OceanGate has announced it was suspending "all exploration and commercial operations" after the destruction of its submersible Titan and the death of all its five passengers, including CEO Stockton Rush. The announcement was quietly made through a small banner header on OceanGate's website.
The small announcement was made two weeks after the company's sub catastrophically imploded near the wreck of the Titanic, sparking a massive multi-day search effort helmed by US and Canadian authorities.
The four other doomed passengers aboard the Titan were Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Hamish Harding.
Officials now believe all five men were instantly killed in the implosion. Further investigations are continuing.
Remnants of the sub, such as its tail cone, were discovered near the Titanic on June 22, with "presumed human remains" also recovered in the days following the confirmation.
Prior to the announcement, the company allegedly continued to market the expeditions. OceanGate is yet to provide further comment or information about its operational pause.
Read Also: HNGN's Coverage of the OceanGate Titan Tragedy
Latest Details on the Titan Tragedy
In the weeks since the incident, Rush and OceanGate were criticized for their complete disregard for vessel and crew safety, which might have contributed to the sub's destruction.
One of the newest revelations revealed in the past few days was Rush's admission that the Titan was struck by lightning over the Bahamas in 2018.
Christine Dawood, Shahzada's widow, and Suleman's mother, also spoke with the New York Times about how Rush turned off all the floodlights on its way down to the ocean floor to conserve battery power.
In the early days of the search, former OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Soehnlein, defended Rush against accusations of hubris, telling the BBC he admired his former business partner's "healthy respect for risk" as well as "the dangers of the deep ocean."
However, "Titanic" film director and deep-sea explorer James Cameron expressed remorse for not sounding the alarm earlier about the Titan's design flaws.
On the culture front, Los Angeles Times arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt wrote an opinion piece describing the vitriol most of the jokes and memes about the tragedy give to the discussion.
