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Deadly Titan Submersible Implosion Was Preventable Disaster, Coast Guard Concludes 124

The U.S. Coast Guard determined the implosion of the Titan submersible that killed five people while traveling to the wreckage of the Titanic was a preventable disaster caused by OceanGate Expeditions's inability to meet safety and engineering standards. WSJ: A 335-page report [PDF] detailing a two-year inquiry from the U.S. Coast Guard's Marine Board of Investigation found the company that owned and operated the Titan failed to follow maintenance and inspection protocols for the deep-sea submersible.

OceanGate avoided regulatory review and managed the submersible outside of standard protocols "by strategically creating and exploiting regulatory confusion and oversight challenges," the report said. The Coast Guard opened its highest-level investigation into the event in June 2023, shortly after the implosion occurred. "There is a need for stronger oversight and clear options for operators who are exploring new concepts outside of the existing regulatory framework," Jason Neubauer, the chair of the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation for the Titan submersible, said in a statement.
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Deadly Titan Submersible Implosion Was Preventable Disaster, Coast Guard Concludes

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  • by Pseudonymous Powers ( 4097097 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @10:56AM (#65567604)
    Basically, the OceanGate guy used his the force field of his personal and corporate wealth to exempt himself and his noticeably shitty business from all the very necessary safety checks. Many such, as the kids say, cases.
    • by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @10:58AM (#65567612)
      At least he had the good sense to include himself among the victims.
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      As yellow-jersey wearing wannabe cyclists often discover, arrogance is not a substitute for physics.

  • Easily prevented by not going under water.
  • There will always be more stupid that can't be prevented. I understand making rules and all. However, there will always be someone smart enough to circumvent them, but dumb enough to kill a bunch of people doing so.
    • All government can do is try to eliminate the profit motive to do stupid things. Unfortunately, the person doing the stupid thing in this case cannot be sued after the fact.
  • That Documentary on this. Listening to the cracking and popping they recorded, would have been all I needed to stop and go back to the Drawing board. Rush had more balls than brains. And what happened left ZERO question about that. HOWEVER... With that said. The audible detection system they worked out, has real merit, and may actually end up being a real contribution to deep dive craft in the future. So, for all the Ego Monster he was, there may yet be something good that comes from this. Like widespread a
    • You should hear the sounds of other submersibles. They're different, but not exactly confidence inspiring either

      • I can honestly say, Rush had a large set. No doubt. Unfortunately, to the tune of His and Others detriment. Takes a brave sort to go under that much pressure. Hats off to all who have the courage to. I can only imagine the sounds and unsettling nature of being that far underwater. Not for me.
    • by kriston ( 7886 )

      Like widespread adoption of the HANS device in Nascar after Earnhardt's death.

      After the investigation, it was concluded that a HANS device couldn't have mitigated the forces that resulted in Earnhardt's death.

  • really should used an wired controller with an long cable!

  • In other news, the sky is blue, and water is wet.

  • Just making a note here... a whole lot of rubbish has been written to the effect that carbon fiber composite does not perform well under compression. Did I say this is rubbish? Yes I did. If it were true then all those aircraft relying on composite wing spars would be falling out of the sky, because guess what. A wing spar applies equal amounts of compression and tension to the composite material.

    The problem was not carbon fiber vs titanium. The problem was shoddy engineering.

    • by kriston ( 7886 )

      I thought I was the only person who thought that carbon fiber works well under compression. We do have the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, whose fuselage is carbon fiber and does experience compression and decompression thousands of times every day and they don't explode or implode.

    • Did you just make the argument why regulation is dumb because all the gungâho regulators on here would ban carbon fibre hulls in an instang based on their emotional takes which they're so sure are backed by science they don't need to check, they just assert it?

The use of anthropomorphic terminology when dealing with computing systems is a symptom of professional immaturity. -- Edsger Dijkstra

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