Titan sub hearing live: Final text before Titanic-bound submersible imploded revealed
The first of 10 former OceanGate employees took the stand during the Titan Marine Board of Investigation’s first hearing to ‘uncover facts’ and detect any ‘criminal activity’ related to the doomed deep-sea voyage
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A public hearing began today into the Titan submersible’s disastrous deep-sea voyage following its implosion on its journey to the wreck of the Titanic, killing all five passengers on board.
Ten former employees of Oceangate – the US submersible company that operated the expedition – are among 24 witnesses giving testimony to the Titan Marine Board of Investigation.
An animation of the Titan’s fated journey revealed a chilling final communications between the Titan and the support vessel Polar Prince. The support vessel repeated the same question, prompting that team to ask for “better comms” from the Titan crew. In one of its final messages, the crew wrote: “all good here.”
The Titan sub was attempting to dive 2.4 miles to reach the Titanic shipwreck which lies 380 miles from St John’s in Newfoundland, Canada, when it lost contact on June 18 2023. After four days, debris of the submersible was found close to the wreck.
The implosion claimed the lives of British explorer Hamish Harding, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush and French deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The investigation will detect whether there was criminal activity or “negligence by credentialed mariners,” Jason Neubauer, Titan Marine Board of Investigation’s chairman, said on Sunday.
The Coast Guard will hear from former OceanGate employees about the Titan implosion
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Final messages revealed from the Titan sub before tragic implosion
The hearing will reconvene at 11.15am
Nissen’s testimony will resume after a brief 15-minute break, when the Coast Guard panel will review a new document he is supplying.
The 2018 inspection report was ‘surprising,’ Nissen said
David Lochridge, a pilot, provided a “surprising” inspection report, according to Nissen. His report detailed concerns about the carbon fiber hull; he was fired not long after the meeting — which Nissen called “the meeting.”
Ocean Gate later sued Lochridge, alleging breach of contract, while Lochridge filed a counterclaim against the business.
His 2018 report “identified numerous issues that posed serious safety concerns” but he was allegedly “met with hostility and denial of access” to necessary documents, according to Lochridge’s suit brought after he was terminated.
The Titan’s classification and certification under scrutiny
When asked why there was no effort to seek certification and classification, Nissen put the blame on OceanGate founder Stockton Rush.
“I wouldn’t say there was no ‘effort.’ There was no desire by Stockton to go do it,” he said.
WATCH: Did The Titan Sub Victims Know What Would Happen To Them?
Problems with the carbon fiber hull revealed in smaller scale
The 1/3 scale model was built before Nissen got there. The scale showed the model imploding, he said.
Nissen said he and Stockton were “concerned” about an interstitial void because of what they saw at the 1/3 scale of the vessel.
Brian Spencer, who Nissen said led the carbon fiber hull’s manufacture, was “unwilling to change” his plans.
Nissen gives insight into how OceanGate was run: ‘It was like a death by a thousand cuts’
“Don’t reinvent something if someone’s already got it,” he said, referring to the glass spheres. If they aren’t oil filled, they can be catastrophic, he said.
He said he did not make all the engineering decisions, but he did make some. Stockton Rush made most, Nissen said.
“My job was more rounding up the cattle” and “raising technical questions,” he clarified.
For example, Nissen expressed some discomfort with not having witness panels, which he described as “basic.”
When asked about Rush, he said he was “struggling to find the professional words” to use to describe his interactions with employees. “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. It was like a death by a thousand cuts.”
Nissen testifies
Nissen said he was the first OceanGate employee.
The former engineer director said he was unaware of the Titan’s mission when he joined. “They were going to build a deep-sea carbon fiber hull submersible,” he said.
Tony Nissen, former OceanGate engineering director, takes the stand
Nissen said he was an electronic tech in the Navy before going to hyperbaric medicine. After he graduated from UC Berkeley, he worked in space, aircrafts and then was hired in March 2016 as the director of engineering in at OceanGate.
“There are some things that bother me professionally and personally,” he said, adding that he found some things “disturbing” in the presentation.
He said he was pitched by OceanGate to “put together the parts and start executing it,” referring to the Titan, which was once known as the Cyclops II.
“I wasn’t asked to design a sub,” he said. “I was never told they were going to the Titanic.” He said he wasn’t directly told that the submersible was going to the wreckage site.
Recess
The hearings are taking a quick recess and will resume at 9.40am.
Animation shows chilling exchange leading up to the fatal implosion
After a detailed presentation of the Titan’s development timeline, the MBI is showing an animation of the submersible’s path along with chilling text bubbles re-enacting an exchange between the crew and the comms team on the support vessel before the fatal implosion.
At one point, the animation showed the comms team asking the crew the same question seven times in a row without reply. After saying it needed “better comms,” the team repeated the question three more times.
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