On Monday, September 16, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) convenes a Marine Board of Investigation hearing into the loss of the submersible Titan of OceanGate in June 2023 and the death of all five people on board, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush. The meeting will be broadcast live in Charleston, South Carolina, and will last two weeks; in which the Commission will attempt to determine the cause of the submarine’s implosion, whether there was incompetence or negligence, and whether any laws were broken. The matter could then be referred to criminal prosecutors and recommendations made to improve maritime safety.
This process is expected to be carried out without hearing publicly from most of OceanGate’s remaining executives or from Rush’s wife, Wendy, who sometimes took a starring role during his dives. Nor will public testimony be included from any of the companies that designed and built the submersible’s innovative carbon fiber hulls, nor from any of the senior operations personnel who prepared, maintained or supported the submersible. Titan on its 2023 expedition.
In fact, it appears that few of the 24 witnesses cited were on board the Polar Prince, the support ship Titanfor the final mission: Renata Rojas, an unpaid volunteer, and Tym Catterson, a contractor with experience piloting submersibles.
Drop counter information
Anonymous sources close to the investigation, but not authorized to speak to the media, told WIRED that the Coast Guard had contacted some contemporary OceanGate staff and executives, as well as third-party vendors, but were warned that if If they were forced to appear, they would assert their rights protected by the Fifth Amendment. That means they could refuse to testify on the grounds that their answers could incriminate them or expose them to legal risks.
WIRED contacted OceanGate and the hull manufacturers. An attorney for Janicki Industries, which cured and machined a portion of the hull, wrote that he was not participating in the hearings. No response was received from the other personalities before the publication of this article.
Former US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Lockwood, who joined the OceanGate board in 2013, was speculated to testify, but he is also missing from the list. The absence of people who appear to have relevant knowledge has caused consternation among former company employees and marine experts, who are skeptical that the full story of the ship’s disappearance can be told. Titan without them.
“Personally, if I were in the Coast Guard, I would bring them in and make them take advantage of the Fifth Amendment. They have subpoena power, so I’m not really sure why they don’t do it,” says attorney Alton J. Hall Jr. maritime. Melissa Leake, the Coast Guard’s public information officer and its public affairs deputy for the Atlantic, said the Coast Guard does not discuss reasons for not calling specific witnesses. However, he denied that the Coast Guard did not subpoena certain people or organizations because they would rely on the Fifth Amendment. What the board does have is a large amount of digital and physical evidence, such as data from previous dives and remains of Titan recovered from the Atlantic seabed, including a part of the carbon fiber hull. One of the experts cited is a materials engineer from the Materials Laboratory of the National Transportation Safety Board.
The missing OceanGate submersible sparked a frantic rescue effort and brought to light safety issues that had been raised years before.
The testimonial order
The meeting will open Monday morning hearing from Tony Nissen, OceanGate’s director of engineering from 2016 to 2019. Nissen was responsible for taking the concept of a carbon fiber submersible and delivering finished plans for Titan. Their testimony should shed light on the construction and testing of the ship’s first carbon fiber hull. WIRED reported that a crack appeared in that hull in 2019, during testing in the Bahamas. The crack led the company to scrap the hull and replace it with a new carbon fiber example with the same shape, but created by alternate manufacturers using a different process. Meanwhile, Nissen abandoned OceanGate.
The following day will be dedicated entirely to former COO David Lochridge. Lochridge was fired by Rush in early 2018 after raising safety concerns about the hull and other aspects of the submersible’s design and manufacturing. He filed a whistleblower complaint with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), but later withdrew it after being sued by OceanGate. As part of the settlement of that lawsuit, Lochridge paid OceanGate nearly $10,000 and was subject to a confidentiality agreement.
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