The search area was informed by the United States Navy's (USN) sonar detection of an acoustic signature consistent with an implosion around the time communications with the submersible ceased, suggesting the pressure hull had imploded while Titan was descending, resulting in the instantaneous deaths of all five occupants.

[29] According to OceanGate, Titan had several backup systems intended to return the vessel to the surface in case of emergency, including ballasts that could be dropped, a balloon, thrusters, and sandbags held by hooks that dissolved after a certain number of hours in saltwater.

[30][31] An OceanGate investor explained that if the vessel did not ascend automatically after the elapsed time, those inside could help release the ballast either by tilting the ship back and forth to dislodge it or by using a pneumatic pump to loosen the weights.

[42] Reporter David Pogue, who completed the expedition in 2022 as part of a CBS News Sunday Morning feature,[43] said that all passengers who enter Titan sign a waiver confirming their knowledge that it is an "experimental" vessel "that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma or death".

In court documents, Lochridge said that he had urged the company to have Titan assessed and certified by the American Bureau of Shipping, but OceanGate had refused to do so, instead seeking classification from Lloyd's Register.

[65] In March 2018, one of Boeing's engineers involved in the preliminary designs, Mark Negley, carried out an analysis of the hull and emailed Rush directly stating, "We think you are at high risk of a significant failure at or before you reach 4,000 meters.

[69][70] Pogue's December 2022 report for CBS News Sunday Morning, which questioned Titan's safety, went viral on social media after the submersible lost contact with its support ship in June 2023.

[72] In another 2022 dive to the wreck, one of Titan's thrusters was accidentally installed backwards and the submersible started spinning in circles when trying to move forward near the sea floor.

[73][74] According to November 2022 court filings, OceanGate reported that, in a 2022 dive, the submersible suffered from battery problems and, as a result, had to be attached manually to a lifting platform, causing damage to external components.

[84][85] Shortly after the disaster, James Cameron indicated that it was likely the submersible's early warning system alerted the passengers to an impending delamination of the hull,[86]: 08:05  saying "we understand from inside the community that they had dropped their ascent weights and were coming up, trying to manage an emergency.

[87] In September 2024, Tym Catterson, an OceanGate contractor who was aboard the Polar Prince at the time of the disaster, testified at the United States Coast Guard's inquiry that there is no indication the crew was aware of any problems before the implosion.

[90] Simulations developed in 2023 suggest the implosion of the vessel took less than one second, likely only tens of milliseconds, faster than the brain can process information; there would not have been time for the victims to experience the collapse of the hull, and they would have died immediately, with no pain, as their bodies were crushed.

[44] Crews from the United States Coast Guard launched search missions 900 nautical miles (1,700 km) from the shore of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

[107] The U.S. Coast Guard indicated that the search and rescue mission was difficult because of the remote location, weather, darkness, sea conditions, and water temperature.

[108][failed verification] The pipe-laying ship Deep Energy, operated by TechnipFMC, arrived on site on 20 June 2023, with two ROVs and other equipment suited to the seabed depths in the area.

[110] Rear Admiral John Mauger of the U.S. Coast Guard said the source of the noise was unknown and may have come from the many metal objects at the site of the wreck.

[116][117] Officials estimated it would take about 24 hours to weld the FADOSS system to the deck of a carrier ship before it could set sail to the search and rescue operation.

[118] An Odysseus 6k ROV from Pelagic Research Services, travelling aboard the Canadian-flagged offshore tugboat MV Horizon Arctic, reached the sea floor and began its search for the missing submersible.

[149] Photographs and videos showed the titanium covers on both ends of Titan intact, with the single viewport missing, mangled pieces of the tail cone, electronics, the landing frame and other debris.

[158][159] They were joined by authorities from France (Bureau d'Enquêtes sur les Événements de Mer, BEAmer) and the United Kingdom (Marine Accident Investigation Branch, MAIB) by 25 June; the final report will be issued to the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

"[164] The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is investigating because Titan's support vessel, MV Polar Prince, is a Canadian-flagged ship.

[159] A team of TSB investigators headed to the port of origin, St. John's, Newfoundland, to "gather information, conduct interviews and assess the occurrence", with other agencies also expected to be involved.

Cancian said that while the Titan search operation was funded by money already in the federal budget, the U.S. military would assume some unexpected costs, since personnel and equipment were used in an unforeseen manner.

According to U.S. attorney[clarification needed] Stephen Koerting, the USCG is generally prohibited by federal law from collecting reimbursement related to any search or rescue service.

[171] Discussing the scale of the search and rescue response, Sean Leet, co-founder and chair of Horizon Maritime Services, the company that owns Polar Prince, said: I've been in the marine industry since a very young age and seen a lot of different situations, and I've never seen equipment of that nature move that quickly [...] The response from the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Military, folks at the airport, the people here, various companies who were involved in the mobilization of that equipment [...] it was done flawlessly.The scale of the search and rescue efforts and media coverage compared to those for the Messenia migrant boat disaster, which occurred days earlier, sparked criticism.

[51] Cameron expressed regret for not being more outspoken about these concerns before the accident,[182] and criticized what he termed "false hopes" being presented to the victims' families; he and his colleagues realized early on that for communication and tracking (the latter housed in a separate pressure vessel, with its own battery) to be lost simultaneously, the cause was almost certainly a catastrophic implosion.

[183] The Logitech F710 game controller used to steer Titan sold out on Amazon soon after the incident,[72] which was described as "a more benign form of disaster tourism" by the New York weblog the Cut.

[188] Molly Roberts wrote in The Washington Post that those joking about the incident were demonstrating Internet users' impulses to be ironic, provocative, and angry with each other, combined with an "eat-the-rich attitude".

Major elements include the allure of disasters, fascination with the wealthy, conspiracy theories, uncertainty, and the mythology of the Titanic, as well as the romance of rescue operations.

[195] The documentary included interviews with the Canadian air crew that searched the surface, Edward Cassano of the Pelagic remotely-operated vehicle team that found the wreckage, and members of the Marine Technology Society William Kohnen and Bart Kemper.