Safety board report says doomed Titan submersible operated with no federal oversight

ST. JOHN’S — The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says a submersible that imploded on its way to the Titanic wreck was operating in Canada without any oversight, and it is asking federal authorities to look closer at uncertified vessels.

The board released a report Wednesday examining the Titan sub’s doomed voyage nearly three years ago, which killed all five people on board. Among the dead was Stockton Rush, chief executive of OceanGate Inc., the Washington-based company that owned the small vessel.

Transport Canada knew the uncertified submersible was operating out of St. John’s, N.L., but the department did not oversee those operations, leaving its occupants at risk, the federal investigation concluded.

It also found that several other government agencies knew about the Titan’s dives to the Titanic, but the information they shared with each other — and with Transport Canada — was limited.

“A lot of these government departments had pieces of the puzzle, they knew about certain aspects of OceanGate’s operations in Canada — and these departments include Transport Canada,” Yoan Marier, chair of the federal safety board, said in an interview.

“However, nobody could put all the pieces of the puzzle together.”

The Titan went missing on June 18, 2023, as it descended to the remains of the Titanic, which sank on April 15, 1912. The famous wreck sits on the ocean floor about 700 kilometres south of St. John’s, in waters nearly four kilometres deep. The Titan’s support crew lost contact with the submersible about an hour and 45 minutes into its voyage.

The disappearance prompted a frantic search involving coast guard and military agencies from the United States and Canada. Pieces of the Titan were found about four days later, about 300 metres off the bow of the Titanic.

OceanGate often touted Titan’s unorthodox carbon-fibre hull, which was cylindrical rather than the standard sphere. The vessel was not “classed,” meaning it wasn’t certified by an independent third party to ensure it was conceived, constructed and tested according to safety standards.

The safety board’s report Wednesday said OceanGate had no idea how long the hull would hold up under repeated dives to the bottom of the Atlantic and the systems it had to test the structure were flawed or mismanaged. The Titan began making trips to the Titanic in 2021 and each trip likely damaged the hull until it finally imploded, the report said.

Jason Melvin, a senior marine investigator with the board, said OceanGate’s culture seemed to prevent any improvements.

“There was a little bit of group think that was going on,” Melvin said in an interview. “If there was a safety issue brought up, if it wasn’t aligned with the management, it was usually negatively perceived.”

Officials in Canada weren’t asking about safety either, the report said. Transport Canada was aware of the Titan’s trips but it didn’t know the sub was not registered with any flag state, and thus not beholden to any jurisdiction’s laws or regulations, the safety board’s report said.

Transport Canada never contacted OceanGate to ask about Titan’s safety standards, nor did it send officials to have a look at the vessel, the board said.

“The investigation found that the lack of regulatory oversight to identify safety deficiencies resulted in increased risk to those involved in the Titan’s operations,” the report said.

Transport Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The board recommended the department come up with a system to determine whether an uncertified vessel poses a safety risk and then monitor that vessel more closely. The move would make sea travel safer for thousands of other small uncertified vessels operating in Canada, Marier said.

“We found through this investigation, and also previous investigations … that some small vessels can go through their entire life cycle without ever being inspected by a Transport Canada inspector,” he said.

The report included five other recommendations about oversight, standards and safety management, including that Transport Canada push for mandatory international standards for designing, building and operating submersibles.

Marier said the board provided the department with a briefing on the report before it was released on Wednesday. The department has 90 days to respond, he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2026.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press