Titan sub hearing live updates: Former OceanGate employee admits he had ‘no confidence’ in ship’s design
The former director of marine operations, responsible for ensuring the safety of the crew, told the Coast Guard panel: ‘There was a big push to get this done and a lot of steps along the way were missed’
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Hearings continue into the second day of the Coast Guard’s investigation into the circumstances that led up to the Titan submersible’s disastrous deep-sea voyage on its journey to the wreck of the Titanic, killing all five passengers on board.
David Lochridge, the former director of marine operations who worked at the company from 2015 to 2018, told the panel about the “red flags” he witnessed, including co-founder Stockton Rush’s desire to qualify a pilot in one day — typically a lengthy process.
He also painted a picture of Rush’s personality. He walked through a harrowing incident when Rush’s bungled dive to the Andrea Doria wreckage site ended in Rush throwing a “PlayStation controller” at Lochridge’s head.
Lochridge issued an inspection report in January 2018 detailing his laundry list of concerns with an early version of the Titan. He was fired not long after.
He is one of 10 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.
The June 18, 2023 implosion claimed the lives of Rush, British explorer Hamish Harding, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman and French deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
What to expect at tomorrow’s hearing
8:30 a.m. – Daily Opening
8:45 a.m. – 10 Minute Recess
9:00 a.m. – Mr. David Lochridge
10:30 a.m. – 10 Minute Recess
10:45 a.m. Mr. David Lochridge
12:30 p.m. – Lunch
1:30 p.m. – Mr. David Lochridge
2:45 p.m. – 10 Minute Recess
Final communications between the Titan crew and its support vessel, revealed
“All good here” 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.
Around 10am on June 18, Polar Prince asked the Titan crew whether they were able to see the support vessel on the submersible’s display. The support vessel asked the crew the same question seven times over the course of seven minutes. The Titan crew then sent “k,” meaning it was asking for a communications check.
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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
Catterson said he had ‘doubts’ — and voiced them
“I had my doubts,” Catterson said about the carbon fiber hull.
“I think that when you put it under compression, they can buckle, they can shift, they can move all these directions three-directionally,” he added.
When aksed if he had voiced his concerns about the hull to any OceanGate employees, Catterson said he told Stockton Rush, Tony Nissen, the first witness today who is an engineer, and David Lochridge, who was terminated shortly after detailing his concerns with the Titan’s design in an inspection report.
A series of unfortunate events after the Titan went undetected
The Canadian Coast Guard had been hearing a consistent “knocking” sound, Catterson said. The witness explained that the consistency signaled that the noise was coming from humans, distinct from the ocean sounds.
He thought the submersible was drifting.
The Polar Prince did not have a remotely operative vehicle (ROV) on board.
When a ROV did arrive, and it was determined that it could help find the submersible, it went to the bottom of the seafloor but died. So efforts then included recovering this “dead ROV,” Catterson said. They then tried to use sonar off the ROV to detect the submersible, but it didn’t work.
Pelagic Research Services’ ROV later arrived at the scene, and found debris within 10 minutes, he said.
Witness reveals insight into the search and rescue process
Catterson said he was part of the search and rescue operations. He was on the Polar Prince, the support vessel.
“We did everything that we could to determine whether it was a communications issue or something else,” he recalled.
Both the tracking and communications both stopped because OceanGate was using the accoustic modem, which is tied to the depth sensor for tracking purposes, also as a communications link, which was atypical, he said.
“Normally there would have been two devices,” Catterson told the panel. “This is the first case I’ve ever seen” where communications and tracking were tied together, meaning “when one fails, so does the other.”
‘No red flags’ on launch day, Catterson says
The expediton was repeatedly “weathered out,” he said, given the intense fog.
On June 18th, he said it was sunny, so it was really the only day they could have gone. It was like the day was “blessed,” he said.
OceanGate had an “extensive pre-dive,” Catterson told the panel. They started at 4am, four hours before the submersible’ launched.
He said he had never experienced such a lengthy process: “There were so many things that had to be checked. Subs do not have that many things to check over.”
Catterson was tasked with the dive checks.
“There were no red flags,” he said. “It was a good day.”
‘Like a bathtub compared to the North Atlantic’: Catterson said the training wasn’t reflective of the conditions the Titan would see on its mission
When asked whether OceanGate staffing in Expedition 2023 was “sufficient to ensure safety,” Catterson paused before responding: “I think training and operations at sea could have been better.”
They did their training out of Everett which is “like a bathtub compared to the North Atlantic,” he said. They didn’t have practice in rougher conditions, like fog. “The training probably didn’t reflect as good as a base of knowledge for out there,” referring to where the Titan set sail.
Ex-contractor recalls drop weight problems
Catterson recalled drop weight issues on the two test dives he was a part of years before the ill-fated Titan set sail.
He described how drop weights work. “The sub became neutral so the sub became neutral...They were only able to drop 70 pounds. That’s not enough to do what they needed to have happen,” Catterson told the panel.
WATCH: James Cameron likens Titan submersible tragedy to Titanic
The Titan was the first sub Catterson worked on that hadn’t been classed, he testifies
When asked whether it was typical for submersibles to be classed, Catterson said: “yes.”
The Titan “would have been the first one that was not classed,” he said.
Catterson recalled conversations he had with Rush about needing to get the submersible classified — which he described as “short.”
The former contractor said he told Rush that classification is “proof of due diligence” and a way to get insurance. However, Catterson got the impression that classing the vessel “wasn’t a big of a worry for him as it is for most people.”
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