Science
Titan Submersible’s Scientific Director Says The Sub Malfunctioned Just Prior To The Titanic Dive
The scientific director of the corporation that owned the Titan submarine, which collapsed last year while en route to the Titanic ruins, testified Thursday that the sub had malfunctioned immediately before the tragic dive.
Steven Ross, speaking before a US Coast Guard panel, described a platform issue that the experimental submersible encountered in June 2023, just days before it collapsed on its route to the Titanic site. The breakdown prompted passengers on the submersible to “tumble about,” and it took an hour to pull them out of the water.
Ross stated the submersible pilot, OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush, slammed into bulkheading during the incident. Ross claimed no one was hurt in the encounter, which he described as uncomfortable.
Titan Submersible’s Scientific Director Says The Sub Malfunctioned Just Prior To The Titanic Dive
“A passenger was dangling upside down. “The other two managed to wedge themselves into the bow end cap,” Ross said, adding that he didn’t know if the Titan’s safety or hull were inspected following the event.
An investigative panel heard three days of testimony that highlighted concerns about the company’s practices before the disastrous trip. Rush was one of five persons killed when the submarine imploded en route to the Titanic disaster in June 2023.
Renata Rojas, the company’s mission expert, told the Coast Guard earlier Thursday that the organization was staffed by qualified people who wanted to “make dreams come true.” Rojas’ evidence contrasted with that of several of the other witnesses, who depicted the corporation as plagued from the top down and more concerned with profit than research or safety.
“I was learning a lot and working with amazing people,” Rojas told me. “Some of those people are very hard-working individuals that were just trying to make dreams come true.”
Rojas also stated that she thought the corporation was sufficiently transparent leading up to the Titanic sinking. Her testimony was emotional at times, and the Coast Guard panel suggested she take a small pause to calm herself.
Rojas is a member of the Explorers Club, which lost Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet during the Titan explosion. Following the implosion, the club described Rush as “a friend of The Explorers Club”.
“I was aware that what I was doing was extremely unsafe. “I never felt unsafe during the operation,” Rojas said in testimony Thursday.
Earlier this month, the Coast Guard held a public hearing as part of a high-level investigation into the cause of the implosion. The public hearing began on Sept. 16, and some of the testimony has touched on issues the corporation faced before to the deadly 2023 dive.
Investigators have also published underwater footage of the submersible wreckage. The footage captures the submersible’s tail cone and other wreckage on the ocean floor.
Former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge testified Tuesday that he frequently argued with Rush and that the business was primarily concerned with making money.
“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge stated. “There was very little in the way of science.”
The session is set to last until Friday, with more witnesses scheduled to appear and resume next week.
Lochridge and other witnesses described a corporation run by people eager to get the unconventionally designed craft into the sea. The fatal disaster sparked a global debate over the future of private undersea exploration.
At the opening of the hearing, Coast Guard officials stated that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, which is typical protocol. That, together with Titan’s unconventional design, drew scrutiny from the submarine exploration community.
Titan Submersible’s Scientific Director Says The Sub Malfunctioned Just Prior To The Titanic Dive
OceanGate, situated in Washington state, halted operations following the implosion. The company currently has no full-time employees, although it was represented by an attorney at the hearing.
During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after exchanging texts about the Titan’s depth and weight as it plummeted. The support ship Polar Prince then sent several communications enquiring whether the Titan could still see the spacecraft on its onboard monitor.
According to a graphic simulation shown earlier in the hearing, one of Titan’s crew’s final transmissions to Polar Prince before the submersible collapsed said, “all good here.”
When the submersible was reported lost, rescuers hurried ships, planes, and other equipment to a location around 435 miles (700 km) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Four days later, wreckage from the Titanic was discovered on the ocean floor roughly 330 yards (300 meters) off the Titanic’s bow, according to Coast Guard officials.
OceanGate stated that it has been fully participating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. The Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic crash site since 2021.
SOURCE | AP
