Titan sub hearing live: OceanGate volunteer said nobody was concerned until sub ‘was really overdue’ from dive
Coast Guard has released more footage of the Titan submersible wreckage including remnants of its hull scattered on the sea bed, following the ‘catastrophic implosion’ that killed all five passengers on board
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A tearful mission specialist recounted collecting personal belongings from the victims of an OceanGate sub before it dove under the water and the dangers of dives to the site of the Titanic wreck.
Renata Rojas, the mission specialist from the US submersible company that operated the expedition, addressed the US Coast Guard Titan Marine Board of Investigations panel. Former OceanGate scientific director Dr Steven Ross is testifying now.
They are two of the witnesses testifying to the panel investigating the “catastrophic implosion” of the Titan submersible, killing all five passengers on board.
Their comments come after damning Tuesday testimony from OceanGate’s former director of marine operations David Lochridge who 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, who is one of 10 ex-OceanGate staff or suppliers that make up the 24 witnesses, testified.
The Coast Guard released more footage of the Titan sub wreckage on Wednesday, with video from June 22, 2023, showing remnants of the hull and carbon fiber debris scattered across the sea bed.
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.”
Tym Catterson, former OceanGate contractor, takes the stand
Catterson has been working with manned submersibles since the 1980s for a variety of companies.
He started working with OceanGate in 2003 or 2004. He said the company’s co-founders were unfamiliar with subs when he was hired.
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.
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