Titan sub hearing live: OceanGate volunteer said nobody was concerned until sub ‘was really overdue’ from dive
Coast Guard has released more footage of the Titan submersible wreckage including remnants of its hull scattered on the sea bed, following the ‘catastrophic implosion’ that killed all five passengers on board
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A tearful mission specialist recounted collecting personal belongings from the victims of the OceanGate sub before it dove under the water and the dangers of dives to the site of the Titanic wreck.
Renata Rojas, the mission specialist from the US submersible company that operated the expedition, addressed the US Coast Guard Titan Marine Board of Investigations panel on Thursday.
Once Rojas was released, former OceanGate scientific director Dr Steven Ross spoke about a frightening mission that left him and other passengers at the surface unable to get out of the Titan submersible.
“The rest of the passengers tumbled about,” he said. “I ended up standing on the rear bulkhead. One passenger was hanging upside down.”
They are just two of several witnesses testifying to the panel investigating the “catastrophic implosion” of the Titan submersible, killing all five passengers on board.
Earlier this week, David Lochridge, a former OceanGate employee, stated he had “no confidence whatsoever” with the Titan’s construction.
“It was inevitable something was going to happen. It was just a [question of] when,” the whistleblower, who is one of 10 ex-OceanGate staff or suppliers that make up the 24 witnesses, testified.
‘A lot of steps along the way were missed’ in the building of Titan
“I had no confidence whatsoever” with how the Titan was being built, he said.
“There was a big push to get this done and a lot of steps along the way were missed,” including safety concerns, Lochridge said.
“Stockton had no experience building submersibles. No one did,” he said.
Speaking about OceanGate’s social media that boasted photos of its previous missions, Lochridge said: “It was all smoke and mirrors.”
He reiterated that no one should be launching a submersible without proper safety precautions — or with “faulty, deficient equipment.”
Lochridge also revealed his note attached to his January 2018 inspection report to the directors. He wrote: “It is my opinion that until suitable corrective actions are in place and closed out, Cyclops 2 (Titan) should not be manned during any of the upcoming trials.”
Lochridge says Rush threw a controller at his head
David Lochridge said he was hired by OceanGate in 2015 as a contractor. He later became the director of marine operations.
“They were selling me as part of this project,” he said, adding that he was “responsible” for the training.
“They wanted to be able to qualify a pilot in a day,” Lochridge said of OceanGate. “It was a huge red flag,” since it is usually a “long process.”
“I don’t like being bullied into anything. I don’t tolerate liars. If I see something that’s a risk, I will put my hand up,” he said.
Lochridge also mentioned a dive on the Cyclops I to the Andrea Doria wreckage site that went awry. The test submersible “smashed” into the wreck, but Rush refused to hand over the “Playstation controller” to Lochridge. A “paying client” insisted he hand over control.
That’s when Rush threw the controller at Lochridge’s head, he said.
David Lochridge, a highly anticipated witness, will testify today
OceanGate’s former operations director David Lochridge is set to take the stand before the Coast Guard panel on Tuesday.
In his 2018 inspection report, Lochridge detailed his concerns with the Titan. Not long after he wrote the report, he was fired.
Lochridge was mentioned repeatedly on Monday, during the first hearing, and appeared to be considered a trusted expert.
After Lochridge parted ways with the company, Bonnie Carl, the finance director and head of HR, said she started looking for another job. “If that was their attitude toward safety,” she didn’t want to work there, she said.
The hearings will continue tomorrow
The hearings are expected to span two weeks.
They will continue tomorrow starting at 8.30am ET.
We are pausing our blog until then...
Who died in the implosion?
All five members of the doomed submersible lost their lives after the vessel launched on June 18, 2023: founder Stockton Rush, 61, French explorer Paul Henri Nargeolet, 77, British explorer Hamish Harding, 58, UK-based Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son Suleman.
ICYMI: Titan crew's final three-word text revealed in haunting animation of submersible's journey
What to expect at tomorrow’s hearing
8:30 a.m. – Daily Opening
8:45 a.m. – 10 Minute Recess
9:00 a.m. – Mr. David Lochridge
10:30 a.m. – 10 Minute Recess
10:45 a.m. Mr. David Lochridge
12:30 p.m. – Lunch
1:30 p.m. – Mr. David Lochridge
2:45 p.m. – 10 Minute Recess
A series of unfortunate events after the Titan went undetected
The Canadian Coast Guard had been hearing a consistent “knocking” sound, Catterson said. The witness explained that the consistency signaled that the noise was coming from humans, distinct from the ocean sounds.
He thought the submersible was drifting.
The Polar Prince did not have a remotely operative vehicle (ROV) on board.
When a ROV did arrive, and it was determined that it could help find the submersible, it went to the bottom of the seafloor but died. So efforts then included recovering this “dead ROV,” Catterson said. They then tried to use sonar off the ROV to detect the submersible, but it didn’t work.
Pelagic Research Services’ ROV later arrived at the scene, and found debris within 10 minutes, he said.
Witness reveals insight into the search and rescue process
Catterson said he was part of the search and rescue operations. He was on the Polar Prince, the support vessel.
“We did everything that we could to determine whether it was a communications issue or something else,” he recalled.
Both the tracking and communications both stopped because OceanGate was using the accoustic modem, which is tied to the depth sensor for tracking purposes, also as a communications link, which was atypical, he said.
“Normally there would have been two devices,” Catterson told the panel. “This is the first case I’ve ever seen” where communications and tracking were tied together, meaning “when one fails, so does the other.”
‘No red flags’ on launch day, Catterson says
The expediton was repeatedly “weathered out,” he said, given the intense fog.
On June 18th, he said it was sunny, so it was really the only day they could have gone. It was like the day was “blessed,” he said.
OceanGate had an “extensive pre-dive,” Catterson told the panel. They started at 4am, four hours before the submersible’ launched.
He said he had never experienced such a lengthy process: “There were so many things that had to be checked. Subs do not have that many things to check over.”
Catterson was tasked with the dive checks.
“There were no red flags,” he said. “It was a good day.”
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