The hearings on the Titan submersible disaster resumed today, as a long-time sub expert testified that Stockton Rush was not open to criticism or hearing the word “no” leading up to his death.
“I don’t think many people ever told Stockton, ‘no.’ Don’t think he understood that concept very much,” William Kohnen, CEO of Hydrospace Group Inc. and chairman of the Manned Underwater Vehicles Committee, testified on Wednesday.
Dr. Don Kramer, National Transportation Safety Board engineer, also testified on Wednesday. He analyzed newly unveiled photos of the Titan sub wreckage for the investigative board, noting where he identified damage to the hull.
Tuesday’s hearing featured Karl Stanley, the owner of a diving expedition company in Honduras and a close friend of Stockton Rush. He went on the doomed submersible with his friend in April 2019.
Stanley testified hearing cracking noises on the submersible and that he could pinpoint where they were coming from. He told the board that Rush was “scared” during the 2019 dive.
“It was unnerving and then when it kept happening,” Stanley testified, referring to the noises.
“It’s also a clue to me about Stockton’s psychology...he was scared,” he added.
Key points
- Thursday testimony schedule
- New images of Titan sub wreckage revealed
- OceanGate CEO didn’t take word ‘no’ well, engineer testified
- Stockton Rush’s close friend testifies former OceanGate CEO was scared during 2019 dive
- Titan sub implosion was expected, Stockton Rush’s friend says: ‘There was nothing unexpected about this’
Blog coverage to resume Thursday morning
02:00
Katie Hawkinson
Wednesday’s testimony before the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation has ended.
Blog coverage will resume when the next hearing begins on Thursday morning.
ICYMI: Watch as long-time friend of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush testifies that Titan sub explosion was ‘expected’
01:00
Katie Hawkinson
ICYMI: New photos of Titan wreckage revealed
Thursday 26 September 2024 00:00
Katie Hawkinson
Recap: OceanGate specialist sobs as she remembers last time seeing Titan submersible crew
Wednesday 25 September 2024 23:00
Katie Hawkinson
‘Root cause’ of Titan sub implosion unknown, engineer says
Wednesday 25 September 2024 22:21
Katie Hawkinson
The root cause of the implosion on the Titan sub is still unknown, according to Bart Kemper, principal engineer of Kemper Engineering.
”The root cause for the implosion is indeterminate,” Kemper testified on Wednesday. “At this time, there are multiple unmitigated single-point failures...which means that all it takes is that one thing for the whole thing to go.”
Thursday testimony schedule
Wednesday 25 September 2024 22:00
Katie Hawkinson
Testimony will resume on Thursday as the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation continues its inquiry into the 2023 Titan sub implosion that killed all five people on board.
Thursday’s hearing will kick off with testimony from Justin Jackson, a materials engineer at NASA. Afterward, Mark Negley of Boeing will testify. Negley once sent Rush his safety analysis of Titan’s hull, WIRED reports.
Afterward, John Winters with the Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound will give his testimony. The day will end with Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Duffett of the Coast Guard Office of Commercial Vessel Compliance.
An engineer testified the Titan sub’s hull showed signs of ‘delamination.' What does that mean?
Wednesday 25 September 2024 21:20
Katie Hawkinson
Much of the Titan sub’s hull showed signs of “delamination,” Dr. Don Kramer, an engineer with the National Transportation Safety Board, testified on Wednesday, citing wreckage from the 2023 implosion.
Delamination occurs when the layers of the hull begin to separate. Layers of carbon fiber were laminated, or bonded together, to create the sub’s hull.
Kramer’s testimony was accompnaied by haunting new photos of the Titan sub wreckage.
OceanGate CEO didn’t understand the word ‘no,’ engineer testified
Wednesday 25 September 2024 20:56
Katie Hawkinson
William Kohnen, CEO of Hydrospace Group Inc. and chairman of the Manned Underwater Vehicles Committee said OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was not open to criticism when he testified on Wednesday.
“I don’t think many people ever told Stockton, ‘no.’ Don’t think he understood that concept very much,” Kohnen said.
Rush’s long-time friend, Karl Stanley, also testified on Tuesday that the former OceanGate CEO seemed “scared” while on board his Titan sub in 2019.
Final witness of the day to testify
Wednesday 25 September 2024 19:55
Katie Hawkinson
William Kohnen with Hydrospace Group Inc. has ended his testimony.
The final witness today is Bart Kemper, principal engineer of Kemper Engineering. His testimony is set to begin any moment.
ICYMI: OceanGate’s Titan submarine relied on ‘idiotic’ Excel spreadsheet
Wednesday 25 September 2024 19:47
Anthony Cuthbertson
OceanGate used a hand-typed Excel spreadsheet to track its ill-fated Titan submersible, according to a former contractor for the firm.
A hearing into OceanGate’s Titan sub, which imploded during an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic last year, revealed that its navigation system allegedly relied on team members manually inputting the coordinate data into a spreadsheet in order to track the vessel.
The incident last July killed all five people on board, including OceanGate’s CEO and co-founder Stockton Rush.
Read more:
Recap: Titan sub carbon fiber hull may have been flawed, engineer said
Wednesday 25 September 2024 19:38
Katie Hawkinson
Dr. Don Kramer, an engineer with the National Transportation Safety Board, testified earlier today that the Titan sub’s carbon fiber hull showed signs of flaws.
William Kohnen, chairman of the Manned Underwater Vehicles Committee, also noted that former OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was not open to criticism.
“I don’t think many people ever told Stockton no,” Kohnen said. “Don’t think he understood that concept very much.”
“This is not something where we don’t want you to do it,” he added. “We want you to do it right.”
Hearing resumes with testimony from William Kohnen
Wednesday 25 September 2024 18:42
Katie Hawkinson
The hearing has resumed.
William Kohnen with Hydrospace Group Inc. will continue testifying before the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation.
Hearing adjourns for lunch
Wednesday 25 September 2024 17:37
Katie Hawkinson
The Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation hearing has adjourned for lunch.
Testimony will resume at 1:40 p.m. EDT.
ICYMI: Watch as long-time friend of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush testifies that Titan sub explosion was ‘expected’
Wednesday 25 September 2024 17:32
Katie Hawkinson
Were warning signs ignored? Things to know about this week's testimony on the Titan sub disaster
Wednesday 25 September 2024 16:40
Katie Hawkinson
As testimony continues today, check out a recap of the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation’s work so far and what witnesses have said in recent days:
Wednesday 25 September 2024 16:05
Katie Hawkinson
William Kohnen with Hydrospace Group Inc. is now testifying before the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation.
Kohnen is also the chairman of the Manned Underwater Vehicles Committee.
Hearing schedule for Wednesday afternoon
Wednesday 25 September 2024 15:44
Katie Hawkinson
After Dr. Don Kramer, National Transportation Safety Board engineer, ended his testimony on Wednesday morning, the board will hear from two more witnesses.
First up is William Kohnen with Hydrospace Group Inc. He is also the chairman of the Manned Underwater Vehicles Committee. His testimony is set to begin at 11 a.m. EDT.
Afterward, Bart Kemper, principal engineer of Kemper Engineering, will testify.
See it: New images of Titan sub wreckage revealed
Wednesday 25 September 2024 14:47
Katie Hawkinson
Dr. Don Kramer ends testimony as hearing moves to questions
Wednesday 25 September 2024 14:32
Katie Hawkinson
Dr. Don Kramer, a National Transportation Safety Board engineer, has ended his testimony, during which he analyzed the wreckage of the Titan sub.
Members of the board now have the opportunity to ask Kramer questions.
Proceedings begin
Wednesday 25 September 2024 13:48
Rhian Lubin
Today’s hearing has started.
Jason Neubauer, the board chairman, is currently opening proceedings.
The first witness, Dr Don Kramer, is sworn in.
Recap: Testimony has focused on troubled nature of the company
Wednesday 25 September 2024 13:40
Rhian Lubin
The hearing is due to conclude on Friday after two weeks of evidence. Much of it has so far focused on the troubled nature of the company.
Former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge told the hearing how he frequently clashed with CEO Stockton 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.”
Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water.
On Monday the investigative panel heard testimony from Guillermo Sohnlein, Roy Thomas and Phil Brooks.
Sohnlein co-founded OceanGate with Rush in 2009 but left the company in 2013. Despite the panel’s efforts, Sohnlein said the world may never know what led to tragedy.
Thomas, an engineer for the American Bureau of Shipping, one of the main classifying agencies for submersibles, spoke about complications with using carbon fiber materials. After repeated dives, the materials are susceptible to becoming “deformed” and subsequently “fail,” he said, adding OceanGate never tried to seek classification with the agency.
Rush designed the vessel with a carbon fiber hull. The agency would not have classified the sub using that material.
Brooks, a senior hardware engineer, spoke about his role in analyzing data for OceanGate and the company’s lack of funds.
The “company was economically stressed” and asked him to go without paychecks, he said.
Who is testifying today?
Wednesday 25 September 2024 13:20
Rhian Lubin
Today’s evidence will focus on testimony from engineers.
Don Kramer, an engineer with the National Transportation Safety Board, is up first.
Other witnesses scheduled to testify later today are William Kohnen of Hydrospace Group Inc. and Bart Kemper of Kemper Engineering.
Recap: Karl Stanley ‘wouldn’t have gone’ on 2019 dive if he knew more
Wednesday 25 September 2024 13:00
Rhian Lubin
Stanley told the hearing on Tuesday he would not have gone on the 2019 dive on Titan in retrospect.
The comments came after a member of the panel asked Stanley if he was aware there was a lightning strike in the vicinity of the sub in the Bahamas just before the 2019 dive.
“The first time I heard of a lightning strike was reading about it..There’s a lot of things that, if I had known, I wouldn’t have gone,” Stanley said.
“People have told me that I was stupid, naive. But really, what it came down to was, at that point, I had no reason to believe that Stockton was a liar, and I had no evidence of any lies on his part.”
Stanley earlier testified that the sub made noise when it dived in 2019. The sound happened so clearly and frequently, he said, that he could “localize where it was coming from.”
“It was unnerving and then when it kept happening, I remember I was the one that was able to isolate the area where it was coming from and told them, ‘this, this is the area,’ and was listening right there,” Stanley said.
“It’s also a clue to me about Stockton’s psychology...he was scared. Because if he wasn’t scared, he would have already isolated where the noises were coming from him on his first dive,” he continued. “When I isolated the area, that was new information to him, but he was down there by himself, scared, and he kept going.”
Recap: Testimony of Karl Stanley who said ‘there were a lot of red flags’ with Titan
Wednesday 25 September 2024 12:40
Rhian Lubin
Yesterday Karl Stanley testified that there were “a lot of red flags” when he accompanied Stockton Rush on a dive in the Titan sub in 2019.
Stanley was a childhood friend of Rush’s.
“He told us to be prepared for noises. He had recently done the solo dive on his own, and basically just said, ‘this is going to make noise’ and ‘brace yourselves,’” he told the hearing.
“Another clue in retrospect, is he didn’t tow out,” Stanley said, adding that not towing out deeper showed Rush did not have “a lot of faith” in the sub.
Stanley also noted Rush did not drive the sub.
“He didn’t do any of the driving...I believe I was the first one to drive, but he basically insisted it was his idea,” he said. “Nobody asked to drive...I think that was his kind of sick way of if we had imploded, we were a little bit in control of our own destiny.”
Welcome back to live coverage
Wednesday 25 September 2024 12:13
Rhian Lubin
Welcome back to our live coverage of the hearings.
Proceedings are due to resume at 8.30am ET, with the first witness scheduled to testify at 9am ET.
The US Coast Guard will hear from Don Kramer, an engineer with the National Transportation Safety Board.
Hearing to resume tomorrow
Wednesday 25 September 2024 02:00
Katie Hawkinson
The Titan submersible hearing will begin again on Wednesday, September 25.
Wednesday’s hearing will feature testimony from Don Kramer, National Transportation Safety Board engineer; William Kohnen of Hydrospace Group Inc. and chairman of the Manned Underwater Vehicles Committee; and Bart Kemper, principal engineer of Kemper Engineering.
This blog will resume on Wednesday morning.
Video: Newly released footage reveals more Titan sub debris post-implosion that killed five
Wednesday 25 September 2024 01:45
Katie Hawkinson
OceanGate’s Titan submarine relied on ‘idiotic’ Excel spreadsheet
Wednesday 25 September 2024 00:45
Anthony Cuthbertson
OceanGate used a hand-typed Excel spreadsheet to track its ill-fated Titan submersible, according to a former contractor for the firm.
A hearing into OceanGate’s Titan sub, which imploded during an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic last year, revealed that its navigation system allegedly relied on team members manually inputting the coordinate data into a spreadsheet in order to track the vessel.
The incident last July killed all five people on board, including OceanGate’s CEO and co-founder Stockton Rush.
Read more:
Close friend of Stockton Rush provides insight into former OceanGate CEO’s mind
Tuesday 24 September 2024 23:45
Katie Hawkinson
Karl Stanley, a long-time friend to former OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, described his fears and why he was interested in submersibles.
Stanley testified hearing cracking noises on the submersible when he was on board in 2019 and that he could pinpoint where they were coming from.
“It was unnerving and then when it kept happening,” Stanley testified, referring to the noises. “I remember I was the one that was able to isolate the area where it was coming from and told them, ‘this, this is the area,’ and was listening right there.”
Stanley said Rush was likely scared during that dive.
“It’s also a clue to me about Stockton’s psychology...he was scared. Because if he wasn’t scared, he would have already isolated where the noises were coming from him on his first dive,” he continued.
He also claimed Stockton kept diving because he wanted to go down in history.
“The entire reason this whole operation started was Stockton had a desire to leave his mark on history,” Stanley testified.
“I think that’s why he kept diving, and he knew that eventually it was going to end like this and he wasn’t going to be held accountable, but he was going to be the most famous of all his famous relatives,” he continued.
ICYMI: Final messages revealed from the Titan sub before tragic implosion
Tuesday 24 September 2024 22:45
Katie Hawkinson
“All good here.”
Those were some of the final words that the doomed Titan submersible crew communicated before the submersible imploded on its mission to the Titanic wreckage site in June 2023.
Read more on the chilling last messages from the Titan sub ahead of Wednesday’s hearing:
ICYMI: OceanGate specialist sobs as she remembers last time seeing Titan submersible crew
Tuesday 24 September 2024 21:45
Katie Hawkinson
ICYMI: Former OceanGate director of administration says she was asked to let contractor go over ‘erratic’ behavior
Tuesday 24 September 2024 20:45
Katie Hawkinson
Amber Bay, former director of administration for OceanGate, said a former contractor who raised safety concerns was released from her contract because Stockton Rush said she acted erratically.
“I was asked by Stockton to release her from her contract, as she had acted erratically, unprofessionally, and had disturbed our crew during a challenging situation in the communications pit,” Bay testified on Tuesday morning.
She was referring to Antonella Wilby, who testified last week that she reported a customer’s safety concerns following a dive in 2022, PEOPLE reports.
“I felt the customer’s concerns were not taken particularly seriously at that meeting,” Wilby said. “So, following the debrief, I went to Amber Bay, the director of administration, to raise my concerns about what I had just heard. I told her, ‘I am really concerned about what this customer just said and that there was a bang as loud as an explosion.’ I asked, ‘What’s being done?’”
Wilby claimed Bay responded with: “Yes, many people are concerned about you. You don’t seem to have an explorer mindset.”
“I was kind of taken aback by that because she didn’t acknowledge what I had just said and what was going to be done,” Wilby added.
Tuesday’s hearing ends
Tuesday 24 September 2024 20:11
Katie Hawkinson
Today’s Titan submersible hearing has come to a close after testimony from Stockton Rush’s close friend, Karl Stanley, and OceanGate’s former director of administration Amber Bay.
Titan sub implosion was expected, Stockton Rush’s friend says: ‘There was nothing unexpected about this’
Tuesday 24 September 2024 19:43
Katie Hawkinson
Karl Stanley, the owner of a diving expedition company in Honduras and a close friend of Stockton Rush, said the tragic 2023 Titan sub implosion was expected.
“The definition of an accident is something that happened unexpectedly and by sheer chance,” Stanley testified. “There was nothing unexpected about this. This was expected by everybody that had access to a little bit of information.”
“And I think that if it wasn’t an accident, it then has to be some degree of crime,” he continued. “And if it’s a crime, I think to truly understand it, you need to understand the criminal’s motive. The entire reason this whole operation started was Stockton had a desire to leave his mark on history. “
“I think that’s why he kept diving, and he knew that eventually it was going to end like this and he wasn’t going to be held accountable, but he was going to be the most famous of all his famous relatives.”
Stockton Rush 'transparent’ with how deep sub was going, long-time friend says
Tuesday 24 September 2024 19:37
Katie Hawkinson
Karl Stanley said he was not aware that Stockton Rush had taken his sub more than 3,000 meters below the surface before their April 2019 dive.
Rush took Stanley and the others below 3,000 meters on their dive as well.
“Mr. Stanley, were you made aware that you were one of the first crew other than Mr. Rush to be in the submersible to a depth of over 3,000 meters?” a panelist asked.
“I’m actually surprised...to see all the dives before this,” Stanley responded. “He really wasn’t transparent kind of information.”
Karl Stanley emailed Stockton Rush about concerns
Tuesday 24 September 2024 19:04
Katie Hawkinson
Karl Stanley’s previously reported e-mails describing his concerns about Stockton Rush’s sub were read at today’s hearing.
“I think that hull has a defect near that flange, that will only get worse,” Stanley told Rush via e-mail. “The only question in my mind is will it fail catastrophically or not.”
Stanley also complained to Rush, saying he felt he was indirectly told not to discuss his concerns.
“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 the email. “As you know, my subs have had many issues and incidents over the years, at no point did I find it necessary to tell anyone not to speak of what I saw or heard.”
Karl Stanley says he would not have gone on 2019 dive in retrospect
Tuesday 24 September 2024 18:50
Katie Hawkinson
Karl Stanley, who went on a 2019 test dive with Stockton Rush, said he would not have gone on the dive in retrospect.
The comments came after a member of the panel asked Stanley if he was aware there was a lightning strike in the vicinity of the sub in the Bahamas just before the 2019 dive.
“The first time I heard of a lightning strike was reading about it..There’s a lot of things that, if I had known, I wouldn’t have gone,” Stanley said. “People have told me that I was stupid, naive. But really, what it came down to was, at that point, I had no reason to believe that Stockton was a liar, and I had no evidence of any lies on his part.”
Stanley earlier testified that the sub made noise when it dived in 2019. The sound happened so clearly and frequently, he said, that he could “localize where it was coming from.”
“It was unnerving and then when it kept happening, I remember I was the one that was able to isolate the area where it was coming from and told them, ‘this, this is the area,’ and was listening right there,” Stanley said.
“It’s also a clue to me about Stockton’s psychology...he was scared. Because if he wasn’t scared, he would have already isolated where the noises were coming from him on his first dive,” he continued. “When I isolated the area, that was new information to him, but he was down there by himself, scared, and he kept going.”
Karl Stanley went on dive with Stockton Rush in 2019: ‘There were a lot of red flags'
Tuesday 24 September 2024 18:42
Katie Hawkinson
Karl Stanley testified that he helped build a vehicle with Stockton Rush for free.
Rush then invited him on a dive in April 2019 in the Bahamas. Rush, Rush’s childhood friend, Stanley, and a sonar technician were on board.
“He told us to be prepared for noises. He had recently done the solo dive on his own, and basically just said, ‘this is going to make noise’ and ‘brace yourselves,’” he added.
Stanley said there were “a lot of red flags” during the dive.
“Another clue in retrospect, is he didn’t tow out,” Stanley said, adding that not towing out deeper showed Rush did not have “a lot of faith” in the sub.
Stanley also noted Rush did not drive the sub.
“He didn’t do any of the driving...I believe I was the first one to drive, but he basically insisted it was his idea,” he said. “Nobody asked to drive...I think that was his kind of sick way of if we had imploded, we were a little bit in control of our own destiny.”
Stockton Rush and Karl Stanley knew each other for at least a decade
Tuesday 24 September 2024 18:33
Katie Hawkinson
Karl Stanley, the owner of a diving expedition company in Honduras and a close friend of Stockton Rush, said he met the former OceanGate CEO at least 10 years ago.
“My relationship with Stockton goes back at least 10, possibly up to 15 years,” Stanley testified on Tuesday afternoon.
Stanley said he saw Stockton regularly at underwater intervention meetings.
“When I learned that he was making a carbon fiber sub, I was excited about it,” he added.
Stockton Rush was ‘playing the game,’ friend says
Tuesday 24 September 2024 18:29
Katie Hawkinson
Karl Stanley, a close friend of Stockton Rush, said the former OceanGate CEO was “playing the game” by bringing scientists on his Titan sub.
“It’s only recently that, now that these submersibles are mostly being operated by billionaires on their yachts, that the billionaires are courting scientists,” Stanley testified. “Because when you have a billionaire saying, ‘Hey, come on my yacht, my chef’s going to cook you food, you have a private cabin and a hot tub,’ because they want the tax breaks.”
“You could have a 500-foot yacht, and if you have a scientist on board that published the paper, now, all of a sudden everything was a tax write-off,” he continued.
“So to some extent, Stockton was really just looking around and seeing what other people were doing and playing the game. But I mean, obviously, the way he said ‘mission specialists,’ you know, I don’t agree with the terminology, mission specialist. But by giving scientists dive time, this is something that’s being done across the industry now, which is a relatively new phenomenon, but it’s not something that I do. I charge scientists. “
