OceanGate announces on its website that it is ceasing all commercial activities 18 days after its Titan submersible imploded underwater, killing all five people on board.
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“OceanGate has ceased all exploration and commercial activities,” it says on its website.
Screenshot: OceanGate
In the days following the implosion, the seabed exploration company faced several criticisms regarding the safety of its equipment used on its expeditions.
Founded in 2009, the company has been offering expeditions to the bottom of the sea to clients since 2010, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to participate, particularly around the Azores archipelago in Portugal and the Bahamas.
“OceanGate uses manned submersibles to enable expeditions to depths unattainable by scuba diving,” says its website.
His expeditions near the Titanic began in 2021.
Titan’s implosion occurred during the device’s fifth voyage near the wreck in 2023.
The small submersible, about 6.5 meters long, had descended on June 18 to observe the wreck and was due to resurface seven hours later, but contact was lost less than two hours after its departure.
In order to find the passengers, a large-scale rescue operation was carried out, which caused a great stir. The teams eventually found that the device had imploded shortly after it fell, killing all five men instantly – including OceanGate boss Stockton Rush.
The debris found on the seabed at a depth of almost 4,000 meters was returned to Earth for analysis.
Canada and the United States launched several investigations to determine the causes of the implosion.
In court documents from 2018, a former executive at the company claimed he was fired after raising serious doubts about the safety of the submersible.
According to him, David Lochridge, the device’s porthole was not designed to withstand the pressure at 4000 m depth, which put the passengers in danger.
William Kohnen, an engineer at the head of an American committee on manned submersibles that brings together companies and researchers, told the BBC his group had raised concerns about the “Titan” being developed by OceanGate.
OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Söhnlein said in late June that security is a “key element” of corporate culture.
Instead, Titan passengers paid $250,000 to explore the remains of Titanic, one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century that killed nearly 1,500 people.
– With Agence France-Presse