Lead engineer refused to be in the vessel for voyage to Titanic
The safety of the crew aboard the Titan submersible – which was headed for the wreck of the Titanic before it imploded – was not assured prior to their descent.
That’s because the Titan was left exposed to weather and elements while in storage for seven months in 2022 and 2023, United States Coast Guard officials said Monday during the first day of hearing on the causes of the implosion in the U.S.
The Titan imploded on June 18, 2023, killing all five on board.
The hull was also never reviewed by any third parties as is standard procedure, said the Coast Guard officials, according to a report from The Associated Press (AP).
Also, Tony Nissen, former lead engineer of the Titan, said that he felt pressured to get the vessel ready to dive and that he refused to be in it.
“‘I’m not getting in it,’” Nissen told Stockton Rush, co-founder of the OceanGate company that owned the Titan submersible, according to AP. Rush was among those who perished in the Titan’s journey.
Nissen said he refused to be in the vessel because he didn’t trust the operations staff.
In 2019, he stopped the submersible from going to the Titanic, telling Rush that the Titan was “not working like we thought it would.” He was fired that year, according to the report.
The Titan did undergo additional testing before it made later dives to the Titanic, Nissen added.
Asked if he felt the pressure from Rush compromised safety decisions and testing, Nissen paused, then replied, “No. And that’s a difficult question to answer, because given infinite time and infinite budget, you could do infinite testing.”
Meanwhile, David Lochridge, OceanGate's former operations director, said on Tuesday that the tragedy could have been prevented if a federal safety agency had investigated his complaint.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) decision not to follow through on the complaint was a disappointment, he said.
"I believe that if OSHA had attempted to investigate the seriousness of the concerns I raised on multiple occasions, this tragedy may have been prevented," he said during the hearing, according to a CBC report. "As a seafarer, I feel deeply disappointed by the system that is meant to protect not only seafarers but the general public as well."
“All good here” were among the last words heard from the crew of the Titan before the crew of the support ship Polar Prince lost contact with them following an exchange of texts about the submersible's depth and weight as it descended.
The hearings are scheduled to end Sept. 27.
When the hearing concludes, recommendations will be submitted to the Coast Guard's commandant. The National Transportation Safety Board is also conducting an investigation.
