US Coast Guard The Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) has released additional video of the Titan submarine wreck on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, after the ship exploded while headed to the Titanic site in June 2023, killing all five people on board.
Footage from the remotely operated vehicle showed the submarine’s rear dome, tail rings, remains of the rudder and carbon fibre debris lying on the sea floor off Newfoundland, Canada.
MBI had previously released footage of the ship’s tail cone, which was on the ocean floor about 2½ miles below the surface. Next to the tail cone was a piece of carbon fiber.
On June 18, 2023, less than two hours after landing on the Titanic wreck, the Titanic ship explodes.
Awesome video shows Titan submarine tail cone on ocean floor
The Coast Guard Marine Investigation Board (MBI) on Wednesday released remotely operated vehicle footage of the Titan submarine’s rear dome, rear ring, remains of the rudder and carbon fiber debris on the sea floor ahead of upcoming technical testimony for the Titan MBI hearing in North Charleston, South Carolina. (U.S. Coast Guard video, courtesy of Pelagic Research Services)
On Thursday, the scientific director of the company that owns Titan testified that the submersible had malfunctioned just before the fatal dive.
Steve Ross, appearing before a U.S. Coast Guard panel, talked about a platform problem that occurred on the experimental submarine in June 2023, just days before it exploded on its last voyage. Ross said the malfunction caused passengers aboard the submarine to “fall apart” and it took an hour to pull them out of the water.
Ross said OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was piloting the submarine when it malfunctioned and collided with a bulkhead. Although no one was injured in the incident, Ross described the incident as uncomfortable.
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The Coast Guard Marine Investigation Board (MBI) has released remotely operated vehicle footage of the Titan submarine’s rear dome, rear ring, hull remains and carbon fiber debris on the ocean floor ahead of upcoming technical testimony for the Titan MBI hearing in North Charleston, South Carolina. (U.S. Coast Guard video, courtesy of Pelagic Research Services)
“One passenger was hanging upside down,” Ross said. “The rest of the passengers were somehow stuck in the bow end.”
Ross said he was not aware of whether a safety evaluation of Titan or its structure was conducted following the incident.
By the end of Thursday, the investigation panel had heard three days of testimony raising questions about the company’s operations before the ill-fated mission that claimed the lives of Rush, father-son duo Shahzada Dawood and Suleman Dawood, and French sailor Paul-Henri Nargolet.
An image of the Titan tail cone on the ocean floor in June 2023. (US Coast Guard / Pelagic Research Services)
Earlier Thursday, OceanGate mission specialist Renata Rojas told the Coast Guard the company is staffed with capable people who “want to make dreams come true.”
Rojas’ testimony differed from earlier witnesses, who had said the company was in trouble from top to bottom and was more focused on profits than science or safety.
“I was learning so much and working with amazing people,” Rojas said. “Some of them are very hardworking individuals who were just trying to make dreams come true.”
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The Titan submarine in the Bahamas in May 2018. (Becky Kagan shot)
He also said that he felt like The company was transparent enough The incident before diving into the Titanic.
“I knew what I was doing was very risky. I never felt unsafe during the operation,” Rojas said in testimony Thursday.
David Lockridge, OceanGate’s former operations director, who declared the experimental submarine Titan unsafe before its final, fatal voyage. Coast Guard On Tuesday, he was questioned by investigators about a prior mission in which he had a confrontation with CEO Stockton Rush that ended badly.
Lochridge, who was responsible for the safety of all crew and training pilots, said he was the only qualified submarine pilot within OceanGate. Still, he recalled, Rush insisted on traveling to the site of the Andrea Doria wreck in 2016 using the Cyclops 1 vessel.
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The wreck of the RMS Titanic was found on this day in history, September 1, 1985. (Matthew Pollack/Sigma/Sigma via Getty Images)
He said Cyclopus 1 had numerous system failures, and that when he embarrassed Rush by telling him he should not be operating a submarine, he was “phased out”.
Lochridge said that Rush had three People in the submarine Rush headed to the Andrea Doria wreck site despite his warnings, and destroyed the ship before Lockridge could try to take control from him. Lockridge said Rush refused to hand over control until a customer aboard the ship began yelling at him. He said Rush then threw the controller, described as a PlayStation controller, at his head.
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OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after last year’s explosion. The company said in a statement to The Associated Press that it currently has no full-time employees but is being represented by an attorney at the hearing.
The company said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began.
The hearing is expected to last from Friday into next week, with more witnesses expected to testify.
Fox News Digital’s Pilar Arias and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
