A paid passenger on an expedition to the Titanic with the company that owned the Titan submersible testified before a U.S. Coast Guard investigatory panel Friday that the mission he took part in was aborted due to an apparent mechanical failure.
The Titan submersible imploded last year while on another trip to the Titanic wreckage site. A Coast Guard investigatory panel has listened to four days of testimony that raised questions about the company’s operations before the doomed mission.
Fred Hagen was first to testify Friday and was identified as a “mission specialist,” which he and other witnesses have characterized as people who paid a fee to play a role in OceanGate’s underwater exploration. He said his 2021 mission to the Titanic was aborted underwater when the Titan began malfunctioning and it was clear they were not going to reach the fabled wreck site.
The Titan appeared to be off course on its way to the Titanic, so the crew decided to use thrusters so the submersible could make its way to the wreck, Hagen said. The starboard thruster failed to activate, he said.
“We realized that all it could do was spin around in circles, making right turns,” Hagen said. “At this juncture, we obviously weren’t going to be able to navigate to the Titanic.”
Hagen said the Titan dropped weights, resurfaced and the mission was scrapped. He said he was aware of the potentially unsafe nature of getting in the experimental submersible.
“Anyone that wanted to go was either delusional if they didn’t think that it was dangerous, or they were embracing the risk,” he said.
OceanGate co-founder and Titan pilot Stockton Rush was among five people who died when the submersible imploded en route to the site of the Titanic wreck in June 2023.
Earlier this month, the Coast Guard opened a public hearing that is part of a high-level investigation into the cause of the implosion. The public hearing began Sept. 16 and some of the testimony has focused on problems the Washington state company had prior to the fatal 2023 dive.
During Thursday’s testimony, company scientific director Steven Ross told the investigators the sub experienced a malfunction just days before the Titanic dive. Earlier in the week, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money.
“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”
The hearing is expected to resume next week and run through Sept. 27.
Other witnesses Friday included engineer Dave Dyer of the University of Washington Applied Physics Lab. Dyer provided details about the lab’s relationship with OceanGate while its submersible was in development and said the company and lab disagreed about fundamental aspects of its engineering.
OceanGate felt it was better to terminate the relationship and take over the engineering itself, Dyer said.
“It was the engineering. We were butting heads too much,” Dyer said.
