Some of the last words from the crew aboard the doomed Titan submersible were revealed in a hearing Monday, presented by the U.S. Coast Guard alongside a re-creation of the journey aboard the fated experimental vessel.
The hearing, expected to last two weeks, will examine the causes of the June 2023 implosion that instantly killed five people on board.
According to the presentation, crew aboard the Titan were communicating with support staff aboard the Polar Prince via text message shortly before they lost communication.
The Polar Prince was the Titan’s support vessel and had towed the submersible out to the area in the North Atlantic where it carried out its dive.
As the submersible descended on its mission to view the wreckage of the Titanic, there were repeated inquiries from the Polar Prince about the Titan’s depth and weight, as well as texts asking if the Titan could still see the Polar Prince on its onboard display. As the sub lowered, communication became increasingly spotty.
“All good here,” was among the Titan’s final responses, the hearing heard.
The Titan imploded on June 18, 2023, killing all five on board and setting off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.
In other testimony Monday, Coast Guard officials said the Titan was left exposed to weather and elements while in storage for seven months in 2022 and 2023. The hull was also never reviewed by any third parties as is standard procedure, they said.
The ongoing Marine Board of Investigation is the highest level of marine casualty investigation conducted by the Coast Guard. When the hearing concludes, recommendations will be submitted to the Coast Guard’s commandant. The National Transportation Safety Board is also conducting an investigation.
“There are no words to ease the loss endured by the families impacted by this tragic incident,” said Jason Neubauer of the Coast Guard Office of Investigations, who led the hearing. “But we hope that this hearing will help shed light on the cause of the tragedy and prevent anything like this from happening again.”
Stockton Rush, co-founder of OceanGate, the company that owned the Titan, was among those killed in the implosion. OceanGate suspended operations following the tragic accident that also killed veteran Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood; and British adventurer Hamish Harding.
The Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.
For days, rescuers in ships and planes scoured the area about 700 kilometres off the coast of St. John’s, N.L., before the Titan wreckage was found on the ocean floor about 300 metres away from the bow of the Titanic, the Coast Guard said.
After the implosion, the Titan incident became the subject of intense scrutiny and the undersea exploration community questioned its seemingly ad-hoc design and Rush’s refusal to undergo standard, independent checks.
It also sparked worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.
The hearing’s first witness, OceanGate’s former engineering director, Tony Nissen, testified Monday that Rush could be difficult to work for and was often very concerned with costs and project schedules, among other issues. Nissen also said that initially, he had “no idea they wanted to go to the Titanic.”
Nissen said Rush would fight for what he wanted, which often changed day to day. He said he tried to keep his clashes with Rush behind closed doors so that others in the company wouldn’t be aware.
“Most people would eventually just back down to Stockton,” he said.
Also scheduled to speak are the company’s former finance director, Bonnie Carl, and former contractor Tym Catterson. OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein, former operations director David Lochridge and former scientific director Steven Ross are all scheduled to appear later in the hearing.
Some key OceanGate representatives are not scheduled to testify. They include Rush’s widow, Wendy Rush, who was the company’s communications director.
— With files from The Associated Press