Coast Guard will hear from former OceanGate employees about Titan implosion

U.S. Coast Guard officials investigating the implosion of an experimental watercraft en route to the wreck of the Titanic were scheduled to hear testimony Monday from former employees of the company that owned the Titan submersible.

The goal of the two-week hearing in Charleston County, South Carolina, is to “uncover the facts surrounding the incident and develop recommendations to prevent similar tragedies in the future,” the Coast Guard said in a statement earlier this month. The ongoing Marine Board of Investigation is the highest level of marine accident investigation conducted by the Coast Guard.

The Titan imploded in the North Atlantic in June 2023, killing all five people on board and sparking a global debate about the future of private underwater exploration.

Among those killed was Stockton Rush, co-founder of OceanGate, the Washington state company that owned the Titan. The company suspended operations after the implosion. Witnesses scheduled to testify on Monday include OceanGate’s former chief technical officer Tony Nissen, the company’s former finance director Bonnie Carl and former contractor Tym Catterson.

Several key OceanGate officials are not scheduled to testify, including Rush’s widow, Wendy Rush, who was formerly the company’s communications director.

The Coast Guard does not comment on the reasons why certain people are not called to a particular hearing during an ongoing investigation, said Melissa Leake, a Coast Guard spokeswoman. She added that it is common for a Marine Board of Investigation “to hold multiple hearings or take additional testimony in complex cases.”

OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein, former operations manager David Lochridge and former chief scientific officer Steven Ross are also expected to appear at the hearing later, according to a Coast Guard list. Numerous guard officials, scientists and government and industry representatives are also expected to testify. The U.S. Coast Guard has subpoenaed witnesses who are not government employees, Leake said.

OceanGate currently has no full-time employees but will be represented by counsel during the hearing, the company said in a statement. The company has been cooperating fully with the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board’s investigations since they began, the statement said.

“There are no words to ease the loss of the families affected by this devastating incident, but we hope this hearing will help shed light on the cause of the tragedy,” the statement continued.

The Titan came under fire in the underwater research community for its unconventional design and its builder’s decision not to implement standard independent checks, among other things. The implosion killed Rush and veteran Titanic researcher Paul-Henri Nargeolet, as well as two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, and British adventurer Hamish Harding.

The Titan made its last dive on June 18, 2023, and lost contact with its escort vessel about two hours later. When the overdue was reported, rescue crews rushed ships, aircraft and other equipment to an area about 700 kilometers south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.

The search for the submersible attracted worldwide attention as it became increasingly unlikely that anyone could have survived the implosion. Wreckage from the Titan was later found on the sea floor about 1,000 feet off the Titanic’s bow, Coast Guard officials said.

The timeframe for the investigation was originally set at a year, but the inquiry has taken longer. The Coast Guard said in July that the hearing would examine “all aspects of the Titan’s sinking,” including mechanical considerations as well as compliance with regulations and the qualifications of crew members.

The Titan has been making trips to the Titanic wreck site since 2021.

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