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The U.S. Coast Guard has released a damning 300-page report on the 2023 Titan submersible implosion, calling it “a preventable tragedy”—the direct result of reckless and deceptive behavior by OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
But the report is also damning for the Coast Guard itself, which now admits it needs to track safety tests better and use “group email” with OSHA. Because… they weren’t?
According to the report, the company “leveraged intimidation tactics, allowances for scientific operations, and the company’s favorable reputation to evade regulatory scrutiny.”
One internal document is particularly telling: the Director of Marine Operations inspected Titan ahead of its first mission and submitted 26 safety recommendations. Only nine were addressed. Among the overlooked issues? A note dated January 18, 2018:
“Glue coming away from seams.”
On a submarine!? He was fired five days later.
The report further states that Rush created a “false sense of safety and security… through his misrepresentation of the TITAN’s safety, achieved by falsely claiming substantial safety margins, misleading mission specialists regarding testing procedures, and exaggerating the number of hull test dives for the final TITAN hull.”
So here’s the question:
How was he allowed to get away with this?
How many other experimental crafts are faking safety tests and still taking passengers? The Coast Guard now promises tighter oversight—but that feels like locking the hatch after the sub has already imploded.