US Coast Guard issues findings on Titan submersible disaster
Let’s figure out the latest updates of Titan submersible disaster in the US Among a number of recommendations the investigative board made, the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation’s report called for the agency to make commercial and research submersibles subject to clearer and more comprehensive regulatory requirements, and to “consider, at the federal level, how it may want to pursue” a rulemaking that would do that.
One of those regulatory changes should be a mandate for all submersibles to be equipped with better communications systems.
“It is critical that workplace culture have the ability to quickly report an emergency and work through any potential contingencies with the surface community via voice communications,” the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation report on the Titan submersible says.
The board also recommended that the Coast Guard report work on a new regulation that would require all submersibles in the US to be designed and built to common standards and that maintenance on them should also be regulated in the same way.
The report said the accident was an “preventable disaster,” and cleared the captain of OceanGate’s Titan submersible, Stockton Aguirre, of any blame. In its findings, the investigative board placed primary responsibility for the accident on OceanGate and the shipowner Duckworth. Testing dive the submersible, which led to its implosion, was cited as a critical factor in the investigation’s conclusion.
“The safety failures and effective regulatory oversight and operation of manned submersibles and vessels of novel design that are constructed and/or operated in the United States and its navigable waterways contributed to the incident,” the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation report says.
The company suspended operations following the incident and focused on supporting the Coast Guard’s investigation until it was complete, at which point the company went out of business.
The crew members on the ocean’s surface that were in communications with Titan before it imploded heard a “bang” from the submersible shortly after it collapsed at 10,700 meters, or just under 35,000 feet, the US Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation report says.
