Cause of Titan Submersible Implosion that Killed Five Revealed in Damning Final Report

Company failures, design flaws and inadequate regulatory oversight were to blame for the deadly 2023 Titan submersible disaster that killed all five passengers on board, according to the final report on the incident released by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

“The investigation determined that the as-built properties of the Titan’s carbon fibre cylinder were never validated to ensure they met the theoretical values used in the design process and that the construction and testing of the Titan did not follow standard engineering practices,” the agency concluded in its 136-page report.

It wrote that OceanGate, the US-based company leading the doomed expedition to the Titanic wreckage, didn’t fully grasp the extent of the danger the craft posed to passengers, and was blinded by “groupthink” and “confirmation bias.”

Agency inspectors examined unused pieces of the same material the Titan was made from and found fundamental structural defects that left it subject to compromised structural integrity, according to the report.

Although OceanGate tested the craft at an equivalent depth to that of the Titanic wreckage — approximately 12,500 feet — the report found it failed to test the impact on the vessel after facing the punishing forces of multiple voyages. (Read more from “Cause of Titan Submersible Implosion that Killed Five Revealed in Damning Final Report” HERE)

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