Important revelations emerged in Coast Guard’s Titan submarine trial – NBC New York

Two weeks of public testimony ended Friday US Coast Guard investigation what caused titan diver Exploding during a deep ocean dive last year, killing all five people on board.

The findings will be published in a report that may include what the panel believes caused the incident; whether there has been any abuse, negligence or violation of law; and safety recommendations that could prevent future submarine-related disasters.

The hearing in South Carolina included former employees and executives of OceanGate, Titan’s Washington state-based operator, as well as industry experts who tried to piece together the company’s culture and business plan. and running towards the fatal dive.

In June 2023, Titan was almost two hours away from landing to see the sky. titanic wreck A frantic search was launched when the ship lost contact with its support ship in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Canada. The public’s admiration only deepened with the following news: “crashing sounds” It was spotted from the search area and there were concerns about how long passengers could sustain themselves in a cramped tube that was running out of oxygen.

Those on board include 61-year-old OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who piloted the Titan; deep sea explorer Paul-Henri NargeoletThe 77-year-old has experience visiting the Titanic wreck site; British businessman Hamish Harding, 58; and Pakistani businessman 48-year-old Shahzada Davud and her son Süleyman19.

OceanGate came under intense scrutiny almost immediately as a result of the disaster; This was partly because civilian passengers paid $250,000 per person to join the expedition, but also because of deadly incidents involving submarines, a handful of which could dive deep. Titanic – almost unheard of. Here are the important statements that emerged at the Coast Guard’s hearing:

Images of debris helped confirm explosion

At the beginning of the hearing, the Coast Guard released photos and video showing the Titan’s tail cone resting on the bottom of the Atlantic near the Titanic’s bow.

While authorities concluded in the initial investigation that Titan was likely involved in a “catastrophic explosion” because it could not handle the pressure of deep sea water, the discovery of the wreckage made them confident that no one would survive.

The Coast Guard also revealed one of the last messages Titan sent to the support ship before losing communications: “All is well here.”

David Lochridge, former director of marine operations at OceanGate. Rush’s statement he was more concerned with profit and cost-cutting measures than building a viable submersible.

“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” said Lochridge, who joined OceanGate in early 2016 and was fired about two years later. “There was little in the way of science.”

Lochridge would go on to engage in a legal battle with OceanGate, claiming that he was fired for complaining about quality control.

Another former engineering manager, Tony Nissen, said he voiced concerns to Rush about the Titan’s original body made of experimental carbon fiber. not proven to withstand deep sea pressures over and over again – Was compromised after being struck by lightning during a test mission in 2018. Nissen said he was fired the following year after refusing to sign on for another test assignment, even telling Rush, “I’m not into this.” We’re talking about Titan.

Meanwhile, OceanGate’s former managing director, Amber Bay, who joined the company in early 2019, testified that there were occasions when the business was unable to meet payroll, so Rush had to spend its own money.

“He increased his investment by putting down a deposit and we were able to cover payroll,” she said, adding that finances were so tight that employees were also asked to delay their paychecks.

OSHA accused of failing to investigate safety concerns in a timely manner

Lochridge said that after he was fired from OceanGate in January 2018, he submitted a quality inspection report on Titan’s construction to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency that oversees workplace safety.

Upon Lochridge’s termination, OceanGate filed a lawsuit alleging breach of contract, alleging that he violated his contractual terms of employment by discussing confidential information with other employees and OSHA representatives.

But instead of pursuing OSHA’s claims, he said, representatives merely dragged their feet, thereby allowing OceanGate to go unchecked while designing and building Titan.

“I believe this tragedy could have been prevented if OSHA had attempted to investigate the seriousness of the concerns I have raised many times,” Lochridge said.

In response to NBC News, an OSHA spokesperson said the agency referred safety claims to the Coast Guard, which has authority to investigate such claims. The agency said it can only investigate employment retaliation claims and “follows the normal process of investigation and timeline for retaliation litigation.”

After Lochridge and OceanGate settled their cases in late 2018, OSHA ended its investigation “under the terms of the parties’ agreement,” the spokesman said.

An animation was created showing the path and communications of the Titan submarine during the hearing held by the US Coast Guard Board of Investigation. Titan was on his way to explore the wreckage of the Titanic on the ocean floor when it exploded.

Titan has never been audited by industry body

U.S. Bureau of Shipping engineer Roy Thomas testified that OceanGate has never contacted the organization that recommends and verifies whether a marine vessel complies with industry standards.

The main material choice for the hull, carbon fiber, long used in the aerospace industry, is “susceptible to fatigue failure” in deep-sea pressure settings, Thomas said. Submersible hulls typically use titanium; carbon fiber is also more expensive.

Thomas added that the organization would never classify Titan based on the materials used. The Coast Guard also stated at the beginning of the hearing that the Titan had never been subject to an independent review, and that this was standard practice in the industry.

Titan malfunctioned a few days before the final dive

Titan suffered more than 100 equipment problems in the two years before the June 2023 explosion, including the loss of its forward dome during a test dive in 2021 and a mechanical failure during an expedition to the Titanic that same year. This trip had to be cancelled.

Marine scientist Steven Ross stated that Titan also malfunctioned days before the explosion. Rush was piloting a trip with Ross and the other ship. At one point, a problem with the Titan’s buoyancy caused the platform to shift and passengers began to “tumble over,” Ross said. He added that no one was injured, but it took an hour to get out of the water during such a sad incident.

“One passenger was hanging upside down,” Ross said. “Others managed to wed themselves into the end cap of the bow.”

Exact cause of explosion may be ‘unclear’

Expert testimony from Bart Kemper of Kemper Engineering Services gave preliminary findings on what may have caused the disaster.

Possibilities include the carbon fiber body breaking, a manufacturing defect with the body or a problem with the acrylic window, he said.

Ultimately, “the root cause of the explosion is unclear at this time,” Kemper said.

Earlier in the hearing, OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Söhnlein, who left the company a decade before the Titan disaster but continues to support Rush’s efforts, said the cause of the explosion may never be known. “I don’t know who made what decision. when and on what information,” he told the hearing panel. “And honestly, despite your team’s best investigative efforts, I don’t know if any of us would know.”

OceanGate CEO took a more cavalier tone: ‘No one is dying’

Witnesses who knew Rush painted a picture of a businessman who strived to innovate to create a new kind of diver but also refused to slow down.

Matthew McCoy, a former OceanGate operations technician, testified about a “tense” meeting with Rush at a U.S. port in 2017 in which the CEO told him what he would do if he came under regulatory scrutiny.

“If the Coast Guard became a problem, then he would buy himself a congressman and make that problem go away,” McCoy said, adding that he resigned soon after.

William Kohnen, CEO and founder of submersible submarine maker Hydrospace Group, said he spoke with Rush about OceanGate’s progress in 2018 and that his industry colleagues noticed what he was doing.

Kohnen testified about industry classification of OceanGate’s submersible. Rush “replied, as usual, ‘it’s taking too long,'” he said. “’It’s too expensive and they don’t know about this technology. I don’t have time to explain my technology.”

That same year, Lochridge confronted Rush about safety concerns before he was fired. In the transcript of the conversation made public by the Coast Guard as part of the hearing, Rush denied that he would put anyone at risk with the Titan.

“Everything I did on this project was people telling me it wouldn’t work, you couldn’t do that,” Rush said.

“I could come up with 50 reasons why we had to cancel this business and failed as a company,” he added. “I’m not dying. “No one dies on my watch, period.”

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