Canadian safety officials have released a report on the Titan submersible disaster that reads like a case study in how not to build an underwater vessel. The 6.7-metre (22ft) carbon fibre craft dove into the Atlantic in June 2023 with five passengers, lost contact after two hours, and was later found imploded near the Titanic wreck, killing everyone instantly. The report, from Canada’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB), blames both design flaws and a company culture steeped in “groupthink” and “confirmation bias.”

OceanGate, the Washington state - based company behind the expedition, had built a submersible using carbon fibre - a material with “no precedent” for human deep-ocean dives, according to inspectors. They tested two 1/3 scale models, both of which failed at depths above the Titanic’s resting place. The company then tweaked the design to fix “ply waviness” in the carbon fibre but didn’t bother with standard engineering practices like running hundreds of test cycles on a full-scale hull. Instead, they did “relatively little testing,” leaving the hull’s fatigue life a mystery. The craft accumulated damage on each dive - including a 2022 collision with the Titanic’s port bow and a loud bang during surfacing - and was left outside for nearly a year between 2022 and 2023. The 14th dive proved fatal, with hull failure occurring 5.397 seconds after the crew sent a text message at a depth over 3,000 metres. The acoustic warning system meant to alert them? It “did not function as intended.”

Beyond the shoddy engineering, the TSB found OceanGate’s culture was a perfect storm of arrogance and isolation. Employees who raised safety concerns were “dismissed or left,” and CEO Stockton Rush - who died in the implosion - ran the show with a “closed-mindedness” that ignored dissent. The submersible industry was largely unregulated, so no external body checked OceanGate’s risk assessments. Transport Canada lacked key info about the Titan, and in 2021, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans noted the sub wasn’t certified, insured, or built from standard materials. The TSB chair, Yoan Marier, summed it up: “We have been calling for stronger regulatory surveillance in the marine sector for years. Lives are at risk when safety gaps are left unaddressed.” OceanGate posted a one-line statement in July 2023 ending all operations. Shocking.