OceanGate suspends operations after deadly Titan expedition

The company that owned the submersible that imploded on its way to visit the 1912 wreck of the Titanic last month has suspended its expeditions.  

OceanGate owns the Titan submersible, which went missing June 18 after it lost communication less than two hours into its dive to visit the wreckage more than 2 miles beneath the ocean’s surface. The company said later that it believed all five passengers of the submersible to be dead following the U.S. Coast Guard’s determination that a debris field found near the last known location of the submersible was consistent with the “catastrophic implosion of the vessel.” 

A notice on the top left corner of the OceanGate Expeditions website states that the company “has suspended all exploration and commercial operations.” 

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was among the five passengers on the Titan submersible, along with Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet.  

The Coast Guard is continuing to investigate the implosion of the Titan submersible and said in June that experts will analyze “presumed human remains” found in the wreckage site of the vessel. 

OceanGate had led two previous expeditions to take tourists to view the Titanic in 2021 and 2022 and charged up to $250,000 for each passenger, but in the days and weeks since the implosion, questions about whether the submersible met safety regulations have been raised.

OceanGate is based in the U.S., while its related company, OceanGate Expeditions, is registered in the Bahamas.  

The Associated Press contributed to this report.