Titan sub hearings live: Friend of OceanGate boss who said CEO ‘knew it would end like this’ to testify today
The US Coast Guard hearing into the Titan submersible tragedy will resume at 8.30am this morning and will hear from Stockton Rush’s friend, Karl Stanley
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A friend of the late OceanGate boss who said the CEO "definitely knew it was going to end like this" is due to testify at the hearing into the Titan submersible disaster today.
Karl Stanley, the owner of a diving expedition company in Honduras and a close friend of Stockton Rush, went on the doomed submersible with his friend in 2019 and warned afterward how he heard a large cracking sound while on the dive.
The submersible imploded last June, killing all five people on board, including Rush.
Stanley was interviewed by 60 Minutes Australia last year where he said he’d warned Rush about taking customers on Titan.
“He definitely knew it was going to end like this," Stanley told the broadcaster. "He literally and figuratively went out with the biggest bang in human history that you can go out with."
In an email exchange with Rush, Stanley reportedly warned: “I think that hull has a defect near that flange, that will only get worse. The only question in my mind is will it fail catastrophically or not.”
Yesterday Guillermo Sohnlein, the co-founder of OceanGate, told the hearing into the disaster the cause of the accident may never be known.
Sohnlein says he left OceanGate because priorities switched
The co-founder says he transferred his CEO title to Stockton Rush once it became clear the company wanted to transition from operations to engineering.
Sohnlein says Rush wanted him to stay on but “it didn’t make sense for me stay,” he says, adding that it was beneficial to make Rush the CEO because of fundraising needs.
Sohnlein says he made $120k as CEO. Leaving was “one of the hardest decisions I had to make,” he says.
Sohnlein lays out early vision for OceanGate
When the co-founder first met with Stockton Rush in 2009, he said the pair wanted at least four to five submersibles available to charter around the world.
Rush was going to put in money and Sohnlein was going to run the business. They bought a “training-wheel sub” in order to study it and understand the technology, he says.
“Initially, we weren’t even going to build our own subs.”
The company bought its first sub from the Azores in January 2013, which later became “Cyclops,” OceanGate’s first submersible.
Sohnlein sworn in as witness
The OceanGate co-founder is testifying now.
What has OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein said about the tragedy?
Sohnlein co-founded the company with Stockton Rush in 2009 and left in January 2013.
“We operated as safely as possible,” he said in an interview with CTV news. “We had a safety conscious culture.”
When asked if he agreed with more regulations surrounding submersible classification, he said: “That’s really not my purview. I’ll leave that to policy makers.”
He reiterated that the company took safety very seriously.
Former OceanGate employees have disagreed with that characterization. David Lochridge, a former OceanGate employee, had raised concerns about the sub since 2018. He was later fired and the company sued him for revealing confidential information. He then countersued for wrongful dismissal.
A recap of proceedings last week
The US Coast Guard’s two-week hearing into the OceanGate Titan submersible tragedy is entering its second week.
During the first half of proceedings, the panel of the Marine Board of Investigation heard from OceanGate former employees, one of its rival competitors and marine experts.
David Lochridge, the former director of marine operations for OceanGate, told investigators he had “no confidence” in the way the Titan submersible had been built. Antonella Wilby, the company’s former software contractor, said she felt “brushed to the side” after vocalizing safety concerns following an incident in which a customer reportedly heard a “loud bang.”
Patrick Lahey, the co-founder of Triton Submarines, said he encouraged Stockton Rush to classify the Titan, but said Rush called classification “an impediment to innovation”.
Proceedings to continue this morning
Welcome back as we restart our live coverage of the US Coast Guard’s hearing into the Titan submersible implosion.
Proceedings will start up again this morning at 8.30am ET as part of the Coast Guard’s investigation of the maritime disaster.
Three witnesses are due to give evidence to the panel.
Co-founder of Titan owner OceanGate, Guillermo Sohnlein, is up first and he is expected to give an insight into the inner workings of the company.
Other witnesses expected to testify today include former OceanGate engineering director Phil Brooks and Roy Thomas of the American Bureau of Shipping.
The hearing is expected to run through Friday.
What to expect as we enter day four of the Coast Guard’s hearing
Another mission specialist who worked with the company that owned the Titan submersible that imploded last year while on its way to the Titanic wreckage is scheduled to testify before a U.S. Coast Guard investigatory panel Friday.
Mission specialist Fred Hagen is scheduled to be the first to testify Friday. Other witnesses have characterized mission specialists as people who paid a fee to play a role in OceanGate’s underwater exploration.
Find out more below.
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 submersible that imploded last year while on its way to the Titanic wreckage is scheduled to testify before a U.S. Coast Guard investigatory panel Friday
MBI created an animated model of the Titan’s doomed voyage
The US Coast Guard has released exhibits relating to the hearing
WATCH: What happened to the Titan tourist submersible?
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