by Dakin Andone, Lauren Mascarenhas, Eric Levenson, Elise Hammond and Graham Hurley at CNN
A new US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation report found several “primary contributing factors” to the OceanGate submersible implosion that killed five people in 2023.
Some of those factors included inadequate design and maintenance of the Titan and a “toxic safety culture” within the company.
Here are the key takeaways from the more than 300-page report:
- Various failures: The report detailed numerous technical issues, repairs and maintenance problems with the Titan and its hull during tests and dives throughout 2021, 2022 and the beginning of 2023. Notably, in one incident in July 2022, the Titan became stuck in the Titanic wreckage and suffered “irreversible” hull damage that was not properly investigated. The report also in large part attributed the implosion to inadequate design, construction and testing of the hull.
- Company culture: Operational and safety practices at OceanGate were “critically flawed” and contributed to the implosion, the report said. The investigators found OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who died in the implosion, inflated numbers “to bolster the perceived safety and dive count” of the final Titan hull, creating “a false impression of the submersible’s proven reliability and safety.” The report said Rush had all of the decision-making power, despite having engineers on his team, and he fired people when they spoke out.
- Financial pressure:…