International group of agencies opens inquiry into Titanic sub failure

The US Coast Guard is leading an international group of marine safety agencies to investigate the implosion of the Titan submersible, which claimed the lives of five people during an expedition to view the wreck of the Titanic.

The crew of the Polar Prince research vessel lost contact with the Titan submersible one hour and 45 minutes into its dive on Sunday, 18 June, 2023. After an extensive search and rescue effort, wreckage of the Titan submersible was located on the ocean floor approximately 500 metres off the bow of the Titanic.

The US Coast Guard (USCG) declared a major marine casualty after it learned the sub had experienced a “catastrophic failure with the loss of the five lives onboard.”

On Friday (23 June 2023), it convened a Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) into the loss of the Titan submersible and the five people on board. During a press conference on Sunday (25 June 2023), Capt. Jason Neubauer, chief investigator, confirmed USCG will take the lead. He did not give a timeline for the investigation.

“My primary goal is to prevent a similar occurrence by making the necessary recommendations to advance the safety of the maritime domain worldwide,” Neubauer said.

The operating company, owner and chartered vessel were all Canadian, and the vessel was registered in the Bahamas. The USCG MBI will include other international and national authorities, including the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Canadian Coast Guard, the Canadian Transportation Safety Board (TSB), Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), French Marine Casualties Investigation Board and the United Kingdom Marine Accident Investigation Branch.

An MBI is the highest level of investigation in the Coast Guard. Upon completion of the investigation, the board will issue a report with the evidence collected, the facts established, its conclusions, and recommendations.

The goal is to establish what caused the implosion and the deaths of the five men who were on board. The board can also make recommendations about the need for new laws or regulations to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again, and recommendations to pursue civil or criminal sanctions to the proper authorities.

The investigation is in its evidence-collection phase, which includes salvaging debris and working with Canadian authorities in the port of St. John’s, Newfoundland.

The undersea exploration company Oceangate, which is based in the US state of Washington, had been making annual submersible expeditions to the Titanic since 2021, bringing small crews of marine biologists, explorers and ‘citizen scientists’ aboard, each paying up to $250,000 for a ticket.

Killed in the implosion were Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush; British adventurer Hamish Harding; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

In a 2019 interview with Smithsonian magazine, Rush complained that the industry’s approach was stifling innovation.

“There hasn’t been an injury in the commercial sub industry in over 35 years,” he told the publication. “It’s obscenely safe because they have all these regulations. But it also hasn’t innovated or grown — because they have all these regulations.”