Coast Guard: Investigation into the implosion of the OceanGate submarine delayed

The investigation into the implosion of the submersible OceanGate found that the company’s CEO repeatedly circumvented safety regulations to make the expedition possible. Photo: US Coast Guard

The investigation into the cause of the implosion, which killed all five people on board, was originally expected to take a year, but the Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation said in a statement that several factors had delayed the analysis.

These factors include the commissioning of two recovery missions to recover important evidence and the need for extensive forensic investigations, according to the Coast Guard.

“The investigation into the implosion of the Titan submersible is a complex and ongoing matter,” MBI Chairman Jason Neubauer said in a statement. “We are working closely with our national and international partners to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the incident.”

“We are grateful for the international and inter-agency cooperation that was critical to the recovery, preservation and forensic examination of evidence from a remote offshore location and extreme depth. The MBI is committed to ensuring we fully understand the factors that led to this tragedy in order to prevent similar incidents in the future.”

The five people who died in the implosion were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his 19-year-old son Suleman, billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

OceanGate ceased operations in July after security concerns were reportedly ignored for years.

During the investigation, outside experts criticized the titanium submarine’s carbon fiber construction. Rush had argued before his fatal expedition that carbon fiber had a better strength-to-buoyancy ratio than titanium.

The investigation also found that Rush had repeatedly bypassed safety regulations and engineering standards in building the Titan, boasting on social media that he had bypassed much of the regulations and red tape necessary to make the voyage possible.

“I want to be remembered as an innovator. I think it was General (Douglas) MacArthur who said, ‘You’re remembered for the rules you break,'” Rush said in 2021. “And I broke some rules to get this done. I think I broke them with logic and good engineering.”

The Coast Guard announced in October that it had recovered the last pieces of the destroyed submersible along with some “suspected human remains” and catalogued them as evidence in the investigation.