NTSB report finds OceanGate company did not adequately test submersible before 2023 voyage to wreck of Titanic
NTSB report finds OceanGate company did not adequately test submersible before 2023 voyage to wreck of Titanic
The deadly implosion of a submersible traveling to the wreck of the Titanic was the result of faulty engineering, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced on Wednesday.
The NTSB’s final report on the voyage that killed five people in June 2023, said that OceanGate, the private company that owned the Titan, did not adequately test its experimental submersible before the trip. The Washington-state based firm, which suspended operations after the catastrophic implosion, was unaware of the submersible’s true durability, the report said.
The victims, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, died instantly in the North Atlantic during the descent to the remains of the Titanic.
The implosion also killed French underwater explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, known as “Mr Titanic”; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood.
The Titan’s defective engineering “resulted in the construction of a carbon fiber composite pressure vessel that contained multiple anomalies and failed to meet necessary strength and durability requirements”, the NTSB said.
