Titan sub hearings live: OceanGate did not request Coast Guard inspection of Titan vessel, inspector testifies
The final hearing on OceanGate, CEO Stockton Rush and the doomed Titan submersible will begin Friday
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OceanGate never requested the Coast Guard inspect the Titan submersible, according to John Winters, master marine inspector with the Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound.
Winters testified on Thursday before the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation as part of their inquiry into the doomed Titan submersible, which imploded last summer, killing all five people on board.
Winters also claimed Former OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush complained to him about Coast Guard regulations.
“He did express on multiple occasions that regulations were stifling his innovation process,” Winters testified. The inspector also said OceanGate “never attempted to circumvent any regulations,” despite Rush’s complaints.
Mark Negley, an engineer with Boeing, also testified on Thursday morning.
Negley said Boeing only worked with OceanGate during short periods. The company did a “brief” feasibility study from 2012 to 2013, he said, before doing two acoustic studies in 2016. Their last communication was in March 2020, Negley testified, when Boeing declined to respond to OceanGate’s request for a proposal.
Negley once sent Rush his safety analysis of Titan’s hull, WIRED reports, warning that there would be a “high risk of significant failure” if the contraption went to the depth of the Titanic wreckage.
Shock photo shows how Titan submersible fell apart two years before implosion
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Coast Guard safety inspector worked with Stockton Rush to evaluate safety of OceanGate vessel
John Winters, a marine inspector with the Coast Guard, interacted directly with former OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, he revealed on Thursday.
Winters worked to evaluate the safety of Antipodes, another vessel made by the company.
“We basically took the submarine apart, put it back together, and tested every single system on the submarine,” Winters said.
OceanGate wanted to obtain a small passenger vessel certification from the Coast Guard but did not receive it, Winters testified. The company had to instead apply for an oceanographic research vessel certification, which they obtained.
Coast Guard marine inspector testifies
John Winters with the Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound has begun his testimony before the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation.
Winters is a master marine inspector and helps train other inspectors.
OceanGate co-founder claims milestone in quest to put humans on Venus
The OceanGate co-founder has claimed the latest milestone in his quest to colonise Venus as the inquiry into the Titan submersible disaster continues.
Taking to LinkedIn, Guillermo Söhnlein, 58, shared a post about a new “biopod” with its own climate system that could be used to help humans thrive on the otherwise uninhabitable planet.
Read more:
OceanGate co-founder claims milestone in quest to put humans on Venus
Guillermo Söhnlein shared a post about a new “biopod” with its own climate system that could be used to help humans thrive on the otherwise uninhabitable planet.
Boeing engineer begins testimony
Mark Negley, an engineer with Boeing, is now testifying before the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation
Negley once sent Rush his safety analysis of Titan’s hull, WIRED reports. He warned that there would be a “high risk of significant failure” if the contraption went to the depth of the Titanic wreckage.
Shock photo shows how Titan submersible fell apart before implosion
The ongoing public hearing into the Titan submersible disaster has revealed that part of the experimental vessel fell off before it imploded last June.
Better known as the “Titanic tourist sub”, the Oceangate submersible had a controversial design that raised concerns inside and outside of the company before it led to the deaths of five men. Former Oceangate operations director David Lochridge revealed last week that he was actually fired for raising his concerns.
It is believed that the vessel’s carbon fibre hull – considered by experts to be unsuitable for use at depth – was weakened on repeat dives to the Titanic wreck, which lies at around 12,500 feet below the North Atlantic Ocean, as testified by National Transportation Safety Board engineer Don Kramer on Wednesday.
Read more:
Shock photo shows how Titan submersible fell apart before implosion
‘This was never sold as a Disney ride,’ a former passenger claimed
Thursday hearing kicks off with NASA engineer
Today’s hearing before the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation kicked off with testimony from Justin Jackson, a materials engineer with NASA.
OceanGate had approached NASA about performance testing in their deep-sea facility, Jackson’s testimony revealed.
Soon afterward, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and OceanGate sought other partners as in-person facility use was limited, Jackson said.
Testimony to resume on Thursday
Testimony in the OceanGate Titan sub hearings before the US Coast Guard are set to resume today.
Expected to testify are experts from the Coast Guard, NASA and Boeing. They are expected to talk more about the disaster that claimed the lives of five people.
It's part of 10 days worth of testimony as investigators try to determine what went wrong before the implosion and if there were warning signs that were missed by OceanGate officials.
Blog coverage to resume Thursday morning
Wednesday’s testimony before the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation has ended.
Blog coverage will resume when the next hearing begins on Thursday morning.
ICYMI: Watch as long-time friend of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush testifies that Titan sub explosion was ‘expected’
ICYMI: New photos of Titan wreckage revealed
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