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OceanGate, the company that owned the destroyed Titan submersible, says it has suspended “all exploration and commercial operations” after the vessel’s deadly implosion last month during an expedition to the remains of the Titanic.
Five people died in the disaster. The latest news comes after the U.S. Coast Guard announced last week that human remains were likely recovered from the wreckage. Debris from the vessel, which was plagued by a history of safety concerns, were taken ashore at a Canadian Coast Guard pier.
The announcement that operations had been suspended was visible at the top of the company’s website on Thursday, but it did not note when the announcement was first made.
An OceanGate spokesperson on Thursday confirmed in an email to USA TODAY that the announcement was first posted on Sunday.
Who were the victims of the Titan submersible disaster?
People on board of the submersible when it imploded included OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush; British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding; French maritime and Titanic expert Paul Henri-Nargeolet; and one of the richest men in Pakistan, Shahzada Dawood, and his son, Suleman Dawood.
What’s the latest in the investigation?
The Coast Guard is leading the investigation into the accident and Marine Board of Investigation Chair Capt. Jason Neubauer said in a statement last week there is still “a substantial amount of work” investigators must do to understand what led to the implosion and prevent a similar accident from occurring in the future.
Though OceanGate is based in the U.S., OceanGate Expeditions, a related company that led the Titan’s dives to the Titanic, is registered in the Bahamas. The Coast Guard said the Titan submersible “was not a U.S. flagged vessel and was never certified or certificated by the U.S. Coast Guard.”
TITAN TIMELINE:Patents, lawsuits, safety concerns — then tragedy
The company had two more expeditions to the Titanic scheduled for June 2024, the website said.
Contributing: Thao Nguyen, Elizabeth Weise and Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
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