OceanGate suspends all operations after five die in Titan implosion

The company behind the Titan submersible which imploded last month has confirmed it has stopped all operations.

The deep-sea vessel was on an expedition to the Titanic wreckage around 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland, when it lost contact with the tour operator an hour and 45 minutes into the two-hour descent, with the vessel reported missing eight hours after communication was lost.

After days of searching, wreckage from the submersible was recovered from the ocean floor near the Titanic after the implosion, which killed all five people on board.

British adventurer Hamish Harding and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood died alongside OceanGate Expeditions’ chief executive Stockton Rush and Frenchman Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

The company has now posted a message on its website saying: “OceanGate has suspended all exploration and commercial operations.”

Speaking after evidence was recovered from the wreck, the Marine Board of Investigation’s (MBI) chairman Captain Jason Neubauer said: “I am grateful for the co-ordinated international and inter-agency support to recover and preserve this vital evidence at extreme offshore distances and depths.

“The evidence will provide investigators from several international jurisdictions with critical insights into the cause of this tragedy.

“There is still a substantial amount of work to be done to understand the factors that led to the catastrophic loss of the Titan and help ensure a similar tragedy does not occur again.”

After the implosion, the other OceanGate co-founder, Guillermo Sohnlein, defended the firm – describing regulations surrounding visits to the Titanic as “tricky to navigate”.