Looking back, Karl Stanley says he wouldn’t have gone on a test dive of an experimental submersible in the Bahamas in April of 2019.
He didn’t know the vessel had been struck by lightning potentially cracking its hull or that its owner had taken it on only one previous test dive.
What Stanley did know was the submersible made a lot of noise on that dive with he and three others, including its owner, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
“It was unnerving,” said Stanley. “The cracking sounds would amply as you got deeper.”

Stanley shared the experience as he testified Tuesday before the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation in North Charleston. It's trying to determine the cause of last summer’s Titan submersible implosion in the Northern Atlantic that killed five people, including Rush.
Stanley, who owns a diving expedition company in Honduras, was close friends with Rush. But, he says, he was concerned about what he heard, a noise so clear and frequent he thought he could detect where it was coming form.
“I think that hull has a defect near the flange that will only get worse,” Stanley told Rush via email. “The only question in my mind is will it fail catastrophically or not.”
Stanley told investigators he was so persistent in his emails to Rush about the problem their friendship eventually fell apart.
Still, he couldn’t shake what had happened, especially since Rush was planning to take passengers to visit the Titanic wreckage.
“The fact that you indirectly told me not to speak about the noises I heard on the dive, to me, says a lot,” Stanley wrote in another email.
There were other red flags with that 2019 dive, Stanley told investigators.
“Another clue in retrospect is he didn’t tow out,” Stanley said. He suspects Stockton started the dive in shallower water because he didn’t have faith in the experimental vessel.
Investigators confirmed during the hearing a crack in the submersible’s hull was found and reported just a month after Stanley’s dive. Stanley said he didn’t learn about it until recently through news reports.
As for the June 18th, 2023, dive that took Stockton’s life, Stanley said he was saddened but not surprised.
“The definition of an accident is something that happened unexpectedly and by sheer chance,” Stanley testified. “There was nothing unexpected about this.”
Also testifying Tuesday was OceanGate’s former director of administration Amber Bay. She told investigators the company experienced financial problems in 2023.

Sometimes, she said, Stockton would increase his investment so they could make payroll. Other times, employees were asked to go without pay until a later date.
“We would delay our paychecks and be paid a small amount of interest,” Bay said.
Bay also described her role taking part in expeditions. She said she was often tasked with closing the dome of the submersible and remembered a time when its platform took on water because of rough seas.
But she insisted safety was a priority at OceanGate. That’s not what other witnesses have testified.
Antonella Wilby told investigators last week she was let go from the company after she reported a safety concern from a passenger who’d heard a loud bang during an expedition. She said she went to Bay for help but was told, “you don’t seem to have an explorer mindset."
Bay testified she didn’t remember the exchange and said she was instructed by Rush to release Wilby from her contract because “she had acted erratically, unprofessionally, and had disturbed the crew during a challenging situation."
Other witnesses have testified Rush could be difficult and they avoided confrontation.
Bay ended her testimony by tearfully remembering the victims of last summer’s implosion.
“I had the privilege of knowing the explorers who lost their lives,” Bay said.
“There’s not a day that passes that I don’t think of them, their families and their loss.”
Testimony continues tomorrow with investigators scheduled to hear their final witnesses Friday.