Titan sub hearing live: First video of OceanGate submersible wreckage after implosion revealed

A fourth OceanGate witness testified at the US Coast Guard’s hearing into the disastrous deep-sea voyage to the wreck of the Titanic that saw the “catastrophic implosion” of the Titan submersible, killing all five passengers on board.

David Lochridge, former director of marine operations for OceanGate – the US submersible company that operated the expedition – testified about the so-called “red flags” surrounding the exploration on Tuesday. The witness stated that he had “no confidence whatsoever” with the Titan’s construction.

Lochridge claimed “all the standardized rules and regulations” were bypassed as the company scrambled to “push” the launch for profit-making purposes, he told the Coast Guard’s Titan Marine Board of Investigations panel.

“It was inevitable something was going to happen. It was just a [question of] when,” he added.

Lochridge is one of 10 former employees of OceanGate among the 24 witnesses giving testimony at the two-week long hearing, which will return on Thursday.

The Coast Guard also released footage of the Titan sub wreckage, showing its mangled tail cone lying on the ocean floor.

The video taken on June 22, 2023, was “conclusive evidence of the catastrophic loss” onboard the vessel, it said.

Key points

• Newly-released footage of Titan sub wreckage surfaces

• Senior OceanGate employee had ‘no confidence’ in Titan sub construction

• OceanGate took ‘safety shortcuts,’ witness testifies

• Titan crew's final three-word text revealed

14:24 , James Liddell

Hearings will resume on Thursday at 8.30am ET.

Our blog will be paused until then.

Schedule: Hearing returns on Thursday

14:00 , James Liddell

8:30am – Daily opening

8:45am – 10 minute recess

9:00am – Renata Rojas, OceanGate Mission Specialist

10:30am – 10 minute recess

10:45am – Renata Rojas

12:30pm – Lunch

1:30pm – Dr Steven Ross, former OceanGate Scientific Director

3:00pm – Break down

Watch: Coast Guard releases footage that provided ‘conclusive evidence’ that Titan passengers died

12:30 , James Liddell

Newly-released footage of Titan sub wreckage surfaces

09:37 , James Liddell

David Lochridge is released as witness

Tuesday 17 September 2024 21:01 , Kelly Rissman

Hearings will resume on Thursday at 8.30am.

Our blog will be paused until then.

Lochridge testifies that OceanGate took safety shortcuts

Tuesday 17 September 2024 20:07 , Kelly Rissman

“The way this company was going about this project, bypassing all the standardized rules and regulations that are set in place by people with experience...they bypassed it all,” Lochridge said.

It was inevitable something was going to happen. It was just a [question of] when,” he continued.

Witnesses discuss the ‘push’ to launch the vessel

Tuesday 17 September 2024 19:30 , Kelly Rissman

Lochridge told the panel that there was a “push” to launch the Titan.

“They were very push push push to get this out the door as fast as possible so they could start making profit,” he said on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Lochridge said he “had no confidence whatsoever” with how the Titan was being built. “There was a big push to get this done and a lot of steps along the way were missed,” including safety concerns.

The day prior, Tony Nissen, the director of engineering, also remarked on the force felt to get the vessel to set sail.

When asked if there was “pressure” to start operations, Nissen told the panel: “100 percent.”

In photos: Key moments from the hearings so far

Tuesday 17 September 2024 19:00 , Kelly Rissman

WATCH: Titan crew's final three-word text revealed in haunting animation of submersible's journey

Tuesday 17 September 2024 17:22 , Kelly Rissman

‘It screams like a mother before it implodes’: Rush told Lochridge, the witness recalled

Tuesday 17 September 2024 16:45 , Kelly Rissman

When he submitted the inspection report to senior management, Lochridge said he received a message about a meeting in the board room.

“That meeting turned out to be a two-hour discussion about my termination and how my disagreements with the organization with regards to safety didn’t matter,” he told the panel.

“It doesn’t just implode. It screams like a mother before it implodes,” Rush said about carbon fiber, according to Lochridge.

The witness said the company exhibited a “total disregard for safety.”

‘A lot of steps along the way were missed’ in the building of Titan

Tuesday 17 September 2024 15:29 , Kelly Rissman

“I had no confidence whatsoever” with how the Titan was being built, he said.

“There was a big push to get this done and a lot of steps along the way were missed,” including safety concerns, Lochridge said.

“Stockton had no experience building submersibles. No one did,” he said.

Speaking about OceanGate’s social media that boasted photos of its previous missions, Lochridge said: “It was all smoke and mirrors.”

He reiterated that no one should be launching a submersible without proper safety precautions — or with “faulty, deficient equipment.”

Lochridge also revealed his note attached to his January 2018 inspection report to the directors. He wrote: “It is my opinion that until suitable corrective actions are in place and closed out, Cyclops 2 (Titan) should not be manned during any of the upcoming trials.”

Lochridge forced to sign new contract after ‘embarrassing’ Rush in front of client, he testifies

Tuesday 17 September 2024 15:07 , Kelly Rissman

He said he Stockton Rush “pretty much stopped talking to me rationally” after the Andrea Doria incident.

At the end of the summer 2016, Rush and others told him OceanGate was “no longer willing to pay” for his wife and daughter’s permanent residence. Lochridge believed it was because he “embarrassed him in front of clients,” referring to the Andrea Doria crash, which was a “turning point” in his and Rush’s relationship.

The following day, Rush presented him with a new contract that he sign a new contract that stipulated he would have to reimburse the company if he left within the next 12 months. Rush instructed him not to tell his immigration attorney about the new arrangement.

Lochridge says Rush threw a controller at his head

Tuesday 17 September 2024 14:43 , Kelly Rissman

David Lochridge said he was hired by OceanGate in 2015 as a contractor. He later became the director of marine operations.

“They were selling me as part of this project,” he said, adding that he was “responsible” for the training.

“They wanted to be able to qualify a pilot in a day,” Lochridge said of OceanGate. “It was a huge red flag,” since it is usually a “long process.”

“I don’t like being bullied into anything. I don’t tolerate liars. If I see something that’s a risk, I will put my hand up,” he said.

Lochridge also mentioned a dive on the Cyclops I to the Andrea Doria wreckage site that went awry. The test submersible “smashed” into the wreck, but Rush refused to hand over the “Playstation controller” to Lochridge. A “paying client” insisted he hand over control.

That’s when Rush threw the controller at Lochridge’s head, he said.

David Lochridge, a highly anticipated witness, will testify today

Tuesday 17 September 2024 13:13 , Kelly Rissman

OceanGate’s former operations director David Lochridge is set to take the stand before the Coast Guard panel on Tuesday.

In his 2018 inspection report, Lochridge detailed his concerns with the Titan. Not long after he wrote the report, he was fired.

Lochridge was mentioned repeatedly on Monday, during the first hearing, and appeared to be considered a trusted expert.

After Lochridge parted ways with the company, Bonnie Carl, the finance director and head of HR, said she started looking for another job. “If that was their attitude toward safety,” she didn’t want to work there, she said.

The hearings will continue tomorrow

Tuesday 17 September 2024 01:00 , Kelly Rissman

The hearings are expected to span two weeks.

They will continue tomorrow starting at 8.30am ET.

We are pausing our blog until then...

Who died in the implosion?

Tuesday 17 September 2024 00:30 , Kelly Rissman

All five members of the doomed submersible lost their lives after the vessel launched on June 18, 2023: founder Stockton Rush, 61, French explorer Paul Henri Nargeolet, 77, British explorer Hamish Harding, 58, UK-based Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son Suleman.

MBI created an animated model of the Titan’s doomed voyage

Tuesday 17 September 2024 00:00 , Kelly Rissman

ICYMI: Titan crew's final three-word text revealed in haunting animation of submersible's journey

Monday 16 September 2024 23:30 , Kelly Rissman

What to expect at tomorrow’s hearing

Monday 16 September 2024 23:00 , Kelly Rissman

8:30 a.m. – Daily Opening

8:45 a.m. – 10 Minute Recess

9:00 a.m. – Mr. David Lochridge

10:30 a.m. – 10 Minute Recess

10:45 a.m. Mr. David Lochridge

12:30 p.m. – Lunch

1:30 p.m. – Mr. David Lochridge

2:45 p.m. – 10 Minute Recess

Final communications between the Titan crew and its support vessel, revealed

Monday 16 September 2024 22:30 , Kelly Rissman

“All good here” were some of the final words that the doomed Titan submersible crew communicated before the submersible imploded on its mission to the Titanic wreckage site in June 2023.

The message, revealed as part of the Coast Guard’s Monday hearing into the circumstances of the failed mission, was sent to support vessel Polar Prince on June 18, 2023, shortly before the submersible imploded, killing all five of its crew members. It was an incident that captivated both sides of the Atlantic as crews made a mad dash to save the crew after the sub lost contact with the surface - with the world unaware that the lives had been lost.

The Coast Guard played an animated re-enactment of the Titan’s voyage that captured the submersible’s final, spotty exchange with the Polar Prince, during the Monday hearing that shed new light on the sub’s final mission.

Around 10am on June 18, Polar Prince asked the Titan crew whether they were able to see the support vessel on the submersible’s display. The support vessel asked the crew the same question seven times over the course of seven minutes. The Titan crew then sent “k,” meaning it was asking for a communications check.

Read the full story...

Final messages revealed from the Titan sub before tragic implosion

Catterson said he had ‘doubts’ — and voiced them

Monday 16 September 2024 21:54 , Kelly Rissman

“I had my doubts,” Catterson said about the carbon fiber hull.

“I think that when you put it under compression, they can buckle, they can shift, they can move all these directions three-directionally,” he added.

When aksed if he had voiced his concerns about the hull to any OceanGate employees, Catterson said he told Stockton Rush, Tony Nissen, the first witness today who is an engineer, and David Lochridge, who was terminated shortly after detailing his concerns with the Titan’s design in an inspection report.

A series of unfortunate events after the Titan went undetected

Monday 16 September 2024 21:33 , Kelly Rissman

The Canadian Coast Guard had been hearing a consistent “knocking” sound, Catterson said. The witness explained that the consistency signaled that the noise was coming from humans, distinct from the ocean sounds.

He thought the submersible was drifting.

The Polar Prince did not have a remotely operative vehicle (ROV) on board.

When a ROV did arrive, and it was determined that it could help find the submersible, it went to the bottom of the seafloor but died. So efforts then included recovering this “dead ROV,” Catterson said. They then tried to use sonar off the ROV to detect the submersible, but it didn’t work.

Pelagic Research Services’ ROV later arrived at the scene, and found debris within 10 minutes, he said.

Witness reveals insight into the search and rescue process

Monday 16 September 2024 21:24 , Kelly Rissman

Catterson said he was part of the search and rescue operations. He was on the Polar Prince, the support vessel.

“We did everything that we could to determine whether it was a communications issue or something else,” he recalled.

Both the tracking and communications both stopped because OceanGate was using the accoustic modem, which is tied to the depth sensor for tracking purposes, also as a communications link, which was atypical, he said.

“Normally there would have been two devices,” Catterson told the panel. “This is the first case I’ve ever seen” where communications and tracking were tied together, meaning “when one fails, so does the other.”

‘No red flags’ on launch day, Catterson says

Monday 16 September 2024 21:11 , Kelly Rissman

The expediton was repeatedly “weathered out,” he said, given the intense fog.

On June 18th, he said it was sunny, so it was really the only day they could have gone. It was like the day was “blessed,” he said.

OceanGate had an “extensive pre-dive,” Catterson told the panel. They started at 4am, four hours before the submersible’ launched.

He said he had never experienced such a lengthy process: “There were so many things that had to be checked. Subs do not have that many things to check over.”

Catterson was tasked with the dive checks.

“There were no red flags,” he said. “It was a good day.”

‘Like a bathtub compared to the North Atlantic’: Catterson said the training wasn’t reflective of the conditions the Titan would see on its mission

Monday 16 September 2024 20:56 , Kelly Rissman

When asked whether OceanGate staffing in Expedition 2023 was “sufficient to ensure safety,” Catterson paused before responding: “I think training and operations at sea could have been better.”

They did their training out of Everett which is “like a bathtub compared to the North Atlantic,” he said. They didn’t have practice in rougher conditions, like fog. “The training probably didn’t reflect as good as a base of knowledge for out there,” referring to where the Titan set sail.

Ex-contractor recalls drop weight problems

Monday 16 September 2024 20:51 , Kelly Rissman

Catterson recalled drop weight issues on the two test dives he was a part of years before the ill-fated Titan set sail.

He described how drop weights work. “The sub became neutral so the sub became neutral...They were only able to drop 70 pounds. That’s not enough to do what they needed to have happen,” Catterson told the panel.

WATCH: James Cameron likens Titan submersible tragedy to Titanic

Monday 16 September 2024 20:43 , Kelly Rissman

The Titan was the first sub Catterson worked on that hadn’t been classed, he testifies

Monday 16 September 2024 20:28 , Kelly Rissman

When asked whether it was typical for submersibles to be classed, Catterson said: “yes.”

The Titan “would have been the first one that was not classed,” he said.

Catterson recalled conversations he had with Rush about needing to get the submersible classified — which he described as “short.”

The former contractor said he told Rush that classification is “proof of due diligence” and a way to get insurance. However, Catterson got the impression that classing the vessel “wasn’t a big of a worry for him as it is for most people.”

Tym Catterson, former OceanGate contractor, takes the stand

Monday 16 September 2024 20:21 , Kelly Rissman

Catterson has been working with manned submersibles since the 1980s for a variety of companies.

He started working with OceanGate in 2003 or 2004. He said the company’s co-founders were unfamiliar with subs when he was hired.

OceanGates’s finances and safety measures under the microscope

Monday 16 September 2024 19:47 , Kelly Rissman

“There was no drug testing,” Carl said.

When asked about whether safety was ever an agenda item of an OceanGate meeting, she said she couldn’t recall.

She revealed the company “basically didn’t have any money coming in” aside from investors.

“We got very low but to the point where I got very concerned that we weren’t going to make payroll one week,” she said. Rush would essentially provide a temporary loan to the company when that would happen, she said. “He would write a check.”

Carl was released as a witness.

Carl outlined her safety concerns

Monday 16 September 2024 19:34 , Kelly Rissman

Carl had received some pilot traning in addition to her other roles, where she spotted some “red flags.”

“As a pilot in training, there were a couple things that gave me pause,” she said. She said she had asked Mr Nissen, the first witness, about the acrylic dome, however he wouldn’t let her see the paperwork for it.

She added that the O-Ring groove also “looked odd.”

She said she brought most of her concerns to David Lochridge, who was later fired after a writing an inspection report detailing his concerns about the vessel.

Shortly after showing Rush the inspection report, Carl understood that Lochridge was likely going to be terminated. She recalled that Lochridge had insisted on unmanned testing but Rush wanted to push forward, leading them to an “impasse” in which they had to “part ways.”

After the meeting with Lochridge, she said she started looking for another job. “If that was their attitude toward safety,” she didn’t want to work there, she said.

She left in February 2018.

Ex-OceanGate employees paint picture of founder Stockton Rush

Monday 16 September 2024 19:28 , Kelly Rissman

During their testimony on Monday, two former employees told the Coast Guard panel about their involvement in the company — including their impressions of Stockton Rush.

Both former employees described a man who often made sure to get his way.

“All decisons were made by Stockton,” Carl revealed, even among discussions with board members.

Nissen had also said that dealing with Rush was like “death by a thousand cuts.”

The engineer said: “Stockton would fight for what he wanted...And he wouldn’t give an inch much. At all,” he said. “Most people would eventually back down from Stockton.”

'All good here’

Monday 16 September 2024 19:18 , Kelly Rissman

Those were some of the final words that the doomed Titan submersible crew communicated before the submersible imploded on its mission to the Titanic wreckage site in June 2023.

The message, revealed as part of the Coast Guard’s Monday hearing into the circumstances of the failed mission, was sent to support vessel Polar Prince on June 18, 2023, shortly before the submersible imploded, killing all five of its crew members. It was an incident that captivated both sides of the Atlantic as crews made a mad dash to save the crew after the sub lost contact with the surface - with the world unaware that the lives had been lost.

The Coast Guard played an animated re-enactment of the Titan’s voyage that captured the submersible’s final, spotty exchange with the Polar Prince, during the Monday hearing that shed new light on the sub’s final mission.

Read the full story...

Final messages revealed from the Titan sub before tragic implosion

Ex HR director reveals the behind the scenes of mission specialist role

Monday 16 September 2024 19:16 , Kelly Rissman

Carl, the head of HR for OceanGate, said there were two requirements she was aware of to become a mission specialist: being able to fit in the submersible and money.

While she said there were waivers and liability forms that mission specialists were supposed to sign, she said she had never seen anyone sign them, adding she “assumed” they would sign the forms before the expedition.

Funds ‘immediately’ went toward operations: witness testifies

Monday 16 September 2024 19:08 , Kelly Rissman

Most of the shareholders were friends of Stockton Rush, Carl testified.

She said she was unaware of any refunds if the expeditions were cancelled. “There was no money for refunds,” she said, adding that the funds were “immediately” used for operations.

Bonnie Carl takes the stand

Monday 16 September 2024 18:58 , Kelly Rissman

The second witness is the director of human resources and finance at OceanGate. She is calling in remotely.

She told the panel about her background as an accountant.

WATCH: Titan crew's final three-word text revealed in haunting animation of submersible's journey

Monday 16 September 2024 18:55 , Kelly Rissman

Nissen’s testimony concludes

Monday 16 September 2024 17:55 , Kelly Rissman

After hours on the stand, Nissen’s testimony came to an end.

The Coast Guard panel is expected to hear from two other ex OceanGate employees today: Bonnie Carl, the former Human Resources/Finance director and Tym Catterson, a former contractor.

After the hearing, it was clarified that Tony Nissen was referring to a prototype carbon fiber hull created in 2016, which was never used on Titanic expeditions. After Nissen left OceanGate in 2019, the company manufactured a new carbon fiber hull, which was used on the Titanic expeditions.

Nissen discusses the ‘pressure’ felt to jumpstart operations

Monday 16 September 2024 17:48 , Kelly Rissman

When asked if there was “pressure” to start operations, Nissen said: “100 percent.”

‘All good here’: Animation reveals haunting final text from crew

Monday 16 September 2024 16:56 , Kelly Rissman

The MBI’s animation at the start of the hearing showed final communications between and the support vessel Polar Prince and the Titan before the implosion.

The animation highlighted the spotty communications in text bubbles.,

The Polar Prince sent repeated messages that largely went unanswered. One of Titan’s final responses was “all good here,” according to the animation.

MBI provides detailed diagram of the doomed sub

Monday 16 September 2024 16:51 , Kelly Rissman

Nissen wouldn’t sign off on test due to damaged hull, he testified

Monday 16 September 2024 16:38 , Kelly Rissman

“I wouldn’t sign off on it. So I got terminated,” Nissen testified.

Rush invited him to lunch. Board members told Rush that Nissen should have “known that the hull was compromised. And it wouldn’t work. Either he or I had to go,” Nissen recalled Rush telling him. “It’s not going to be me.”

Even before the crack was found in the hull, Nissen recalled warning: “This submersible, what we’re doing has never been done before....We don’t know what good is supposed to look like. But what I do know is it shouldn’t like that.”

‘The maddest I’ve seen Stockton’

Monday 16 September 2024 16:31 , Kelly Rissman

In the spring of 2019, when Rush wanted to send Titan to New Foundland, Nissen looked at the acoustic data and said: “it’s not clean.”

He said there are issues in the center and left of the case. “It was the maddest I’ve seen Stockton,” he testified.

They conducted more dives, which again weren’t as “clean” as they wanted. In one dive, a crack was found in the hull that turned out to be larger than they first realized.

WATCH: Resurfaced OceanGate video shows Titan prototype leaking water

Monday 16 September 2024 16:20 , Kelly Rissman