Titanic Tour Company OceanGate Suspends Operations After Deadly Implosion

OceanGate Expeditions, the company that became known in recent years for its high-priced private tours of the wreck of the Titanic, has suspended its operations following the catastrophic loss of a submersible that left five people dead last month. 

OceanGate, whose CEO Stockton Rush was on board the Titan submersible craft when it imploded during a dive in June, announced the news with a small banner on its website. The banner simply reads: "OceanGate has suspended all exploration and commercial operations." It's a move that comes just two weeks after Titan was lost in the midst of a dive down to the wreckage of the Titanic, OceanGate's most high-profile offering. 

The craft set out on June 18 to dive to Titanic's wreckage, more than 12,000 feet below the surface of the North Atlantic. By the end of the day, OceanGate reported it missing, and a search was launched by multiple countries and agencies to locate the Titan before it ran out of its four-day emergency oxygen supply. Sadly, on June 22, authorities announced that they had recovered debris, and believe the submersible was the victim of a "catastrophic implosion" that left everyone on board dead.

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Alongside Rush on the voyager were British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, and diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet. In the days following the loss of contact with the submersible craft, various news agencies and experts resurfaced a number of concerns over the materials used to craft the Titan, and the safety of taking the craft to such extreme depths. 

Among those who addressed the tragedy was Titanic filmmaker and accomplished submersible diver James Cameron, who's conducted numerous dives to the wreckage himself and even designed his own submersible craft in the past. 

"I'm struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship, and yet, he steamed up full speed into an ice field on a moonless night," Cameron told ABC News after the Titan was lost. "And many people died as a result and for us very similar tragedy where warnings went unheeded to take place at the same exact site."

For more on deep sea exploration, and Cameron's own submersible exploits, check out James Cameron's Deepsea Challenge, now streaming on Peacock.