the NTSB said.
The victims included OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British adventurer Hamish Harding, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood. They died instantly when the submersible imploded during its descent in the North Atlantic on 18 June 2023.
The NTSB also criticised OceanGate's safety culture, citing a former technician who raised concerns about the company's practices. The report noted that the company did not follow standard emergency response protocols, which could have saved time and resources in the search, though rescue was not possible.
The findings align with a Coast Guard report from August that described the implosion as preventable and found 'critically flawed' safety procedures. The NTSB recommended that the Coast Guard establish an expert panel to study submersibles and update regulations, as current rules for small passenger vessels were inadequate and enabled unsafe operations.
