The US Coast Guard has initiated a public hearing regarding the Titan submersible disaster. The hearing commenced on September 16 at the Charleston County Council Building in South Carolina, and is expected to continue for two weeks.
The purpose of the hearing is to uncover the facts surrounding the incident and to create recommendations to prevent similar tragedies in the future. A statement from the US Coast Guard noted: “The hearing will investigate all aspects of the loss of the Titan, including pre-accident historical events, regulatory compliance, crewmember duties and qualifications, mechanical and structural systems, emergency response, and the submersible industry.”
Earlier this month, the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation released the schedule and witness list, which features 10 former employees of American tourism and expeditions company OceanGate.
Notable witnesses include engineer David Lochridge, who claims he was terminated from OceanGate in 2018 for expressing safety concerns about quality control, alongside Triton Submarines’ co-founder Patrick Lahey, who made his first public comments on the Titan submarine disaster during a special episode of the Big BOAT Interview. He described the submersible as an “experimental monstrosity that should never have carried people”.
BOAT will provide daily coverage and updates on the hearing as it progresses.
The US Coast Guard held a press conference prior to the Marine Board of Investigation hearing for the Titan submersible.
Credit: Petty Officer 2nd Class Kate Kilroy
Live updates
Day one (Monday, September 16): Former OceanGate employees Tony Nissen, Bonnie Carl, and Tym Catterson testified. Nissen shared that there was “100 percent” pressure to launch Titan. Meanwhile, Carl testified that Lochridge had deemed Titan “unsafe.” Lochridge is set to testify on September 17. An animated re-creation of the incident revealed the crew’s last words to the mothership were, “all good here”.
Who’s who? The witness list:
A total of 24 witnesses will provide testimony to the Titan Marine Board of Investigation. Below are the 10 former OceanGate employees.
Mr. Tony Nissen, former OceanGate engineering director
Ms. Bonnie Carl, former OceanGate human resources/finance director
Mr. Tym Catterson, former OceanGate contractor
Mr. David Lochridge, former OceanGate operations director
Ms. Renata Rojas, OceanGate mission specialist
Dr. Steven Ross, former OceanGate scientific director
Mr. Fred Hagen, OceanGate mission specialist
Mr. Guillermo Sohnlein, former OceanGate co-founder
Mr. Phil Brooks, former OceanGate engineering director
Ms. Amber Bay, former OceanGate director of administration
The chair of the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation, Mr. Jason Neubauer, spoke at a press conference on September 15, ahead of the Titan submersible hearing.
Credit: Petty Officer 2nd Class Kate Kilroy
What happened during the Titan submersible disaster?
On June 18, 2023, the 6.7-meter submersible Titan imploded during a descent to the Titanic wreck at a depth of 3,800 meters below sea level. Operated by OceanGate, Titan had five passengers on board who all tragically lost their lives due to the vessel’s catastrophic inward collapse.
The victims included Pakistani investor Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, British businessman Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
Titan was supposed to reach the wreck in about two and a half hours but quickly lost contact with its mothership, Polar Prince, prompting a search operation. The incident captured attention from media around the world, and updates throughout the week shook the yachting and submersible industry.
The US Coast Guard convened a Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) to look into the Titan submersible’s loss, and the investigation is ongoing. Although various theories and studies have emerged regarding the cause of the Titan tragedy, including microscopic flaws in the carbon fiber hull, no definitive conclusion has been drawn yet.
Credit: Petty Officer 2nd Class Kate Kilroy
Has there been an inquiry?
The US Coast Guard launched an investigation into the incident in June last year, forming a Marine Board of Investigation to study the loss of the Titan submersible. The MBI, which is the Coast Guard’s highest level of investigation, aimed to assess “whether there is need for new laws or regulations, or an amendment or repeal of existing laws or regulations, to prevent the recurrence of the casualty”.
The Coast Guard recovered debris and evidence from the seafloor at the Titan submersible’s site on June 28, 2023. Later that year, marine safety engineers from the MBI conducted a follow-up salvage mission, which retrieved additional presumed human remains carefully extracted from Titan’s debris. This evidence was then sent for analysis by US medical professionals on October 4, 2023.
In the following months, the US Coast Guard, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), and the French Marine Casualty Investigation Authority (BEAmer) reviewed the recovered Titan submersible debris in Newport, Rhode Island, on November 8, 2023.
Captain Jason Neubauer, the Coast Guard chair leading the Titan Marine Board of Investigation, emphasized, “This effort underscores the importance of international and inter-agency coordination in marine casualty investigations. Our collaborations with NTSB, TSB, and BEAmer have allowed for a thorough examination of this international incident, promoting safety and transparency.”
Earlier in 2024, a supposed transcript of communications between the sub and its mothership that had gone viral was declared to be a counterfeit. “I’m confident it’s a false transcript,” stated MBI Chair Captain Jason D. Neubauer. “It was fabricated.”
Titan disaster timeline:
Sunday, June 18, 2023
08:00: Titan submersible launched from its mothership, Polar Prince (previously CCGS Sir Humphrey Gilbert).
09:45: Contact with the mothership was lost. The U.S. Navy noted “an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion”.
15:00: Titan was scheduled to resurface but failed to.
17:40: The U.S. Coast Guard was alerted.
Monday, June 19
Search for Titan commenced.
Tuesday, June 20
Speculations arose surrounding sonar detecting “banging” sounds in the search area, which were later determined to be natural ocean noises.
Thursday, June 22
Debris and remains of the sub were located approximately 500 meters from the Titanic’s bow, and the Coast Guard announced that the submersible had experienced a “catastrophic implosion”.
Sunday, June 25
The Coast Guard established a Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) to investigate the incident concerning Titan.
Wednesday, June 28
The wreckage of Titan submersible was found on the seabed, around 300 meters from the bow of the Titanic, and was transported to St. John’s, a city on Newfoundland island off Canada’s Atlantic coast.
Sunday, July 2
OceanGate announced the cessation of its operations.
Credit: U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters
Family of victim killed in Titan submersible disaster sues OceanGate for $50M
The family of French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, one of the passengers lost in the Titan disaster, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OceanGate, seeking over $50,000,000 (August 2024).
Accusing the submarine operator of gross negligence, the lawsuit claims the waiver and release “failed to disclose many key, relevant risk factors, […] regarding the design and operation of Titan or the materials used in its construction.” Specifically, it mentions the submarine’s carbon fiber hull, which was allegedly “not properly tested for integrity”.
The lawsuit further suggests the traumatic conditions the passengers may have faced in their last moments: “The crew may have heard the carbon fiber’s crackling noise intensify as the weight of the water pressed against Titan’s hull. Communications may have been lost, and possibly power as well. Experts estimate they would have continued to descend, fully aware of the vessel’s irreversible failures, experiencing terror and mental anguish before Titan ultimately imploded.”
OceanGate has yet to comment on the lawsuit, which was filed in King County, Washington.
Patrick Lahey, Triton Submarines
Credit: Reeve Jolliffe
Did Titan have warnings from experts?
In a special episode of the Big BOAT Interview, Patrick Lahey, co-founder of Triton Submarines, recalls urging his friend and Titanic expert, Paul-Henri Nargeolet (who perished in the incident), not to dive with OceanGate. “I did everything I could to dissuade him from going out there. Many others who knew him did as well.”
Rob McCallum, co-founder of EYOS Expeditions, discussed his well-known email exchanges with OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush (who also died during the dive), warning that he was risking disaster by taking the uncertified Titan submersible to extreme depths.
“He was completely dismissive,” McCallum shares. “The moment I realized it was going to be an unclassified vehicle, alarm bells went off. But the biggest red flag was when a senior member of the OceanGate team drafted a report listing 26 or 27 issues with the sub and proposed solutions, only to be silenced.”
McCallum recounted his last dinner with Rush, when he candidly told him, “You are making a mistake.”
Lahey also met Rush while touring the OceanGate submersible during tests in the Bahamas. “There were obvious defects. I made a list of issues for them to address. But looking at it, I thought I didn’t need to worry too much as there was no way this would ever be operational.”
Rob McCallum, EYOS Expeditions
Credit: Reeve Jolliffe
Both Lahey and McCallum stress that to prevent similar incidents, all submersibles should be subject to third-party certification.
“It’s crucial,” Lahey insists. “If individuals demand [accreditation], you can be assured that the craft you board has undergone independent review by a set of professionals according to established regulations, ensuring safety. The track record of certified crafts is unparalleled – over 50 years of absolute safety.”
You can listen to the full interview with Lahey and McCallum on the BOAT Briefing podcast. New episodes are released weekly, and you can listen via Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode from the superyacht industry’s leading podcast.
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