Nearly a year after the OceanGate Titan submersible imploded during a dive to view the Titanic, killing five people, the U.S. Coast Guard has released an update on its investigation into the tragedy.
The Coast Guard said on Friday it was “actively investigating” the deaths of British billionaire Hamish Harding, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, father and son Shazada Daoud and Suleiman Daoud, and French sailor Paul-Henry Narjolet. “It will take longer to complete than originally planned.”
The five died on June 18 last year, an hour and 45 minutes after the submersible began its journey to the bottom of the North Atlantic, where the sunken Titanic lies dangerously deep, 12,500 feet below the surface.
“The investigation into the Titan submersible explosion is complex and ongoing,” said Coast Guard Marine Investigations Board (MBI) Chairman Jason Neubauer. “We are working closely with our domestic and international partners to gain a comprehensive understanding of the incident.”
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An undated photo shows Ocean Gate’s Titan submersible, which exploded on June 18, 2023. (Ocean Gate/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The Coast Guard initially expected the investigation to be completed within a year, but Friday’s announcement said the probe had been extended due to factors including the need to commission two salvage operations to retrieve key evidence, as well as the need for extensive forensic testing.
“We appreciate the international collaboration and interagency cooperation that was essential to the recovery, preservation and forensic examination of evidence from remote offshore waters and extreme depths,” Neubauer said. “MBI is committed to fully understanding the factors that caused this tragedy in order to prevent similar incidents in the future.”
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The MBI said it plans to hold a public hearing on the investigation before the end of the year.
Inset, from left: Suleiman Dawood, Shahzada Dawood, Stockton Rush, Paul Henry Narjolett, and Hamish Harding, all died in the Titan submersible explosion. (Engro Corp. | REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton | @OceanGateExped/Twitter | Felix Kunze/Blue Origin via The Associated Press | OceanGate/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“As we approach the one-year anniversary of the incident, MBI offers its deepest condolences to the family and friends of the five men and women who lost their lives in the incident,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.
A nearly week-long search was launched to find the vessel after the submersible lost contact with its mother ship last year, and investigators initially believed the passengers were still alive and trapped by a lack of oxygen.
The remains of Titan were discovered four days later not far from the wreckage of the Titanic, and were eventually brought to the surface for examination.
The United States Coast Guard held a press conference on June 22, 2023, announcing that wreckage had been found near where the Titan submersible went missing. (Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images/File)
The Coast Guard confirmed that the crew were killed in a “catastrophic implosion” of the ship, adding that the Navy had heard underwater sounds consistent with an implosion on June 18, when contact was lost with the Titan.
After the submersible was recovered in late June last year, the Coast Guard said “presumed human remains” had been found.
The remains of the Titan submersible, recovered from the ocean floor near the wreckage of the Titanic, are lowered from the Horizon Arctic at the Canadian Coast Guard Pier in St. John’s, Newfoundland, on June 28, 2023. (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press via The Associated Press/File)
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“US medical experts will now carry out a formal analysis of the presumed human remains which were carefully recovered from the wreckage at the crash site,” the MBI said at the time.
