Last year, five people hoping to view the Titanic wreckage died when their in the Atlantic Ocean. This week, a Coast Guard panel that's investigating the Titan disaster listened to four days of testimony that has raised serious questions about whether warning signs were ignored. The panel plans to listen to another five days of testimony next week.
Here's what witnesses have been saying so far:
The lead engineer says he wouldn't get in the Titan
When testifying about a dive that took place several years before the fatal accident, lead engineer Tony Nissen said he felt pressured to get the Titan ready and he refused to pilot it.
鈥淚鈥檓 not getting in it," Nissen said he told Stockton Rush, the co-founder of OceanGate, the company that owned the Titan. Nissen said Rush was difficult to work for, made demands that often changed day-to-day, and was focused on costs and schedules. Nissen said he tried to keep his clashes with Rush hidden so others in the company wouldn't be aware of the friction.
The Titan malfunctioned a few days before its fatal dive
Scientific director Steven Ross said that on a dive just a few days before the Titan imploded, the vessel had a problem with its ballast, which keeps vessels stable. The issue caused passengers to 鈥渢umble about" and crash into the bulkhead, he said.
鈥淥ne passenger was hanging upside down. The other two managed to wedge themselves into the bow,鈥� Ross testified.
He said nobody was injured but it took an hour to get the vessel out of the water. He said he didn't know if a safety assessment or hull inspection was carried out after the incident.
It wasn't the first time the Titan had problems
A paid passenger on a 2021 mission to the Titanic said the journey was aborted when the vessel started experiencing mechanical problems.
鈥淲e realized that all it could do was spin around in circles, making right turns,鈥� said Fred Hagen. 鈥淎t this juncture, we obviously weren鈥檛 going to be able to navigate to the Titanic.鈥�
He said the Titan resurfaced and the mission was scrapped. Hagen said he was aware of the risks involved in the dive.
鈥淎nyone that wanted to go was either delusional if they didn鈥檛 think that it was dangerous, or they were embracing the risk,鈥� he said.
One employee said authorities ignored his concerns
Operations director David Lochridge said the tragedy could possibly have been prevented if a federal agency had investigated the concerns he raised with them on multiple occasions.
Lochridge said that eight months after he filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a caseworker told him the agency had not begun investigating and there were still 11 cases ahead of his. By that time, OceanGate was suing Lochridge and he had filed a countersuit. A couple of months later, Lochridge said, he decided to walk away from the complaint. He said the case was closed and both lawsuits were dropped.
鈥淭he whole idea behind the company was to make money,鈥� Lochridge testified. 鈥淭here was very little in the way of science.鈥�
After Lochridge鈥檚 testimony this week, the federal agency responded that, at the time, it had 鈥減romptly referred" his safety concerns to the Coast Guard.
Some people had a rosier view
Renata Rojas, a member of the Explorers Club which lost two paid passengers in the fatal dive, struck a different tone with her testimony. She said she felt OceanGate was transparent in the run-up to the dive and she never felt the operation was unsafe. A passenger on a previous dive, Rojas was volunteering with the surface crew when the Titan imploded.
鈥淪ome of those people are very hardworking individuals that were just trying to make dreams come true," she said.
Nick Perry And Patrick Whittle, The Associated Press
