Titan sub hearing live: OceanGate volunteer said nobody was concerned until sub ‘was really overdue’ from dive
The testimony is part of the days-long hearings as authorities investigate the Titan sub disaster that captivated the globe
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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 found tragedy.
Renata Rojas, the mission specialist from the US submersible company that operated the expedition, tearfully addressed the US Coast Guard Titan Marine Board of Investigations panel on Thursday. She talked about her role in preparing missions and her own trips down to the Titanic wreckage.
Once Rojas was finished, 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 were just two of the witnesses who have testified to the panel investigating the “catastrophic implosion” of the Titan submersible that killed all five passengers.
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 said.
OceanGates’s finances and safety measures under the microscope
“There was no drug testing,” Carl said.
When asked about whether safety was ever an agenda item of an OceanGate meeting, she said she couldn’t recall.
She revealed the company “basically didn’t have any money coming in” aside from investors.
“We got very low but to the point where I got very concerned that we weren’t going to make payroll one week,” she said. Rush would essentially provide a temporary loan to the company when that would happen, she said. “He would write a check.”
Carl was released as a witness.
Carl outlined her safety concerns
Carl had received some pilot traning in addition to her other roles, where she spotted some “red flags.”
“As a pilot in training, there were a couple things that gave me pause,” she said. She said she had asked Mr Nissen, the first witness, about the acrylic dome, however he wouldn’t let her see the paperwork for it.
She added that the O-Ring groove also “looked odd.”
She said she brought most of her concerns to David Lochridge, who was later fired after a writing an inspection report detailing his concerns about the vessel.
Shortly after showing Rush the inspection report, Carl understood that Lochridge was likely going to be terminated. She recalled that Lochridge had insisted on unmanned testing but Rush wanted to push forward, leading them to an “impasse” in which they had to “part ways.”
After the meeting with Lochridge, she said she started looking for another job. “If that was their attitude toward safety,” she didn’t want to work there, she said.
She left in February 2018.
Ex-OceanGate employees paint picture of founder Stockton Rush
During their testimony on Monday, two former employees told the Coast Guard panel about their involvement in the company — including their impressions of Stockton Rush.
Both former employees described a man who often made sure to get his way.
“All decisons were made by Stockton,” Carl revealed, even among discussions with board members.
Nissen had also said that dealing with Rush was like “death by a thousand cuts.”
The engineer said: “Stockton would fight for what he wanted...And he wouldn’t give an inch much. At all,” he said. “Most people would eventually back down from Stockton.”
'All good here’
Those were some of the final words that the doomed Titan submersible crew communicated before the submersible imploded on its mission to the Titanic wreckage site in June 2023.
The message, revealed as part of the Coast Guard’s Monday hearing into the circumstances of the failed mission, was sent to support vessel Polar Prince on June 18, 2023, shortly before the submersible imploded, killing all five of its crew members. It was an incident that captivated both sides of the Atlantic as crews made a mad dash to save the crew after the sub lost contact with the surface - with the world unaware that the lives had been lost.
The Coast Guard played an animated re-enactment of the Titan’s voyage that captured the submersible’s final, spotty exchange with the Polar Prince, during the Monday hearing that shed new light on the sub’s final mission.
Read the full story...
Final messages revealed from the Titan sub before tragic implosion
The anticipated two-week-long hearings kicked off with testimony from a former OceanGate engineer, who said he was fired after warning about the ship’s carbon fiber hull years before its catastrophic voyage
Ex HR director reveals the behind the scenes of mission specialist role
Carl, the head of HR for OceanGate, said there were two requirements she was aware of to become a mission specialist: being able to fit in the submersible and money.
While she said there were waivers and liability forms that mission specialists were supposed to sign, she said she had never seen anyone sign them, adding she “assumed” they would sign the forms before the expedition.
“When I was taking money, we hadn’t even finished building the Titan,” Carl told the panel.
Funds ‘immediately’ went toward operations: witness testifies
Most of the shareholders were friends of Stockton Rush, Carl testified.
She said she was unaware of any refunds if the expeditions were cancelled. “There was no money for refunds,” she said, adding that the funds were “immediately” used for operations.
Bonnie Carl takes the stand
The second witness is the director of human resources and finance at OceanGate. She is calling in remotely.
She told the panel about her background as an accountant.
WATCH: Titan crew's final three-word text revealed in haunting animation of submersible's journey
Nissen’s testimony concludes
After hours on the stand, Nissen’s testimony came to an end.
The Coast Guard panel is expected to hear from two other ex OceanGate employees today: Bonnie Carl, the former Human Resources/Finance director and Tym Catterson, a former contractor.
After the hearing, it was clarified that Tony Nissen was referring to a prototype carbon fiber hull created in 2016, which was never used on Titanic expeditions. After Nissen left OceanGate in 2019, the company manufactured a new carbon fiber hull, which was used on the Titanic expeditions.
Nissen discusses the ‘pressure’ felt to jumpstart operations
When asked if there was “pressure” to start operations, Nissen said: “100 percent.”
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