OceanGate Fate
Ocean Gate Expeditions, the Everett-based business, has stopped all its commercial and exploration activities after their submersible imploded last month, resulting in the tragic loss of five lives.
The company updated its website last Sunday, but as of Thursday morning, all its adventures were still featured there. An organization official declined to provide any additional information beyond the statement.
OceanGate’s Titan submarine imploded, resulting in the tragic deaths of co-founder and CEO Stockton Rush, British businessman Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman, and Frenchman Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a well-known Titanic specialist. The incident occurred while the submarine was descending to the Titanic disaster site.
The submersible exploded on June 22, the same day the OceanGate office in Everett closed indefinitely, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Wreckage from the Titan was discovered about 550 yards from the Titanic’s bow on the Atlantic surface.
OceanGate, founded by 61-year-old Seattle resident Rush in 2009, initially started with a five-person submarine acquired from a private owner. The following year, the submarine Antipodes was introduced and completed 130 dives in just two years. Both Antipodes and the two submersibles developed by OceanGate, Cyclops and Titan, conducted numerous dives in Puget Sound and various locations worldwide.
In 2021 and 2022, Titan conducted missions to the Titanic site, and OceanGate planned additional descents for this summer. OceanGate charged customers, referred to as “mission specialists,” up to $250,000 for a seat.
Recent data from S&P Global Market Intelligence indicates that OceanGate was valued at $60 million. According to documents filed when OceanGate secured a $447,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan, the company had 22 employees as of May 2020.
Last month, OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein expressed uncertainty about the company’s future but expressed hope. Sohnlein, who left the company in 2013, also mentioned that a continued focus on ocean exploration would be a fitting tribute to the five people who lost their lives.
The Coast Guard has initiated a Marine Board of Investigation, its highest-level probe, to examine the events in the North Atlantic waters. The board is collaborating with safety investigators in Canada, France, and the UK, and is working alongside the National Transportation Safety Board.
Despite the website going down later in the day, Ocean Gate continued to list its scheduled missions on Thursday morning. One scheduled trip for May 2024 would take Titan passengers to the Azores Archipelago in Portugal to examine subaerial hydrothermal vents. The sight of “giant burgundy tubeworms, predatory octopi, or graceful crabs,” which passengers may observe, would be of interest to the scientific community.
The organization noted that few people in history have witnessed these enigmatic locations, suggesting, “You might belong to them.”
Underwater Recovery of OceanGate Submersible Wreckage
A report from the US Coast Guard released on Wednesday states that presumed human remains have been discovered within the wreckage of the Titan, the submersible that sank earlier this month while en route to the Titanic.
According to officials, the US Coast Guard will transport the discovered evidence from the North Atlantic to a US port, where medical experts will formally analyze the presumed human remains found inside the Titan’s wreckage, the submersible that sank earlier this month on its way to the Titanic.
“The evidence will provide investigators from several international jurisdictions with critical insights into the cause of this tragedy. There is still a substantial amount of work to be done to understand the factors that led to the catastrophic loss of the Titan and help ensure a similar tragedy does not occur again,” said Jason Neubauer, a captain with the Marine Board of Investigation.
This information comes over a week after authorities revealed the discovery of the craft’s wreckage following an extensive multinational search and rescue operation. The submersible disappeared while attempting to dive to the Titanic disaster site two miles below the surface. The Coast Guard reported last week that the five crew members aboard the submersible were likely instantly killed in a “catastrophic implosion.”
On Wednesday morning, wreckage from the vessel washed up in Newfoundland, Canada. Officials stated that the evidence would aid in investigating the disaster, providing information on the experimental design, safety standards, and lack of certification of the vessel.
Large sections of metal resembling the Titan’s white hull and landing skids arrived in St. John’s on Wednesday. Among the debris were twisted cables and other items likely used in its mechanics.
An essential part of the investigation is retrieving the debris, as industry professionals have questioned the craft’s design and OceanGate’s safety record.
The world anxiously awaited news of the ship prior to the wreckage being discovered on the ocean floor, not far from the Titanic tragedy itself. Millions watched media coverage to find out if the sub would be located before its oxygen reserves ran out.
The Horizon Arctic’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was employed to search for submersible parts on the seafloor near the Titanic wreck. Pelagic Research Services, the ROV’s owner, declared that offshore activities were complete, stating that the crew members were eager to complete the mission and return to their loved ones after working nonstop for the past 10 days.
Analyzing the physical components of the wreckage collected during the search may yield crucial hints about what happened to the Titan, according to specialists. There might also be electronic data, as instruments on deep-sea vehicles typically record and transmit data, though the availability of such data remains uncertain.
The Titan submersible’s loss has been classified as a “major marine casualty” by the Coast Guard, and the investigation will be overseen by the National Transportation Safety Board. While OceanGate Expeditions, a related business overseeing the Titan’s dives to the Titanic, is registered in the Bahamas, it has its US-based headquarters. The Polar Prince, the Titan’s mother ship, was a Canadian vessel, and the victims were nationals of the US, Pakistan, England, and France. The five included Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate and pilot, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, British explorer Hamish Harding, and French Titanic specialist Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
RECENT COMMENTS