OceanGate: Owner of doomed Titan submersible suspends all commercial operation

OceanGate, the private enterprise that owned the doomed Titan submersible that imploded during a voyage to the Titanic wreckage announced that it is suspending all its exploration and commercial operations. The ill-fated submersible which was developed by the company claimed the life of five people including the company’s CEO Stockton Rush. The company made a formal announcement on its website. The new development emerged after it was reported that the company was still advertising its Titanic exploration weeks after the catastrophic incident. 

The website still features highlights reels of equipments and expedition along with the explorations packages the company has to offer. The Everest, Washington-based company was founded in 2009 by Rush and offering tourists an opportunity to travel beneath the sea. An interesting thing to note is that Rush married a pilot and teacher named Wendy Wail in 1986. Weil is the great-great-granddaughter of  Isidor and Ida Blun Straus both of whom died in the Titanic. Weil later worked as the director of communication at OceanGate after the company was launched. 

The investigation continues

Meanwhile, the Marine Board of Investigation involved in the case is yet to conduct “further analysis and testing" on the evidence retrieved beneath the Atlantic Ocean. "There is still a substantial amount of work to be done to understand the factors that led to the catastrophic loss of the TITAN and help ensure a similar tragedy does not occur again," Marine Board of Investigation Chair Capt. Jason Neubauer said in a statement on June 28. Former National Transportation Safety Board investigator Tom Haueter also called the probe  "uncharted territory" and made it clear that it can take months to analyze the failures of the incident. "This is the first fatality on a passenger carriage submarine I can think of and certainly the first one going into Titanic at this depth," Haueter stated during a conversation with ABC News.