The U.S. Coast Guard has begun a hearing into the implosion of the Titan submersible by interviewing OceanGate employees.
The Coast Guard was scheduled to hear from former employees of the company that owned the Titan submersible on Monday.
The experimental submersible Titan imploded in the North Atlantic in June 2023, killing all five people on board and hitting headlines worldwide.
The aim of the two-week hearing in Charleston County, South Carolina, is to “uncover the facts surrounding the incident and develop recommendations to prevent similar tragedies in the future,” the Coast Guard said in a statement earlier this month.
A decal on a piece of equipment which reads “Titan” is pictured near a trailer with the OceanGate logo at OceanGate Expedition’s headquarters in the Port of Everett Boat Yard in Everett, Washington, on June 22, 2023. All five people aboard a submersible missing near the wreck of the Titanic died — likely in an instant — after their vessel suffered what the U.S. Coast Guard said June 22, 2023 was a “catastrophic implosion” in the ocean depths.
Jason Redmond / AFP/Getty Images
The ongoing Marine Board of Investigation is the highest level of marine casualty investigation conducted by the Coast Guard.
Those killed in the accident included Stockton Rush, the co-founder of OceanGate.
OceanGate, which suspended operations after the incident, and currently has no full-time employees, will be represented by an attorney during the hearings.
Key witnesses slated to testify include the company’s former engineering director, Tony Nissen, former finance director, Bonnie Carl, and former contractor Tym Catterson.
Absent from the witness list is Wendy Rush, the widow of Stockton Rush and OceanGate’s former communications director.
The Coast Guard does not comment on the reasons for not calling specific individuals to a particular hearing during ongoing investigations, said Melissa Leake, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard.
She added that it’s common for a Marine Board of Investigation to “hold multiple hearing sessions or conduct additional witness depositions for complex cases.”
Scheduled to appear later in the hearing are OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein; former operations director, David Lochridge; and former scientific director, Steven Ross, according to a list compiled by the Coast Guard.
Numerous guard officials, scientists, and government and industry officials are also expected to testify.
The U.S. Coast Guard subpoenaed witnesses who were not government employees, Leake said.
The company has pledged full cooperation with both the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board investigations.
A spokesperson said: “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.”
The Titan submersible had faced scrutiny within the undersea exploration community for its unconventional design and its creator’s decision to forgo standard independent checks.
The June 2023 implosion claimed the lives of Stockton Rush, veteran Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British adventurer Hamish Harding, and Shahzada Dawood along with his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood, members of a prominent Pakistani family.
The Titan lost contact with its support vessel approximately two hours into its final dive on June 18, 2023, prompting an extensive international search, with rescuers deploying ships, planes, and equipment to an area around 435 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
The wreckage of the Titan was eventually found on the ocean floor, about 300 meters from the Titanic’s bow.
The Coast Guard had initially set a one-year time frame for the investigation, but the complex nature of the case extended this deadline.
The current hearings will explore “all aspects of the loss of the Titan,” including mechanical failures, regulatory compliance, and crew qualifications.
Earlier this year, scientists proposed that “micro-buckling” in the hull of the Titan submersible may have caused it to collapse under pressure.
Professor of civil and environmental engineering Roberto Ballarini suggested that imperfections in the carbon fiber used to construct Titan’s hull, compounded by any damage accrued during the vessel’s previous dives, could have left it vulnerable to micro-buckling and, ultimately, the craft’s collapse.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press
