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Day one of Titan submersible hearings reveals safety concerns and crew's final words

Wreckage of the Titan submersible found on the ocean floor four days after it vanished and imploded, killing five people trying to visit the Titanic.
OceanGate
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The U.S. Coast Guard
Wreckage of the Titan submersible found on the ocean floor four days after it vanished and imploded, killing five people headed to the Titanic.

In North Charleston, Coast Guard investigators call witnesses in their two-week long hearings into why the Titan submersible imploded killing five people.

North Charleston, S.C. - The first day of public hearings into the cause of last summer’s deadly implosion of the Titan submersible revealed a series of problems with the experimental vessel.

From equipment failures to testing oversights, U.S. Coast Guard investigators laid out their case Monday involving OceanGate, the company that operated the Titan submersible.

They began with a video detailing the history of the submersible and later revealed final text messages sent by the crew before they vanished in the Northern Atlantic on June 18, 2023.

One text read, “All good” just minutes before the submersible headed to tour the Titanic wreckage disappeared. Investigators say it imploded killing all five people on board. Their remains were found with the vessel on the ocean floor.

Coast Guard members of the investigative board for the Titan marine board formal hearing take an oath inside the Charleston County Council Chambers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C
Mic Smith
/
AP
Coast Guard members of the investigative board for the Titan marine board formal hearing take an oath inside the Charleston County Council Chambers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C

The Coast Guard’s detailed inventory of the submersible’s past included equipment failures, a test dive that left the vessel partially submerged with a missing tail cone, and another dive that slammed the crew into the aft as they tried to resurface. The latter occurred just days before the Titan submersible’s doomed dive.

Visibly shaken by the video presentation was OceanGate’s former Director of Engineering Tony Nissen, who was the first to testify. He says he was hired by OceanGate in 2016 to finish assembling the Titan submersible but knew little about the company’s mission.

“I know this seems hard to believe, but when I was hired, I had no idea they planned on going to the Titanic,” Nissen said. “I was never told that.”

Tony Nissen, head engineer for OceanGate, waits for board members to return during a recess during the Titan marine board formal hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C.
Mic Smith
/
AP
Tony Nissen, head engineer for OceanGate, waits for board members to return during a recess during the Titan marine board formal hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C.

Nissen says he began to have concerns right away about OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, as well as the submersible’s components and build. His former boss died piloting the vessel during its final dive.

Nissen says he and Rush often argued when he raised questions about the submersible’s safety. He says improvements versus time and cost were often at the heart of their fights.

In 2019, Nissen says safety concerns prompted him to halt a scheduled dive to the Titanic.

“I wouldn’t sign off on it, so I got fired,” Nissen said.

When asked by investigators if he would dive on the submersible, Nissen recalled a conversation he says he had with Rush.

“He wanted me to be the pilot that runs the Titanic missions,” Nissen said. “I told him I’m not getting in it.”

Also testifying Monday was another former OceanGate employee, Bonnie Carl. She was the company’s human resources and finance director.

Carl says she was hired in 2017 and as an avid scuba diver, she was interested in becoming a submersible pilot in training. She says she was well on her way, but like Nissen, she worried about safety.

“There were some young engineers, and by young, I mean late teens, early twenties, without any experience that we were aware of, wrenching on the sub without supervision,” Carl said. “That made me nervous because I know, I don’t know what I am doing.”

A year later, Carl left her job.

Tym Catterson, a contractor for OceanGate, talks to family members from the Titan tragedy after his testimony ended in a Coast Guard investigatory hearing on the causes of the implosion of an experimental submersible headed for the wreck of the Titanic, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C.
Mic Smith
/
AP
Tym Catterson, a contractor for OceanGate, talks to family members from the Titan tragedy after his testimony ended in a Coast Guard investigatory hearing on the causes of the implosion of an experimental submersible headed for the wreck of the Titanic, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C.

Former OceanGate contractor Tym Catterson testified as well. He says he brought up concerns about the submersible’s carbon fiber hull at least a dozen times. He thought it was underbuilt. But he says CEO Rush believed otherwise.

“I’m like, ‘Well, OK, there it is. We agree to disagree,'” Catterson said.

He too was asked by investigators if he would dive on the experimental vessel. Catterson said no.

Attorneys for OceanGate were in attendance and able to ask the witnesses questions. But they rarely did. Some of the family members of those killed sat in the audience which was sparse as people watched online worldwide.

The Coast Guard has convened the two week-long hearings to try to determine who, if anyone, was responsible for the deadly incident. Investigators say they’ll make recommendations based on their findings.

Victoria Hansen is our Lowcountry connection covering the Charleston community, a city she knows well. She grew up in newspaper newsrooms and has worked as a broadcast journalist for more than 20 years. Her first reporting job brought her to Charleston where she covered local and national stories like the Susan Smith murder trial and the arrival of the Citadel’s first female cadet.