OceanGate said it is suspending “all exploration and commercial operations” after five people were killed — including the company’s CEO Stockton Rush — during a deep-sea expedition to the wreckage of the Titanic.
A notice announcing the suspension of services appeared in red letters in the top corner of the company’s website on Thursday.
It comes two weeks after a search for OceanGate’s missing submersible culminated in tragedy. The 22-foot carbon-fiber and titanium craft vanished shortly after it dipped beneath the waters of the Atlantic Ocean on June 18. It lost contact with the Polar Prince, the support ship that transported the vessel to the site, about 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent
The submersible’s disappearance sparked a massive search effort, spanning multiple agencies from around the world, all of them racing to locate the missing vessel before those on board ran out of oxygen.
A remote-operated vehicle, or ROV, later discovered the tail cone of the Titan about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on June 22. The Coast Guard later revealed the debris had been consistent with “a catastrophic implosion.”
Prominent Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, British billionaire Hamish Harding and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet all died on the sub alongside Rush.
The deep-sea dive was part of an eight-day journey conducted by OceanGate Expeditions, with those onboard shelling out some $250,000 for a seat.
