OceanGate, owner of the destroyed Titan submersible, says it has suspended “all exploration and commercial operations” after the vessel’s deadly implosion last month during an expedition to the remains of the Titanic.
Five people died in the disaster. The latest news comes after the U.S. Coast Guard announced last week that human remains were likely recovered from the wreckage. Debris from the vessel, which was plagued by a history of safety concerns, were taken ashore at a Canadian Coast Guard pier.
The announcement was visible at the top of the company’s website on Thursday, but it is unclear when operations were suspended. OceanGate did not immediately respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY.
People on board of the submersible when it imploded included OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush; British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding; French maritime and Titanic expert Paul Henri-Nargeolet; and one of the richest men in Pakistan, Shahzada Dawood, and his son, Suleman Dawood.
EXPERTS:Titan submersible tragedy could lead to lawsuits and regulatory changes
The Coast Guard is leading the investigation into the accident and Marine Board of Investigation Chair Capt. Jason Neubauer said in a statement last week there is still “a substantial amount of work” investigators must do to understand what led to the implosion and prevent a similar accident from occurring in the future.
Though OceanGate is based in the U.S., OceanGate Expeditions, a related company that led the Titan’s dives to the Titanic, is registered in the Bahamas. The Coast Guard said the Titan submersible “was not a U.S. flagged vessel and was never certified or certificated by the U.S. Coast Guard.”
According to the company’s website, OceanGate operates three, five-person submersibles and completed at least 14 expeditions and more than 200 dives in the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Each passenger paid $250,000 to join the voyage to the Titanic.
The company had two more expeditions to the Titanic scheduled for June 2024, the website said.
Contributing: Thao Nguyen, Elizabeth Weise and Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
