OceanGate suspends operations after Titan submersible implosion

WASHINGTON: The company that operated the sub which imploded during a dive to the Titanic wreck, killing all five people aboard, said on Thursday it had halted all activities indefinitely.

The Titan sub was reported missing on June 18 and the US Coast Guard said on June 22 that the vessel had suffered a catastrophic implosion, ending a desperate rescue operation that had captivated the world.

Experts last week recovered presumed human remains from the sub wreckage that was found on the deep ocean floor and taken to the port of St. John´s, Newfoundland in east Canada.

US-based OceanGate said on its website that it had “suspended all exploration and commercial operations” after the tragedy, in which company CEO Stockton Rush was among the dead.

Also on board were British explorer Hamish Harding, French submarine expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Pakistani-British tycoon Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman.

They are presumed to have died instantly when the Titan, about the size of an SUV car, imploded under the crushing pressure of the North Atlantic at a depth of more than two miles.A debris field was found on the seafloor, 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic, which sits 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.