The website of Oceangate Expeditions company, the owner of Titan submersible that suffered a catastrophic implosion killing all five people onboard, had the advertisement for tourists for its 2024 expeditions till 6 July, 2023.
The advertisement read: “95% of the Earth’s ocean is unexplored. You can change that. Join a Titanic Expedition. Explore the World’s most famous shipwreck.” The fee for the dive is $250,000 per tourist who must be 17 years in age or older.
Titan was on a mission to the Titanic shipwreck on 18 June, 2023 when it imploded. Search and rescue efforts turned to recovery operation when its debris was found at the bottom of the ocean near the Titanic shipwreck on 22 June, 2023.
The dates for two 2024 expeditions was given as 12 to 20 June and 21 to 29 June, 2024.
On 6 July, 2023 Oceangate was quick to pull down the advertisement and placed a one-sentence note that all its exploration and commercial operations have been suspended.
Oceangate Expeditions planned five missions for 2024 to the Titanic shipwreck. That was earlier on June 13, 2023:
Mission 1, May 9 to 17, 2024
Mission 2, May 18 to 26
Mission 3, May 27 to June 4
Mission 4, June 5 to 13
Mission 5, June 14 to 22.
However, after the Titan submersible got missing on the same trip, it cut the planned trips for 2024 from five to two on June 19, 2023.
When the US Coastguard confirmed the catastrophic implosion of Titan submersible on 22 June, 2023 Oceangate shut its offices and suspended all expeditions in honour of the five who died, including its CEO, Stockton Rush.
The company did not update its website to reflect that the two planned expeditions for 2024 are now suspended. The name of French explorer, Paul Henri Nargeolet, who died in the Titan submersible implosion of 18 June, 2023 was still listed as one of those to join in the 2024 expedition.
Oceangate Expeditions has only one submersible that can dive to the depth of the Titanic shipwreck, which is Titan, that it lost on the June 18, 2023 accident.
The Explorers Club also confirmed that expeditions by all companies to the Titanic shipwreck in the North Atlantic Ocean have been suspended indefinitely.
Three years ago, Oceangate Expeditions advertised for a marine pilot which it deleted from its website a few months ago but, that is still causing a lot of attention.
Many observers wondered why the company seemed to be operating normally without waiting for the result of the international investigation into the Titan submersible incident and the death of its five crew.
It appears that the great media attention, curiosity and stories on the activities of Oceangate Expeditions company, especially its planned dive after the Titan submersible disaster on its website, are finally addressed.
