Titan sub hearings live: Co-founder set to detail OceanGate inner workings as he testifies before Coast Guard
Guillermo Sohnlein co-founded Titan owner OceanGate with Stockton Rush in 2009 and has previously defended his former business partner
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The co-founder of OceanGate is currently testifying before the US Coast Guard. He’s expected to offer insight into the inner workings of the company.
Guillermo Sohnlein founded Titan owner OceanGate with CEO Stockton Rush in 2009, who was among the five people who died when the submersible imploded in June 2023.
Sohnlein left the company in 2013 but after the submersible’s implosion, he has defended his former business partner. Another witness expected to testify today includes former OceanGate engineering director Phil Brooks.
Last week, Patrick Lahey, the co-founder of Triton Submarines, OceanGate’s rival, told the hearing he informed Rush about concerns he had with the Titan’s prior glass dome design when he saw the submersible in 2019, and stressed the importance of certifying the vessel.
Rush called classification “an impediment to innovation,” Lahey told US Coast Guard panelists. Classification is not a requirement for operating a deep sea vessel, but Lahey said he’d never sell one without classification.
Other witnesses raised concerns about the submersible’s design, including Antonella Wilby, a former OceanGate operations and engineering tech contractor.
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.”
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.
US Coast Guard releases exhibits ahead of hearing
Photos and exhibits pertaining to the investigation are available on Twitter. One set of documents shows the mapped location of the Titan’s debris on the seafloor. The other photo is of the submersible’s dome previously referenced in testimony.
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”.
In photos: Key moments from the hearings so far
Who is OceanGate co-founder?
Guillermo Sohnlein founded Titan owner OceanGate with CEO Stockton Rush in 2009.
Sohnlein left the company in 2013 but after the submersible’s implosion, he came to Rush's defense, asserting his former business partner was "committed" to safety.
He said: "[Rush] was very much focused on safety. I think the next regret he would have is the company not continuing operations and not being able to keep going and getting beyond Titanic because Titanic was really just a means to an end for business.
"It was really to get to a point where the subs would be chartered by people all over the world to do all sorts of interesting projects and learn more about our oceans."
Sohnlein has previously laid out plans to colonize the Moon and has hopes to send humans to Venus.
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.
Watch: Coast Guard releases footage that provided ‘conclusive evidence’ that Titan passengers died
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