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Who would be in charge of certifying a vessel, then? The Coast Guard/Department of Transportation (equivalent) of whichever country the boat is registered in?Plus submarines don't fall from the sky crashing people and properties downrange, so there is no FAA watchdog there.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/20/us/oceangate-titanic-missing-submersible.html (paywalled)
The separate warning that OceanGate received that same year came from 38 experts in the submersible craft industry; all of them were members of the Manned Underwater Vehicles committee of the Marine Technology Society, a 60-year-old industry group that promotes, studies and teaches the public about ocean technology. The experts wrote in their letter to Mr. Rush that they had “unanimous concern” about the way the Titan had been developed, and about the planned missions to the Titanic wreckage.
The letter said that OceanGate’s marketing of the Titan had been “at minimum, misleading” because it claimed that the submersible would meet or exceed the safety standards of a risk assessment company known as DNV, even though the company had no plans to have the craft formally certified by the agency.
“Their plan of not following classification guidelines was considered very risky,” Will Kohnen, the chairman of the committee, said in an interview on Tuesday.
The industry leaders said in their letter that OceanGate should, at minimum, test its prototypes under the watch of DNV or another leading certification company.
The vehicle was intended to operate in international waters only, so it was not technically required to seek certification from the USCG or other authorities.