(NewsNation) — The Titan submersible hearing resumed Friday with witnesses continuing to recount their experience with OceanGate as the U.S. Coast Guard investigates the submersible implosion that killed five people on a dive to the wreck of the Titanic.
Mission specialist Fred Hagen was the first to testify. Other witnesses have said mission specialist was a title given to those who paid to dive with OceanGate.
Hagen suggested that anyone who thought going to depth with the Titan was safe was “delusional,” characterizing the project as experimental and adventurous.
He described several incidents that occurred during various dives he took part in. Those included a dive where the front dome sheared off when the submersible was being lifted onto the deck of a support ship; and a dive where the incorrectly weighted submersible spiraled to the ocean floor when thrusters failed to work and some weights meant to drop to allow the vessel to resurface became stuck.
“It was clear that it was dangerous,” Hagen said. “It’s kind of like jumping out of an airplane. I mean, you don’t do it because it’s safe, you do it because it’s an adrenaline rush.”
Dave Dyer, an engineer with the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory, testified about testing and early development on the Titan. The group stopped working with OceanGate in 2017, years before the implosion.
Dyer said earlier plans for the submersible called for the craft to be made entirely of carbon fiber, but when a smaller model of the sub was subjected to the expected pressure, it failed several times. That led to the domes being swapped out for titanium.
When asked, Dyer said he would not consider one unmanned test of a submersible sufficient to begin sending people on dives.
OceanGate and the lab parted ways due to disagreements about how the company approached engineering and testing.
What has been learned so far?
The Coast Guard’s investigatory panel has listened to three days of testimony that raised questions about the company’s operations before the doomed mission. The public hearing is part of a high-level investigation into the cause of the implosion.
OceanGate co-founder and CEO Stockton Rush was among five people who died when the submersible imploded en route to the site of the Titanic wreck in June 2023.
Mission specialist Renata Rojas was testifies Thursday.
Rojas refuted testimony from previous witness David Lochridge regarding the OceanGate mission to the wreck of the Andrea Doria. She said that while the submersible did crash into the side of the wreck, there was no panicking or crying from passengers as Lochridge described.
Lochridge labeled the experimental submersible unsafe before its last, fatal voyage.
During questioning about her role in various dives, Rojas described the role she and other passengers played. She also likened the project to NASA’s Apollo program of the 1960s, saying it was “testing by doing.”
In an emotional closing statement, Rojas said the loss of her friends was still very raw but “exploration takes risks” and she hopes the implosion does not dampen innovation or other projects involving citizen scientists.
On Monday, witnesses painted a picture of a troubled company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident sparked a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.
OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. The Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.
OceanGate Scientific Director Steven Ross also testified before the hearing wrapped Thursday. More witnesses are expected to testify with the hearing set to continue into next week.
Titan submersible implosion
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Debris from the Titan submersible, recovered from the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic, is unloaded from the ship Horizon Arctic at the Canadian Coast Guard pier in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Wednesday, June 28, 2023. (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press via AP) -
Debris from the Titan submersible, recovered from the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic, is unloaded from the ship Horizon Arctic at the Canadian Coast Guard pier in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Wednesday, June 28, 2023. (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press via AP) -
Debris from the Titan submersible, recovered from the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic, is unloaded from the ship Horizon Arctic at the Canadian Coast Guard pier in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Wednesday, June 28, 2023. (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press via AP) -
Debris from the Titan submersible, recovered from the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic, is unloaded from the ship Horizon Arctic at the Canadian Coast Guard pier in St. John’s, Newfoundland on Wednesday, June 28, 2023. (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press via AP) -
A U.S. Coast Guard ship arrives in the harbor of St. John’s, Newfoundland, on Wednesday, June 28, 2023, following the arrival of the ship Horizon Arctic carrying debris from the Titan submersible. The submersible owned by OceanGate Expeditions imploded on its way to the wreck of the Titanic. (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press via AP) -
The Titan is a five-person submersible designed to go to depths of 13,000 feet for site survey, inspection, research and data collection. (OceanGate Expeditions) -
In this image released by Action Aviation, the submersible Titan is prepared for a dive into a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean on an expedition to the Titanic on Sunday, June 18, 2023. Rescuers are racing against time to find the missing submersible carrying five people, who were reported overdue Sunday night. (Action Aviation via AP, File) -
In this satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies, from top to bottom, the vessels Horizon Arctic, Deep Energy and Skandi Vinland search for the missing submersible Titan, Thursday, June 22, 2023 in the Atlantic Ocean. (Satellite image ©2023 Maxar Technologies via AP) -
Morning newspapers publish an ad of condolence massages for two victims of Titan submersible incident, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, by their family and firm, displayed at a roadside stall, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 27, 2023. As an international group of agencies investigates why the Titan submersible imploded while carrying five people to the Titanic wreckage, U.S. maritime officials say they’ll issue a report aimed at improving the safety of submersibles worldwide. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
The Titan, owned by OceanGate, made its last dive June 18, 2023. The craft lost contact with its support vessel an hour and 45 minutes into the dive. Five people were on board, diving 12,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.
The loss of communication launched a four-day search for the vessel, which ended when evidence of an implosion was found on the ocean floor. Officials concluded that the craft had been destroyed and all five people on board were killed.
Few vessels dive that deep into the ocean, and engineers and experts in the field noted previous problems with the Titan as well as warnings that the submersible was unsafe.
The search-and-recovery mission is estimated to have cost up to $1.6 million.
The Coast Guard quickly convened a high-level investigation into what happened. Concerns leading up to the investigation included the Titan’s unconventional design and its creator’s decision to forgo standard independent checks.
The investigation into the Titan implosion originally had a 12-month timeline but has been extended multiple times.
In addition to Rush, the implosion killed two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
