- The US Coast Guard on Monday detailed the final communications it received from the Titan’s crew, including a message saying “everything is fine” before the submarine’s fatal explosion on June 18, 2023.
- Titan had been exposed to the weather for seven months prior to the incident, and its structure had not been reviewed by a third party.
- The hearing, conducted by the Marine Board of Inquiry, aims to determine the causes of the Titan explosion and prevent future tragedies.
“Everything is fine here,” were the last words heard from the crew of an experimental submersible headed toward the Titanic’s wreck, according to a visual reconstruction of the Titanic’s voyage before it crashed, killing all five people on board.
US Coast Guard The animation was presented Monday on the first day of a two-week-long hearing into the causes of the explosion. According to the presentation, the crew aboard the Titan were communicating via text messages with staff on the sister ship Polar Prince.
After exchanging messages about the submarine’s depth and weight as it descended, the crew lost contact. The Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display. One of the Titan’s last responses, which faded as it descended, was “Everything is fine here.”
Coast Guard gives update on deadly Titan submarine explosion nearly a year later
On June 18, 2023, the Titan ship crashes, sparking a worldwide debate about the future of private ocean exploration.
Coast Guard members of the Board of Inquiry are sworn in for the Titan Marine Board’s formal hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers on Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, South Carolina. (AP Photo/Mike Smith)
Coast Guard representatives said in their initial remarks Monday that the submarine was left exposed to the elements while in storage for seven months in 2022 and 2023. They said the hull was never reviewed by a third party, as is standard procedure. In addition, its unconventional design brought Titan under scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.
The hearing’s first witness, Tony Nissen, OceanGate’s former engineering director, testified Monday that during his tenure at the company he felt a rush to begin operations. When asked if there was pressure to get Titan into the water, he replied “100%.”
The Marine Board also asked Nissen if he thought the pressure was affecting safety decisions and testing. After a long pause, he replied, “No. … That’s a hard question to answer, because with infinite time and infinite budget, you could do infinite testing.”
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Nissen also said Titan was struck by lightning during a test mission in 2018, and that this may have damaged its hull. He said he was fired from his job in 2019, the same year he prevented the submersible from docking at Titanic. He said he also told Rush that Titan was “not working as well as we thought it would.”
The former engineering director said the submarine had to undergo other tests and adjustments before diving to the Titanic. However, he said he did not trust the operations staff and testified that when Stockton asked him to steer the submarine, he replied: “I’m not going in it.”
Nissen testified that Rush was difficult to work with and was often very concerned about costs and project schedules, as well as other issues. He said Rush fought for what he wanted, which often changed from day to day. He further said he tried to keep his conflicts with Rush behind closed doors so that others in the company did not know.
“Most people will eventually head back to Stockton,” he said.
This undated image provided by OceanGate Expeditions in June 2021 shows the company’s Titan submarine. (OceanGate Expeditions via AP, File)
The Marine Board of Inquiry investigation, currently underway, is the highest level of marine accident investigation conducted by the Coast Guard. When the hearing is concluded, recommendations will be submitted to the Commandant of the Coast Guard. National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating.
“There are no words to ease the loss that the families affected by this tragic incident have suffered,” said Jason Neubauer of the Coast Guard Investigations Office, who led the hearing. “But we hope that this hearing will help shed light on the causes of the tragedy and prevent an incident like this from happening again.”
Among those killed was Stockton Rush, a co-founder of OceanGate, the Washington state company that owned Titan. The company shut down its operations after the explosion.
The company’s former finance director Bonnie Carl and former contractor Tim Catterson were also scheduled to speak.
Efforts continue to retrieve Titan submarine with the help of remotely operated vehicle
Some key OceanGate representatives do not plan to testify. They include Rush’s widow, Wendy Rush, who was the company’s communications director.
Coast Guard spokeswoman Melissa Leake said the Coast Guard does not comment on reasons for not calling a specific individual to a particular hearing during an ongoing investigation. She said it is common for the Marine Board of Investigation “to hold multiple hearing sessions or conduct additional witness statements for complex cases.”
Those scheduled to appear later in the hearing include OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohlen, former operations director David Lochridge and former scientific director Steven Ross, according to a list compiled by the Coast Guard. Several Guard officials, scientists and government and industry officials are also expected to testify. Leake said the U.S. Coast Guard called witnesses who were not government employees.
OceanGate has no full-time employees at this time but will be represented by an attorney at the hearing, the company said in a statement. The company has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board since their investigations began, the statement said.
The explosion also killed veteran Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargolet, two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, and British adventurer Hamish Harding.
Coast Guard members of the Board of Inquiry pause for a moment of silence for the Titan Marine Board’s formal hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers on Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, South Carolina. (AP Photo/Mike Smith)
Titan lost contact with its support ship about two hours after its final dive. When it was told it had arrived late, rescuers sent ships, aircraft and other equipment to an area about 435 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
The search for the submarine attracted worldwide attention, as it seemed increasingly unlikely that anyone could have survived the explosion. The wreckage of the submarine was later found on the sea floor about 330 yards from Titanic’s bow. Coast Guard officers Said.
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The investigation was initially scheduled for a year, but took much longer. In July, the Coast Guard said the hearing would look closely at “all aspects of the Titan’s loss,” including mechanical considerations as well as compliance with regulations and the qualifications of crew members.
The Titan ship has been traveling to the Titanic wreck site since 2021.
