NTSB engineer to testify before Coast Guard in Titan submersible disaster hearing
A National Transportation Safety Board engineer will testify before the Coast Guard on Wednesday about the experimental submarine that imploded on the way to the wreck of the Titanic.
Engineer Don Kramer will testify as the investigation into the implosion of OceanGate’s Titan submarine continues. OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was one of the five people who died when the submarine imploded in June 2023.
The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month as part of a high-level investigation into the cause of the implosion, with some of the testimony focused on the troubled nature of the company.
Earlier in the hearingDavid Lochridge, OceanGate’s former chief operating officer, said he was in frequent conflict with Rush and felt the company was only interested in making a profit.
“The whole idea of the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little science.”
Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a company impatient to get its unconventionally designed vessel in the water. The accident sparked a global debate about the future of private subsea exploration.
The hearing is expected to last through Friday and will feature additional witnesses, some of whom are close to the company. Other witnesses scheduled to testify Wednesday were William Kohnen of Hydrospace Group Inc. and Bart Kemper of Kemper Engineering.
The company’s co-founder told the Coast Guard panel Monday that he hopes one silver lining from the disaster is that it will inspire renewed interest in exploration, including the deepest waters of the world’s oceans. Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Rush, ultimately left the company before the Titan disaster.
“This cannot be the end of deep ocean exploration. This cannot be the end of deep-diving submarines and I don’t believe it will be,” Sohnlein said.
Coast Guard officials noted early in the hearing that the submarine had not been independently reviewed, as is customary. That and Titan’s unusual design drew scrutiny from the underwater exploration community.
OceanGate, based in Washington state, has suspended operations following the implosion. The company currently has no full-time employees, but is represented by a lawyer during the hearing.
During the submarine’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after exchanging texts about Titan’s depth and weight during the descent. The support ship Polar Prince then repeatedly sent messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.
One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submarine imploded was “all good here,” according to a visual reconstruction presented earlier in the hearing.
When the submarine was reported too late, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage from the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) from the Titanic’s bow, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.
OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. Titan has been making trips to the Titanic wreck site since 2021.