Canada missed opportunities to inspect the Titan before the deadly implosion

Report from The Transportation Safety Board of Canada highlighted regulatory failures that allowed unregistered and unregistered OceanGate to operate Not supported Titan Submersible To operate St. John’s, Newfoundland, for years before that I went off on a tourist trip To a wreck Titanic In 2023.

“When it came to Titan“There was important information across several federal government organizations, but no one was responsible for connecting the dots,” says TBS President Yoann Marrière in a statement. “Without a complete picture of the process, Titan It continued to operate in Canada without regulatory oversight.

OceanGate interacted for the first time with the Canadian government during this Titan It was still undergoing final assembly in Everett, Washington. In May 2021, Fisheries and Oceans Canada made plans to pay the company $25,000 to support deep-sea ecosystem research during expeditions to Titanic The following year. But Global Affairs Canada refused to grant OceanGate a research permit after the company inaccurately claimed Fisheries and Oceans would serve as its sponsor.

the TitanHer first trip to Titanic The following month was not successful after one of her titanium domes fell off, and the ship carrying the submarine sank Horizon ArcticHe returned to St. John’s. But before any of the frustrated passengers who had paid more than $100,000 to see the wreck could disembark, the ship was directed to a secure enclosed area of ​​the port. There, a team of armed officers from the Canadian Border Security Agency boarded the ship Horizon Arctic. They questioned passengers about Covid-19 precautions and their role in the dives.

“They were pretty scary,” passenger Gary Philbrick told WIRED. “I couldn’t get off the ship fast enough.”

Agents also questioned why OceanGate was operating without a research permit. David Concannon, a lawyer who has worked with OceanGate in the past, told them Titan The diving will be done in international waters only, and the customers have left. “They had no interest in the submarine. Absolutely nothing,” he told WIRED. “They were there to look at the papers.”

“That was true. As long as the submarine was properly imported and any customs duties were paid, making sure it was properly registered and safe was not part of their mandate,” says Etienne Seguin-Bertrand, an investigator for the Transportation Safety Board.

Another agency, Transport Canada, is responsible for overseeing regulatory compliance for all ships, including submarines. These requirements include that ships be registered, flagged or approved, especially if they carry passengers. It can inspect ships and carry out enforcement operations if necessary. But Transport Canada decided that Titan It was actually part of Horizon ArcticThe cargo is therefore not an inspected vessel.

In July 2021, a researcher from Fisheries and Oceans Canada traveled on the subsequent OceanGate mission as an observer. They again reported that carbon fibre Titan It is not approved or certified by any regulatory body and does not carry insurance. However, their concerns never reached the Transport Canada team that oversees marine safety Report It does not indicate where the connection was disconnected. Fisheries and Oceans never followed through on its funding plan Titan Missions.

With OceanGate continuing to operate from St. John’s in 2021 and 2022,… Titan He made successful dives to Titanic And many locations within Canadian waters. The company eventually interacted with a total of 10 Canadian federal agencies, including Parks Canada, the Department of National Defence, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. But the company’s operations were not reported directly to the team responsible for marine safety. “In terms of the actual people responsible for maritime oversight, their focus was on the Canadian support ship,” says TSB investigator Jason Melvin.