Titan sub hearing live: OceanGate mission specialist breaks down and declares nothing will ‘bring our friends back’

Coast Guard announces ‘newly added witness’ to Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation’s hearing as OceanGate mission specialist gets set to testify

Newly-released footage of Titan sub wreckage surfaces

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.

Key points

• Rojas breaks down describing demeanor of passengers
• Newly-released footage of Titan sub wreckage surfaces
• OceanGate took ‘safety shortcuts,’ witness testifies

[17 September 2024 14:43 · Kelly Rissman]

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.