Titan submersible testimony to enter fourth day after panel hears of malfunction and discord
Another mission specialist who worked with the company that owned the Titan submarine that imploded last year en route to the wreck of the Titanic is expected to testify before a U.S. Coast Guard investigation committee on Friday.
The investigation committee listened to three people days of testimony which raised questions about the company’s activities before the doomed mission. OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was one of five people who died when the submarine imploded on its way to the Titanic shipwreck site in June 2023.
Mission specialist Fred Hagen is expected to testify first on Friday. Other witnesses have characterized mission specialists as people who paid a fee to play a role in OceanGate’s underwater exploration.
Earlier this month, the Coast Guard opened a public hearing that is part of a high-level investigation into the cause of the implosion. The public hearing began on Sept. 16, and some of the testimony focused on problems the company had in Washington state before the fatal plunge in 2023.
During Thursday’s testimony, Steven Ross, the company’s chief scientific officer, told investigators that the submarine malfunctioned just days before the Titanic dive. Earlier in the week, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he clashed frequently with Rush and felt the company was only interested in making money.
“The whole idea of the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little science.”
Other witnesses expected to testify on Friday include engineer Dave Dyer of the University of Washington Applied Physics Lab and Patrick Lahey of Triton Submarines. The hearing is expected to resume next week and run through Sept. 27.
Lochridge and other witnesses painted a picture of a company run by people who were impatient to unconventionally designed vessel in the water. The fatal accident sparked a global debate about the future of private submarine exploration.
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.
But Renata Rojas, a mission specialist for the company, told the Coast Guard that the company was staffed by competent people who “wanted to make dreams come true.” Rojas’ testimony struck a different tone than some previous witnesses.
“I learned a lot and worked with great people,” Rojas said. “Some of those people are very hardworking individuals who just wanted to make their dreams come true.”
OceanGate ceased operations after 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 missing, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Four days later, the wreckage of the Titanic was 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. The Titan has been making voyages to the Titanic wreck site since 2021.