Titan sub disaster report reveals OceanGate had ‘critically flawed’ safety practices before Titanic trip: Latest – UK Times

OceanGate sought to “evade regulatory scrutiny” for years preceding the June 2023 Titan implosion, the U.S. Coast Guard report says.

The company did this by leveraging “intimidation tactics, allowances for scientific operations, and the company’s favorable reputation,” the report says.

OceanGate’s leaders often dismissed the company’s Mission Director, who was responsible for monitoring and directing dives, according to the U.S. Coast Guard’s report.

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush “cultivated an environment” in which the Mission Director was often “dismissed, diminished, or overruled,” leading to “numerous hazardous situations during OceanGate’s dive excursions,” the report says.

A haunting video released in May revealed that OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush’s wife listened live as the Titan submersible imploded in June 2023.

The U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday the implosion was caused by a “loss of structural integrity” in the hull, which led to the “instantaneous” death of all five people on board.

OceanGate sought to conceal that their “mission specialists” on board were “actually paying passengers,” the report reveals.

The company described mission specialists as “integral members of TITAN’s expedition team” and said they participated in “scientific tasks,” investigators say.

“However, despite OceanGate’s description, many mission specialists did not participate in any expedition assignments and conducted little to no scientific tasks,” the report says.

OceanGate tried to “qualify pilots in a single day, even for individuals who had never operated a submersible,” the report says.

A former OceanGate Operations Director told investigators this was a “huge red flag.”

This suggests OceanGate’s pilot training was “insufficient for ensuring the safety of both pilots and passengers,” the report says.

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who was one of five people killed in the 2023 implosion, “sustained efforts to misrepresent” the Titan submersible as “indestructible,” the report says.

As a result, Rush “provided a false sense of safety for passengers and regulators,” the report says.

OceanGate faced “financial pressures” ahead of the June 2023 Titan submersible explosion.

Investigators interviewed witnesses who said this instability resulted in high employee turnover rates. Many full-time staff members were also replaced by contractors and volunteers, the report says.

“The company was economically very stressed and as a result, [they] were making decisions that compromised safety,” a former OceanGate employee told investigators.

By the year of the deadly implosion, OceanGate had even asked employees to “temporarily forgo their salaries” with promises of future repayment, investigators say.

The family of Titan submersible passengers Shahzada Dawood and Suleman Dawood have called for “accountability” and “change” after the release of the U.S. Coast Guard’s report.

“No report can alter the heartbreaking outcome, nor fill the immeasurable void left by two cherished members of our family,” the family said in a statement, according to the BBC.

“We believe that accountability and regulatory change must follow such a catastrophic failure,” the family added.

Shahzada was a 48-year-old businessman. His son, Suleman, was 19.

“If Shahzada and Suleman’s legacy can be a catalyst for regulatory change that helps prevent such a loss from ever happening again, it will bring us some measure of peace,” the family said.

The Titan submersible implosion was a “preventable tragedy” caused by the “sudden catastrophic implosion” of the hull, the report says.

Those on board were crushed by “4,930 pounds per square inch of water pressure,” which resulted in “instantaneous death.”

Those killed were CEO Stockton Rush; businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48; his son, Suleman Dawood, 19; businessman Hamish Harding, 58; and explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77.

There was not a “timely” investigation into concerns raised by an OceanGate whistleblower in 2018, the report says.

Investigators found that there was an “absence of a timely Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation” into the complaints made by the whistleblower.

This was combined with a “lack of effective communication and coordination” between OSHA and the U.S. Coast Guard about the Seaman’s Protection Act, which protects whistleblowers from retaliation.

“Early intervention may have resulted in OceanGate pursuing regulatory compliance or abandoning their plans for TITANIC expeditions,” the report says.