The carbon fiber hull of the experimental submersible that imploded The submarine headed to the Titanic wreck had imperfections related to the manufacturing process and behaved differently after a loud bang was heard during one of the dives the year before the tragedy, a National Transportation Safety Board engineer said Wednesday. Meanwhile, another engineer testified that the submarine’s window was “consistent with something about to fail.”
Engineer Don Kramer told a Coast Guard group that there were wrinkles, porosity and voids in the carbon fiber used for the OceanGate’s pressure hull. Titan SubmersibleTwo different types of sensors on Titan recorded the “loud acoustic event” that previous witnesses testified to hearing during a dive on July 15, 2022, he said.
Pieces of hull recovered after the tragedy showed significant delamination of the carbon fibre layers, which were glued together to create the hull of the experimental submersible, he said.
Co-founder of OceanGate Stockton Rush was one of five people who died when the Titan submersible implosion occurred in June 2023.
Kramer’s testimony was followed by testimony from William Kohnen, a longtime submarine expert and key member of the Marine Technology Society. Kohnen was critical of OceanGate after the implosion and described the disaster as preventable.
On Wednesday, Kohnen rejected the idea that the Titan could not have been thoroughly tested before being used because of its experimental nature. He also said OceanGate’s activities have raised concerns among many in the industry.
Kohnen said, “I don’t think many people ever said no to Stockton.” He described Rush as someone who was not receptive to outside scrutiny.
“It’s not something we don’t want you to do. We want you to do it right,” Kohnen said.
The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month as part of a high-level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some testimony focused on the submersible’s unusual carbon-fiber construction. Other testimony focused on the troubled nature of the enterprise.
Another witness Wednesday, Bart Kemper of Kemper Engineering Services of Baton Rouge, La., testified about his review of the development of the OceanGate submersible. He expressed particular concern about the submarine’s window.
“This is consistent with something that is on the path to failure,” Kemper said.
Coast Guard officials stressed at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not undergone an independent review, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design have subjected it to intense scrutiny from the underwater exploration community.
Earlier in the hearing, OceanGate’s former chief operating officer David Lochridge He said he often clashed with Rush and felt the company was only in business to make money.
Lochridge and other witnesses painted a picture of a company eager to launch its unconventionally designed vessels. The accident sparked a global debate about the future of private underwater exploration.
“Nothing unexpected about that”
On Tuesday, the pilot and designer of the submersible Karl Stanley of the Institute for Exploration of the Deep in Roatan testified to provide perspective He said he believed the implosion was ultimately due to Rush’s desire to leave his mark on history.
“There was nothing unexpected about this. It was what anyone who had access to a minimum of information expected,” Stanley said.
U.S. Coast Guard video courtesy of Pelagic Research Services via AP
The hearing is expected to continue through Friday and include several other witnesses, some of whom are closely tied to the company.
The co-founder of the company told the Coast Guard committee On Monday, he said he hoped the silver lining of the disaster would be that it would spark renewed interest in exploration, particularly in the deepest waters of the world’s oceans. Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Rush, ultimately left the company before the Titan disaster.
OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended operations after the implosion. The company currently has no full-time employees, but 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 text messages about the Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support vessel Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.
One of the last messages from the Titan crew to the Polar Prince before the submersible implosion stated, “Everything is fine here,” according to a visual reconstruction shown earlier in the hearing.
When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, aircraft and other equipment to an area about 700 kilometres south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. The wreckage of the Titan was later found on the ocean floor about 300 metres from the Titanic’s bow, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.
Besides Rush, the implosion also killed veteran Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, and British adventurer Hamish Harding.
Last month, Nargeolet’s family filed a $50 million claim. wrongful death lawsuit against OceanGate. Known as “Mr. Titanic,” Nargeolet participated in 37 dives at the Titanic site, the most of any diver in the world, according to the complaint.
