A picture of the Titan submersible wreckage was shown at the bottom of the ocean, The Sun reported, as a hearing on the implosion revealed some of the last messages sent by the crew.
The hearing by the U.S. Coast Guard on Monday began amid an ongoing Marine Board of Investigation review of how the submersible failed last year while traveling to view wreckage of the Titanic, which sank in 1912.
Officials at the hearing also shared a visual re-creation of the implosion, which included sharing one of the last messages the submersible sent to the Polar Prince, its support ship, saying, “all good here.”
On June 18, 2023, the Titan submersible operated by OceanGate Expeditions descended into the Atlantic Ocean to explore wreckage of the Titanic, which 112 years ago struck an iceberg while sailing to New York from Britain on its first voyage, killing about 1,500 people.
Officials lost contact with the submersible shortly after going underwater. It was later determined by the U.S. Coast Guard that all five on board the submersible, which carried 96 hours’ worth of oxygen, had died and that the debris found was “consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber.”
A Coast Guard hearing on the Titan submersible implosion began September 16, as wreckage of the sub on the bottom of the ocean was shown.
Paul Daly/The Canadian Press via AP, File/Paul Daly/The Canadian Press via AP, File
The five people on the Titan who died were later identified as Captain Hamish Harding, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood.
During the hearing, Tony Nissen, OceanGate’s former engineering director, testified, saying that he felt pressure from Rush to prepare the submersible for its voyage. Nissen described Rush as a challenging boss who was heavily focused on costs and project timelines, often leading to disagreements. He said that Rush’s priorities frequently shifted daily.
Nissen recalled that the Titan was struck by lightning during a 2018 test mission, which may have compromised its hull. He said he was fired in 2019, the same year he refused to allow the submersible to descend to the Titanic, telling Rush that the Titan was “not working like we thought it would.”
In a statement to Newsweek, Jane Shvets, counsel for OceanGate, said, “OceanGate expresses our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those who died in the tragic implosion of the Titan. There are no words to ease the loss endured by the families impacted by this devastating incident, but we hope that this hearing will help shed light on the cause of the tragedy.”
“OceanGate, which is no longer an operating company, having ceased all business activity shortly after the tragedy, and which has no full-time employees, is a party in interest in the Coast Guard proceeding. The Company has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB [National Transportation Safety Board] investigations since they began, including at the ongoing public hearing convened by the Coast Guard,” the statement added.
This article includes reporting from the Associated Press.
