Diving in the Titan ‘was never supposed to be safe,’ mission specialist says of the experimental submersible

By Alaa Elassar and Graham Hurley, CNN

(CNN) — Four days of hearings on the 2023 implosion of the Titan submersible which killed all five people on board concluded this week with more damning testimony recounting multiple safety incidents over the years.

Patrick Lahey, the CEO of Triton Submarines, testified at the hearing on Friday he was concerned about the submersible’s lack of certification.

Lahey said he saw the Titan in March 2019 while in the Bahamas and was “not impressed,” and told OceanGate staff members how he felt about it.

“It just didn’t seem to me that it had been particularly well-thought-out or executed. I saw evidence where they were crimping cables to hold on weights, it just looked amateurish in its execution,” he said. “I kind of left that visit thinking, well that’s a relief, I don’t think that will ever take people on any significant dives and obviously I underestimated their tenacity.”

OceanGate purchased multiple submersibles from Triton Submarines.

Lahey said he believes human-occupied vehicles should be accredited and was concerned Stockton Rush, OceanGate’s founder and CEO, did not look at the submersible objectively and did not look for outside feedback to ensure the craft was safe.

Lahey also said he knew Rush felt the certification process “was a waste of time” and “an impediment to innovation.”

“The certification process works, we know it does. Our track record of safety proves it,” Lahey continued. “We need to insist on continued human exploration of the deep sea in certified accredited machines, not experimental ones, there’s no place for experimental machines in the deep sea.”

Diving in the Titan “was never supposed to be safe,” OceanGate mission specialist Fred Hagen said during his testimony Friday.

“Anyone that felt safe going to depths in the Titan was deluded or delusional, it was an experimental vessel, it was clear that it was dangerous,” said Hagen. “You don’t do it because it’s safe, you do it because it’s an adrenaline rush.”

Titan submersible experienced multiple issues over years

Hagen said “there was an incident” in 2021, just days before a dive he participated in, in which as the Titan was being pulled onto the ramp, rocking back and forth, the crane operator let it go abruptly and the submersible slammed down on the deck.

The force of the impact sheared off several bolts that “shot off like bullets” and the titanium dome fell off. Only four of 18 bolts had been installed on the 3,500-pound titanium dome.

During that dive, they realized the Titan was weighted off balance and they descended in a spiral, free-falling for about two and a half hours.

Communications were erratic and they went off course, and when they threw on the thrusters to get back on course, the starboard thrusters failed and they spun around in circles, he said.

On another dive during the 2022 Titanic expedition, they became entangled in the wreckage of the Titanic for about one or two minutes, he said.

Antonella Wilby, a former OceanGate engineering contractor, testified Friday she repeatedly voiced concerns and was repeatedly dismissed.

During Dive 79 of the 2022 Titanic expedition in July, Wilby was working navigation when parts of the Titan’s navigation and acoustic communications systems broke down.

When Wilby raised concerns about the breakdown, she was told she did not have an “explorer mindset.” She was worried escalating her concerns to the board of directors would break her nondisclosure agreement.

She was also told she was not “solution-oriented” and was eventually removed from the communications and navigation teams. At some point, Wilby said she told them, “This is an idiotic way to do your navigation.”

“No aspect of the operation seemed safe to me,” she said. “When you answer specific questions with that’s just what the company founder wants, instead of actual design decisions and data and analysis, it was a red flag to me.”

Steven Ross, a marine scientist and former OceanGate scientific director, said during his testimony on Thursday the Titan submersible suffered a malfunction six days before imploding in June 2023.

A platform malfunction during Dive 87 on the Titan’s fourth mission in 2023 caused all five people onboard to slam to the aft of the submersible for at least an hour, Ross said.

Ross also mentioned two incidents during the 2022 Titanic expedition dives, including a loud bang heard while surfacing in Dive 80. On Dive 81, Ross said there was a malfunction of the thrusters.

Triton Submarines and other members of the Marine Technology Society (MTS) had written a letter to OceanGate expressing their concern regarding the development of the Titan. An MTS member shared a draft of the letter with OceanGate. Rush and the chair of MTS talked and agreed to disagree on the draft. The full, completed version of the letter was never formally sent to OceanGate.

David Lochridge, a former director of marine operations for OceanGate who expressed safety concerns about the ill-fated Titan submersible, said during his testimony earlier this week the Titan tragedy could have been prevented if US safety authorities had investigated his complaints. He also blasted OceanGate’s company culture as being centered on “making money” and offering “very little in the way of science.”

“I believe that if OSHA had attempted to investigate the seriousness of the concerns I raised on multiple occasions, this tragedy may have been prevented,” Lochridge said.

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