On the Coast Guard report into the Titan submersible implosion
Ryan Ramsey
Fusion Sector leader | Former submarine captain | Leadership Fellow St Georges House
In the five days following the loss of Titan, I sat down for 27 interviews for media outlets. I did them all because the truth mattered, and because five lives were lost—needlessly. I started each one by being clear: the sub imploded on the way down. Instantaneous. No chance of survival. But clarity doesn’t bring comfort, especially not to the families.
Now, with the Coast Guard report in hand, everything we already knew is confirmed. The leadership aboard OceanGate was dysfunctional. There was no proper process. No engineering rigour. No operational discipline. Just a repeated dive schedule that played Russian roulette with lives. The Titan went to depths it had no business going to, time and time again. That it survived as long as it did is the only surprise in this entire event.
Stockton Rush didn’t just push boundaries—he ignored them. He sold risk under the guise of innovation and cloaked recklessness in entrepreneurial spirit. The narrative of progress became a shield for poor practice. People challenged him. Some left. But new people arrived, and the cycle continued. Everyone knew. And still, it carried on. That’s what a toxic culture does—it normalises the unacceptable.
So let’s be honest. It’s not a tragedy that Stockton Rush lost his life. It was inevitable. The real tragedy is that four others followed him, unaware of just how dangerous the journey truly was.
In submarines, culture is everything. When it’s wrong, nothing else matters—because eventually, it kills.
Maritime Consultant • Founder and Director of Maritime2050 Limited • International Sales AISTER (Spain) • VP Naval Architecture Elire Group • Yacht & Commercial vessel broker Boatshed.com • H2 Working Group Maritime UK
3dA straight to the point precis. Its quite scandalous that it was allowed to happen. Money talks.
Retired (again!)
5dRyan I agree wholeheartedly with your views. But for me the elephants in the room in this case were commercial, financial and operational pressure. The company was on its uppers as far as finance was concerned and desperately needed to deliver in order to stay viable, especially given that customers has prepaid for the dive. Compare and contrast to current UK military submarine ops in recent years where the operational pressure has increased against a backdrop of constrained funding. The dangers are real.
Helping ordinary managers become extraordinary leaders through effective coaching, mentoring and training. Guiding organisations to improved performance by applying business excellence techniques.
5dAs a retired Royal Navy officer, I know this: at sea, culture kills faster than the ocean when it’s wrong. Process, discipline, and engineering rigour aren’t optional - they’re life support. Thank you for calling it as it is.
Babcock
5dVery well said. We had our own close call Ryan Ramsey. I always wondered what the real reason was we had to sail that day, I remember raising my concerns to the engineering officers early hours in the morning whilst we were having issues, to which they said we would be ok, and of course reporting to yourself that we would be ok. We certainly almost were not ok and thankfully we managed to fight through it and come out on top with some large calls being made by yourself also which proved to help turn the tide in our survival at the time. It could have been avoided if the right decisions were made and people listened to, whether it is a military unit or civilian.
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6dLeaders who operate by their own rules with no concern for others around them are the biggest cause of dysfunction in workplaces across the globe. Ryan Ramsey