International- Four months ago, OceanGate celebrated a patent for its carbon-fiber hull acoustic monitoring technology.
- The Titan submersible launched June 18 into the Atlantic Ocean, where it imploded, killing 5 men.
Just four months before OceanGate's Titan submersible imploded en route to the wreck of the RMS Titanic, killing all five men aboard, the company celebrated a patent for the acoustic system meant to monitor the vessel's carbon-fiber hull.
That same carbon-fiber hull is now one of the leading culprits in what officials call a "catastrophic implosion of the vessel" during its journey 12,500 feet to the seafloor on June 18.
In a LinkedIn post from February, OceanGate published a belated National Inventor's Day post touting four patents held by the Titan.
"Deep sea exploration requires innovation and collaboration," the LinkedIn post said. "We hold four patents on our systems: one on acoustic monitoring of Titan's carbon fiber hull and three patents on the Launch and Recovery System."
In a screenshot attached to OceanGate's LinkedIn post, the patent for the acoustic monitoring system described the technology as "systems and methods related to testing and/or monitoring acoustic emissions detected at composite structures, such as carbon fiber structures, intended for use in extreme conditions, such as in high pressure conditions."
The patent, which listed OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush as the inventor, said part of the technology's role would be "predicting failure conditions, and the like."
Rush, who died in the Titan implosion, had previously expressed high confidence in the acoustic monitoring system.
"I especially trust our extensive testing and real-time acoustic and strain monitoring system," Rush said in a 2020 Reddit Q&A that scrutinized the safety of his vessel. "We can detect any anomaly well before we reach a critical pressure. We know of no other sub that is so well instrumented."
Alongside Rush, the other men aboard the vessel included French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and Dawood's 19-year-old son Suleman.
The Titan lost communication with its command ship roughly two hours after being launched on June 18, sparking a frantic four-day search-and-rescue effort. Ultimately, an ROV found debris from the Titan at the bottom of the ocean, just 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic.
The Coast Guard and other agencies are still investigating the cause of the Titan's implosion, but experts have already begun analyzing the Titan's construction and have harshly criticized OceanGate's use of a carbon-fiber composite for the hull, noting that it is far more prone to succumbing to pressure than a more commonly used material like titanium.
Upon seeing photographs of the debris, one expert told Insider's Marianne Guenot the most likely explanation for the implosion was that the carbon-fiber hull collapsed under the intense pressure of the ocean.
Coast Guard officials announced last week they have convened a Marine Board of Investigation, the highest possible level of investigation the Coast Guard conducts, to determine the cause of the implosion. The MBI has the power to recommend civil or criminal sanctions based on its findings.