On June 18, 2023, OceanGate's submersible Titan imploded during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic, killing all five people aboard. Debris was found on the seafloor four days later after a multinational search. A US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation and the NTSB both attributed the loss mainly to OceanGate's engineering, testing and maintenance practices.
Both investigations are complete. The Marine Board reported in August 2025 and the NTSB in October 2025. No Final Action Memorandum from the Coast Guard Commandant was found as of October 31, 2026. A wrongful death suit filed in King County, Washington in 2024 was still being litigated in June 2026, according to Law360.
The Coast Guard board said occupants of Titan's dive 80 to the Titanic wreck heard a large bang while ascending near the surface, which the submersible's acoustic sensors recorded. It said OceanGate concluded the sound came from Titan shifting in its frame and never removed the insert to examine the hull's inner carbon fiber layer. The NTSB later found the hull likely sustained delamination damage after this dive.
The Marine Board of Investigation said the Polar Prince, towing Titan and its launch platform, arrived near the Titanic wreck site at 5:15 a.m. Its report gives all times in Newfoundland Daylight Time.
At 8:30 a.m. the five participants in dive 88 were loaded into Titan and the forward dome was secured, according to the board. OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who died in the implosion, was the pilot.
The board said the dive began at about 9:14 a.m. when Titan disengaged from the platform and began a free fall descent. At 9:28 a.m. messages confirmed it was descending at 33 meters per minute.
According to the board, communication with Titan was lost at 9:53 a.m. after it veered off its direct course. The Polar Prince repeated its messages for 13 minutes before Titan answered with a communications check at 10:08 a.m.
At 10:47:02 a.m. Titan reported dropping two weights, and at 10:47:08 it sent an automated transmission recording its final position at a depth of 3,346.28 meters, the board said. It found Titan imploded at about 10:47:09 a.m., killing all five people aboard instantly. The communications team on the Polar Prince heard a bang two seconds later.
The board said the Polar Prince sent two to three messages a minute until 2:50 p.m. without reply. OceanGate expected Titan to surface at about 3:00 p.m., and when it did not the ship began a surface grid search under the company's procedures.
The Polar Prince's master told the board he called the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax by satellite phone at 6:27 p.m. and was told the wreck area fell under the US Coast Guard's Rescue Coordination Center in Boston.
At 7:10 p.m., about seven hours and 23 minutes after the last communication, the Polar Prince contacted the Canadian Coast Guard and was referred to the Boston rescue centre, the board said. It said the First Coast Guard District then entered the distress phase and had not been aware of OceanGate's dive operations at the wreck.
The board said a Coast Guard Ice Patrol C-130 left Newfoundland at 10:00 p.m., the first asset deployed, later joined by P-3 aircraft dropping sonobuoys.
On June 19 OceanGate asked the US Air Force rescue centre to fly a Pelagic Odysseus remotely operated vehicle from Buffalo, New York, to Newfoundland, an asset not in its emergency plan, according to the board.
The pipe laying vessel Deep Energy arrived at 5:17 a.m. as the first vessel able to deploy remotely operated vehicles, the board said. Over the following days 11 vessels and 4 aircraft searched 12,145 square miles, according to the report's narrative section.
At about 9:40 a.m. the Odysseus vehicle, deployed from the Horizon Arctic, found Titan's aft tail cone and other debris, which the board said provided conclusive evidence of the loss of the submersible and the deaths of all five aboard.
The Coast Guard's Deputy Commandant for Operations ordered a Marine Board of Investigation, chaired by Jason Neubauer, into the implosion. The NTSB carried out joint evidence collection for its own concurrent investigation.
The board designated OceanGate, the owner of Titan, and the owner and operator of the Polar Prince as parties in interest. It withdrew the Polar Prince operator's designation on August 13, 2024.
OceanGate suspended operations in July 2023 and later wound down, the Associated Press reported.
The Coast Guard's Office of Search and Rescue convened a five member after action board to review the search response and lessons for undersea incidents, the Marine Board's report said.
The family of one of the people who died filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking more than 50 million dollars in King County, Washington, accusing OceanGate of gross negligence and naming the estate of Stockton Rush among the defendants, the Associated Press reported. OceanGate declined to comment.
The board held one public hearing session in Charleston, South Carolina, in September 2024, at which 26 witnesses testified over nine days. The hearings were live streamed.
The board found that OceanGate's failure to follow established engineering protocols for safety, testing and maintenance was the primary causal factor and called the loss preventable. The Coast Guard said the report also cited a toxic workplace culture at OceanGate, an inadequate regulatory framework and an ineffective whistleblower process, and contained 17 safety recommendations.
The board said it identified conduct that may have violated the federal seaman's manslaughter statute and that, had OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush survived, it would have recommended referring the matter to the Justice Department. It concluded that Rush, as CEO and acting pilot, showed negligence that contributed to the deaths of the four others aboard, and noted only the Justice Department could decide whether a crime was committed.
The Coast Guard said the report was under review by the Commandant, who would then issue a Final Action Memorandum confirming the agency's position on the recommendations and any actions to be pursued.
The NTSB found the probable cause was OceanGate's inadequate engineering process, which failed to establish the hull's actual strength and durability and led to operation of a damaged carbon fiber pressure vessel that failed by local buckling. It also cited insufficient voluntary guidance and regulations, and called the Coast Guard's search coordination effective.
Henkel Corp. asked a Washington state judge to dismiss it from the 50 million dollar wrongful death lawsuit, arguing its Loctite adhesive played no role in the alleged design and manufacturing flaws, Law360 reported.
Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Co., a Tokio Marine unit that had sued in July 2026 arguing its policies did not cover the Titan loss, voluntarily dismissed its case against the OceanGate Foundation and an estate administrator without prejudice in federal court in Washington state, Bloomberg Law reported.
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Last updated 31 October 2026. Spotted an error? See corrections. Every event links to the record it comes from. Allegations are attributed to whoever made them.
