Former Titan chief engineer says he felt compelled to prepare submersible

By PATRICK WHITTLE

The chief engineer of an experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreck of the Titanic testified Monday that he felt compelled to prepare the ship for diving and refused to pilot it.

“I’m not going to get in it,” Tony Nissen, co-founder of OceanGate, which owns the Titan submersible, told Stockton Rush.

Nissen, OceanGate’s former chief technical officer, was the first witness to testify at what is expected to be a two-week hearing before the U.S. Coast Guard. The Titan imploded on June 18, 2023, killing all five people on board and sparking a global debate about the future of private underwater exploration.

Nissen said Rush could be difficult to work with and was often very concerned about project costs and schedules, among other issues. He said Rush fought to get what he wanted, which often changed from day to day. He added that he tried to keep conflicts between the two men behind closed doors so others in the company wouldn’t know about them.

“Most people would end up coming back to Stockton,” he said at the hearing in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Nissen also noted that the Titan was struck by lightning during a test mission in 2018, which could have compromised its hull. He said he was fired in 2019, the same year he didn’t let the submersible go to the Titanic. He said he told Rush that the Titan “wasn’t performing the way we thought it was.”

Asked if there was pressure to launch the Titan, he said: “100 percent.”

The submersible then underwent further testing and adjustments before its next dives to the Titanic, Nissen said. But he added that he refused to pilot the Titan because he did not trust the operating personnel.

Asked whether he felt that pressure from Stockton had compromised safety decisions and testing, Nissen paused, then said: “No. And that’s a difficult question to answer, because with infinite time and budget, you could do an infinite number of tests.”

The submersible was left exposed to the elements during seven months of storage in 2022 and 2023, and the hull was never examined by third parties, as is standard procedure, Coast Guard officials said in their initial remarks. The lack of an independent review and the submersible’s unconventional design have subjected the Titan to intense scrutiny from the underwater exploration community.

One of the last messages sent by the Titan crew to the support ship Polar Prince before the submersible implosion stated: “Everything is fine here,” according to a visual reconstruction shown earlier in the hearing.

The crew lost contact after exchanging messages about the depth and weight of the submersible during its descent. The Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.

The ongoing marine accident investigation is the highest level of marine accident investigation conducted by the Coast Guard. Once the hearing is complete, recommendations will be submitted to the Commandant of the Coast Guard. The National Transportation Safety Board is also conducting an investigation.

“There are no words to lessen the loss suffered by the families affected by this tragic incident,” said Jason Neubauer of the Coast Guard Office of Investigations, who led the hearing. “But we hope this hearing will help shed light on the cause of the tragedy and prevent something like this from happening again.”

OceanGate, a Washington state-based company, suspended operations after the implosion. The company’s former chief financial officer, Bonnie Carl, began testifying Monday afternoon. Former contractor Tym Catterson was also scheduled to appear.

Among those not listed as witnesses is Rush’s widow, Wendy Rush, the company’s communications director. Asked about her absence, spokeswoman Melissa Leake said the Coast Guard would have no comment. She said it is common for a marine board of inquiry “to hold multiple hearings or take additional witness depositions for complex cases.”

Also scheduled to testify later in the hearing, according to a list prepared by the Coast Guard, are OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein, former chief operating officer David Lochridge and former chief science officer Steven Ross. Numerous Coast Guard officials, scientists and government and industry representatives are also expected to testify. The U.S. Coast Guard has subpoenaed witnesses who were not government employees, Leake said.

OceanGate does not currently have any full-time employees but will be represented by counsel at the hearing, the company said in a statement. The company has cooperated fully with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations from the beginning, the statement said.

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.

The Titan lost contact with its support vessel about two hours after completing its final dive. When it was reported overdue, rescuers scrambled ships, aircraft and other equipment to an area about 700 kilometres south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.

The search for the submersible drew worldwide attention as it became increasingly unlikely that anyone could have survived the implosion. The wreckage of the Titan was later found on the ocean floor about 300 yards from the Titanic’s bow, Coast Guard officials said.

The investigation was originally scheduled to last a year, but it has taken longer. In July, the Coast Guard said the hearing would focus on “all aspects of the Titan’s loss,” including mechanical considerations as well as compliance with regulations and crew qualifications.

The Titan has been making voyages to the Titanic wreck site since 2021. ___

This story has been edited to clarify that “all is well here” was one of the last things heard from the submersible, not necessarily the very last thing heard.

Originally published: September 16, 2024 at 12:03 a.m.