Titan Disaster: Federal Fisheries Department Was Part of Previous OceanGate Mission

Debris from the Titan submersible, recovered from the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic, is unloaded from the ship Horizon Arctic at the Canadian Coast Guard pier in St. John’s on June 28, 2023. The Canadian Press/Paul Daly

The federal Fisheries Department is shedding new light on its relationship with OceanGate, the American company behind the deepsea Titan submersible that imploded south of Newfoundland in 2023, killing all five people aboard.

The department confirmed Thursday that in the summer of 2021, a staff member boarded a vessel “associated with OceanGate” to participate as an observer during a mission off Newfoundland.