Guillermo Sohnlein, the co-founder of the company whose submarine imploded on a trip to see the wreckage of the Titanic, killing all five people on board, has told a hearing into the disaster the cause of the accident may never be known.
Sohnlein and Stockton Rush founded the company in 2009. Rush was among the five people who died when the submersible imploded in June 2023.
The former CEO left the company in 2013 but after the submersible’s implosion, he defended his former business partner. Sohnlein told investigators he wants the world to honor his friends by continuing deep-sea exploration.
Roy Thomas, a senior principal engineer with the American Bureau of Shipping, provided testimony on the nuances of carbon fiber materials used to make the Titan’s hull. He said OceanGate never made any attempts to classify their vessel with the agency, one of the main regulators for submersibles in the world.
Had it been recognized, the vessel would have undergone several assessments ensuring its safety. Rush once called classification “an impediment to innovation” and told an employee getting inside Titan is “one of the safest things I will ever do,” adding, “no-one is dying under my watch — period.”
Key points
- OceanGate co-founder lays out early vision for company
- What is the process for classifying submersibles?
- ‘This was not supposed to happen’ says former OceanGate CEO
- Stockton Rush once said ‘No-one is dying under my watch -period'
In photos: Key moments from the hearings so far
Monday 23 September 2024 22:30
Michelle Del Rey
Monday hearing has concluded, proceedings to resume on Tuesday at 8.30am
Monday 23 September 2024 21:37
Michelle Del Rey
Brooks has been released as a witness.
Brooks says OceanGate asked employees to go without payment
Monday 23 September 2024 21:00
Michelle Del Rey
OceanGate ran out of money several times before the fatal implosion that killed five people, Brooks says, adding the company asked him to go without his paycheck on multiple occasions.
“They asked for volunteers,” he said. The “company was economically stressed.” Brooks says he’s unsure about whether the company successfully recruited volunteers.
The company promised employees they’d get us “caught up in paychecks after the 1st of the year.” he said.
Brooks says that no maintenance was done on Titan hull between 2022 and 2023
Monday 23 September 2024 20:41
Michelle Del Rey
No testing or maintenance was done on the Titan submersible’s hull between 2022 and 2023. The vessel’s hull was made of carbon fiber which is susceptible to damage and failure, especially after repeated dives to extreme depths.
Who is Phil Brooks?
Monday 23 September 2024 20:24
Michelle Del Rey
According to the former OceanGate employee’s LinkedIn, Brooks worked for the submersible company first as an embedded linux engineer in 2019. He was promoted to director of engineering in 2021.
He left OceanGate in March 2023. He’s now a senior hardware engineer in Seattle.
Hearing is back in session after break
Monday 23 September 2024 19:37
Michelle Del Rey
Brooks is continuing his testimony, currently speaking about the process of collecting data for OceanGate.
Hearing taking a short break
Monday 23 September 2024 19:24
Michelle Del Rey
The US Coast Guard’s hearing into the Titan tragedy is on a short break. It will reconvene momentarily.
Watch: Coast Guard releases footage that provided ‘conclusive evidence’ that Titan passengers died
Monday 23 September 2024 19:05
Michelle Del Rey
Phil Brooks, former engineering director for OceanGate, currently testifying
Monday 23 September 2024 18:39
Michelle Del Rey
The hearing is back in session. Brooks is currently giving details on his background and career.
Who is OceanGate co-founder?
Monday 23 September 2024 18:30
Michelle Del Rey
Guillermo Sohnlein founded Titan owner OceanGate with CEO Stockton Rush in 2009.
Sohnlein left the company in 2013 but after the submersible’s implosion, he came to Rush's defense, asserting his former business partner was "committed" to safety.
He said: "[Rush] was very much focused on safety. I think the next regret he would have is the company not continuing operations and not being able to keep going and getting beyond Titanic because Titanic was really just a means to an end for business.
"It was really to get to a point where the subs would be chartered by people all over the world to do all sorts of interesting projects and learn more about our oceans."
Sohnlein has previously laid out plans to colonize the Moon and has hopes to send humans to Venus.
Hearing taking a lunch break will return at 1.30pm ET
Monday 23 September 2024 17:41
Michelle Del Rey
Phil Brooks, former OceanGate engineering director, is next to speak
OceanGate’s decision to store Titan outside could’ve led to materials degrading
Monday 23 September 2024 17:36
Michelle Del Rey
The American Bureau of Shipping recommends sub owners store vessels in controlled environments. The US Coast Guard stated that OceanGate stored the submersible outside during winter.
“To expose it to the elements could possibly lead to degradation of the materials,” Thomas, the engineer, said.
If the Titan submersible had been classified, ABS engineers would’ve needed to clear it after issues
Monday 23 September 2024 17:21
Michelle Del Rey
Following the incidents in which the Titan’s dome fell off and a customer heard a “loud banging” noise, an engineer for the ABS would’ve conducted extensive tests to ensure the vessel was safe, had it been classified.
The Titan submersible was not classified by the agency.
Carbon fiber hulls are susceptible to ‘deformation’ Thomas states
Monday 23 September 2024 17:16
Michelle Del Rey
The engineer from the American Bureau of Shipping has prepared a slideshow presentation for the panel detailing the challenges of carbon fiber materials.
He’s said carbon fiber is not an approved material for classification. Additionally, the Titan’s hull would have been susceptible to “deformation under applied external loading.”
Currently, there are no recognized national/international standards for carbon fiber pressure hulls for submersibles.
Stockton Rush once said ‘No-one is dying under my watch — period’
Monday 23 September 2024 16:49
Michelle Del Rey
A transcript of a meeting between Rush and the former director of marine operations for OceanGate, David Lochridge, was made public ahead of the Coast Guard’s hearing on Monday.
The discussion captures Rush stating “No-one is dying under my watch - period,” after Lochridge raised safety concerns.
Rush responded: “I have no desire to die... I think this is one of the safest things I will ever do.”
Carbon fiber composites are not included in the list of ABS approved materials
Monday 23 September 2024 16:44
Michelle Del Rey
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush infamously made the Titan’s pressure hull from carbon fiber but the material is not approved by the ABS for classification. Some of the concerns with carbon fiber included its ability to fail after repeated dives.
Additionally, it’s susceptible to damage, which can also cause it to fail.
ABS affiliation with OceanGate
Monday 23 September 2024 16:37
Michelle Del Rey
Thomas says OceanGate was not involved with the ABS, never requested classification and did not submit a design review or surveys.
Roy Thomas says OceanGate never reached out to the American Bureau of Shipping about classification
Monday 23 September 2024 16:13
Michelle Del Rey
A senior principal engineer with the American Bureau of Shipping has been sworn in as a witness.
Roy Thomas to be next witness
Monday 23 September 2024 16:00
Michelle Del Rey
A senior principal engineer with the American Bureau of Shipping is scheduled to speak next. The agency is one of the few in the country that classify deep sea submersibles.
‘I don’t know what the right way is to regulate this kind of activity,’ says Sohnlein
Monday 23 September 2024 15:29
Michelle Del Rey
After a Coast Guard official asks Sohnlein what he believes is the best way is to regulate submersibles, the co-founder says the topic is not in his “wheelhouse.”
He said dedicating resources to developing new regulations would be a “waste of taxpayer money” because there isn’t a current need. The submersible field is not an “industry,” Sohnlein said, adding there is currently at most 100 submersibles in the world.
Sohnlein says he left OceanGate because priorities switched
Monday 23 September 2024 15:09
Michelle Del Rey
The co-founder says he transferred his CEO title to Stockton Rush once it became clear the company wanted to transition from operations to engineering.
Sohnlein says Rush wanted him to stay on but “it didn’t make sense for me stay,” he says, adding that it was beneficial to make Rush the CEO because of fundraising needs.
Sohnlein says he made $120k as CEO. Leaving was “one of the hardest decisions I had to make.”
Sohnlein lays out early vision for OceanGate
Monday 23 September 2024 14:32
Michelle Del Rey
When the co-founder first met with Stockton Rush in 2009, he said the pair wanted at least four to five submersibles available to charter around the world.
Rush was going to put in money and Sohnlein was going to run the business. They bought a “training-wheel sub” in order to study it and understand the technology, he says.
“Initially, we weren’t even going to build our own subs.”
The company bought its first sub from the Azores in January 2013, which later became “Cyclops,” OceanGate’s first submersible.
Sohnlein sworn in as witness
Monday 23 September 2024 14:12
Michelle Del Rey
The OceanGate co-founder is testifying now.
What has OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein said about the tragedy?
Monday 23 September 2024 14:06
Michelle Del Rey
Sohnlein co-founded the company with Stockton Rush in 2009 and left in January 2013.
“We operated as safely as possible,” he said in an interview with CTV news. “We had a safety conscious culture.”
When asked if he agreed with more regulations surrounding submersible classification, he said: “That’s really not my purview. I’ll leave that to policy makers.”
He reiterated that the company took safety very seriously.
Former OceanGate employees have disagreed with that characterization. David Lochridge, a former OceanGate employee, had raised concerns about the sub since 2018. He was later fired and the company sued him for revealing confidential information. He then countersued for wrongful dismissal.
A recap of proceedings last week
Monday 23 September 2024 13:34
Michelle Del Rey
The US Coast Guard’s two-week hearing into the OceanGate Titan submersible tragedy is entering its second week.
During the first half of proceedings, the panel of the Marine Board of Investigation heard from OceanGate former employees, one of its rival competitors and marine experts.
David Lochridge, the former director of marine operations for OceanGate, told investigators he had “no confidence” in the way the Titan submersible had been built. Antonella Wilby, the company’s former software contractor, said she felt “brushed to the side” after vocalizing safety concerns following an incident in which a customer reportedly heard a “loud bang.”
Patrick Lahey, the co-founder of Triton Submarines, said he encouraged Stockton Rush to classify the Titan, but said Rush called classification “an impediment to innovation”.
Proceedings to continue this morning
Monday 23 September 2024 12:18
Rhian Lubin
Welcome back as we restart our live coverage of the US Coast Guard’s hearing into the Titan submersible implosion.
Proceedings will start up again this morning at 8.30am ET as part of the Coast Guard’s investigation of the maritime disaster.
Three witnesses are due to give evidence to the panel.
Co-founder of Titan owner OceanGate, Guillermo Sohnlein, is up first and he is expected to give an insight into the inner workings of the company.
Other witnesses expected to testify today include former OceanGate engineering director Phil Brooks and Roy Thomas of the American Bureau of Shipping.
The hearing is expected to run through Friday.
What to expect as we enter day four of the Coast Guard’s hearing
Saturday 21 September 2024 08:34
Michelle Del Rey
Another mission specialist who worked with the company that owned the Titan submersible that imploded last year while on its way to the Titanic wreckage is scheduled to testify before a U.S. Coast Guard investigatory panel Friday.
Mission specialist Fred Hagen is scheduled to be the first to testify Friday. Other witnesses have characterized mission specialists as people who paid a fee to play a role in OceanGate’s underwater exploration.
Find out more below.
MBI created an animated model of the Titan’s doomed voyage
Saturday 21 September 2024 03:34
Michelle Del Rey
The Marine Board presented an animation model in support of the Titan submersible hearing. The entire video can be viewed from the MBI website https://t.co/3TwwWq8TGt and downloaded from here: https://t.co/7lZwbu0dXZ#TitanMBI pic.twitter.com/PToLMpLFw0
— USCG MaritimeCommons (@maritimecommons) September 16, 2024
The US Coast Guard has released exhibits relating to the hearing
Friday 20 September 2024 23:34
Michelle Del Rey
Exhibit CG-100 titled 'Interview Transcript - DIR of Marine Operations with CEO_Redacted’, and other exhibits from today’s #TitanMBI hearing are now available here: https://t.co/h3ySH0PhiA pic.twitter.com/pV8qhOY31x
— USCG MaritimeCommons (@maritimecommons) September 20, 2024
WATCH: What happened to the Titan tourist submersible?
Friday 20 September 2024 22:34
Michelle Del Rey
Proceedings will resume again at 8.30am on Monday
Friday 20 September 2024 21:24
Michelle Del Rey
Antonella Wilby has been released as a witness. Friday’s hearing is now over and proceedings will resume next week.
Wilby says she wanted to go to the board of directors about safety concerns but was warned about being sued
Friday 20 September 2024 21:10
Michelle Del Rey
After the “loud bang” incident, Wilby says she wanted to approach the board of directors with concerns she had about OceanGate’s operations, but a colleague warned her that her NDA did not cover the board and she could be sued for speaking out.
She decided against raising her concerns.
Hearing taking a short break
Friday 20 September 2024 20:59
Michelle Del Rey
Proceedings will resume momentarily
Wilby compares OceanGate operations to ‘safety theater'
Friday 20 September 2024 20:37
Michelle Del Rey
The former tech contractor, who primarily worked with software navigation at OceanGate, expressed she did not think the Titan submersible or the comany’s actions were safe.
“No aspect of the operation seemed safe,” said Wilby, adding that parts of the vessel looked “thrown together.”
‘I felt brushed to the side’ former contractor says
Friday 20 September 2024 20:18
Michelle Del Rey
During a dive in 2022, Wilby says a customer reported a “loud bang.”
The noise heard during one of OceanGate’s expeditions has become a frequent talking point throughout the hearings.
While debriefing following the incident, Wilby says customer reported hearing a “loud bang” that was “as loud as an explosion.” Stockton Rush “shut it down” she said.
The OceanGate team later discovery the carbon fiber hull had moved.
Antonella Wilby is being sworn in to testify
Friday 20 September 2024 20:03
Michelle Del Rey
Antonella Wilby, another contractor for OceanGate, is now testifying about her experience with the company.
Lahey released as witness
Friday 20 September 2024 19:51
Michelle Del Rey
The co-founder of Triton Submarines has been released as a witness. The panel is taking a quick break and will reconvene at 3pm ET.
Stockton Rush called classification ‘an impediment to innovation’, Lahey says
Friday 20 September 2024 19:19
Michelle Del Rey
Patrick Lahey says he made it clear to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush that he was against his company’s decision to not certify the Titan submersible.
In one conversation, Lahey says Rush called classification “an impediment to innovation.”
Triton Submarines co-founder calls incident where Titan front dome fell off ‘ridiculous'
Friday 20 September 2024 19:09
Michelle Del Rey
During one of the Titan’s 13 dives to the Titanic, the front dome fell off when the submersible was brought out of the sea.
Lahey called the incident “ridiculous.” If it had happened to one of his vessels, he would’ve barred the machine from operating, he said, and reported the issue to the classifying agency.
Titan experienced 118 equipment issues in 2021 and 2022.
Lahey says he wasn’t ‘impressed’ by Titan sub
Friday 20 September 2024 18:49
Michelle Del Rey
Lahey, the co-founder of Triton Submarines, says he managed to see the Titan sub while in the Bahamas in 2019.
“I wasn’t impressed by what I saw,” he said of the submersible. “A lot of things I thought had not been executed appropriately.”
OceanGate bought two submersibles from Lahey, he says
Friday 20 September 2024 18:39
Michelle Del Rey
Lahey says that the company bought two submersibles from him. Both of the submersibles had been classified when they were bought.
“I don’t know what happened to the certification,” he said.
Lahey testifies about the importance of certification
Friday 20 September 2024 18:30
Michelle Del Rey
“Certification is a process that never ends,” Lahey says. “It continues through the lifetime of the vehicle.”
There are specific requirements that need to be met every year, Lahey says. Submersibles could be certified by the US Navy or American Bureau of Shipping, but there is no agency specifically tasked with clearing the vessels.
Stockton Rush decided against having the Titan submersible certified, which brought OceanGate much criticism from the deep-diving community.
Patrick Lahey, co-founder and CEO of Triton Submarines, is being sworn in
Friday 20 September 2024 18:03
Michelle Del Rey
Lahey and entrepreneur Larry Connor began planning their own deep sea expedition about a year after the Titan tragedy.
Dyer released as witness
Friday 20 September 2024 16:53
Michelle Del Rey
The university engineer has been released as a witness from the hearing. The panel is currently on a lunch break and will return at 1pm ET with testimony from Patrick Lahey, the CEO of Triton Submarines.
Dyer says OceanGate’s designs were not complete
Friday 20 September 2024 16:36
Michelle Del Rey
The “carbon fiber hull design was not complete,” Dyer says, explaining failures that happened while testing the Titan around 2017.
“They had not figured out what had happened on those failures from my perspective, and I had not seen an effort to modify or change the design.”
Dave Dyer, an engineer from the University of Washington, is currently testifying
Friday 20 September 2024 16:27
Michelle Del Rey
Dyer was sworn in moments ago.
Hearing scheduled to resume soon
Friday 20 September 2024 16:08
Michelle Del Rey
Proceedings on day four of the Titan submersible tragedy are scheduled to resume momentarily.
Hagen released as witness. Dave Dyer, an engineer from the University of Washington scheduled to speak next
Friday 20 September 2024 15:49
Michelle Del Rey
Fred Hagen, the former mission specialist has been released as a witness during the hearing.
The next person due to speak is Dave Dyer, an engineer from the University of Washington. The university partnered with OceanGate to produce the Titan submersible.
Former mission specialist Hagen criticized the government for not conducting swift recovery operation
Friday 20 September 2024 15:35
Michelle Del Rey
Fred Hagen says governments should have used the Titan tragedy as an opportunity to test machines capable of rescuing individuals at the depths of the ocean.
“We should have pursued every possible avenue until we knew definitively that my friends were dead,” he said. Officials launched a sprawling rescue-and-recovery operation that included several countries, including the US, Canada, France, Germany and Britain.
If something went wrong on Titan dive, Hagen says ‘we were all going to die’
Friday 20 September 2024 15:02
Michelle Del Rey
When asked about what he knew about rescue operations, Hagen explained that there were limited resources on earth that could be utilized to save people on board the Titan sub.
If something went wrong, Paul-Henri Nargeolet told him “we were all going to die.”
“That was the paradigm you had to be comfortable with,” he said.
Renata Rojas, former mission specialist, said 'Neil Armstrong didn’t ask somebody, ‘Is this vessel classed?’
Friday 20 September 2024 15:00
Michelle Del Rey
Speaking during her emotional testimony on Thursday, a former mission specialist for OceanGate spoke about some of the dangers associated with the voyage down to the Titanic wreck.
Titan, OceanGate’s submersible, was experimental in nature and therefore not classified.
“It was similar to the Apollo program,” she said. “They tested by doing... Neil Armstrong didn’t ask somebody, ‘Is this vessel classed?’ before he went to space. He just got in and went.”
NTSB begins questioning Hagen
Friday 20 September 2024 14:54
Michelle Del Rey
A representative from the National Transportation Safety Board is now examining Hagen about his background and experience with OceanGate.
Hagen speaks on ‘loud bang’ during dive
Friday 20 September 2024 14:48
Michelle Del Rey
During a dive in 2022, Hagen says he heard a ‘loud bang’ come from the vessel. After the incident, OceanGate team members discussed what may have happened to the Titan’s hull.
The crew was concerned the “hull had cracked,” he told the hearing’s panelists. “We determined the hull had jumped in the carriage.”
Hagen speaks about safety concerns
Friday 20 September 2024 14:27
Michelle Del Rey
“Anyone that wanted to go was delusional if they thought it wasn’t dangerous,” he says. “It wasn’t supposed to be safe.”
Fred Hagen sworn in as witness
Friday 20 September 2024 13:50
Michelle Del Rey
Fred Hagen, a former mission specialist for OceanGate, is recounting his experience. He says he paid OceanGate to be a mission specialist on the company’s first trip to the Titanic wreckage.
Day four of Titan sub hearing commences
Friday 20 September 2024 13:32
Michelle Del Rey
Day four of the Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation’s hearing commenced at 8.30am ET.
OceanGate mission specialist Fred Hagen is due to give testimony at 8.30am.
Schedule: Who is testifying during today’s hearing?
Friday 20 September 2024 11:30
James Liddell
The hearing will return at 8.30am ET this morning before first testimony is given from OceanGate mission specialist Fred Hagen at 9am.
The Coast Guard’s panel will then hear from Dave Dyer, an engineer from the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Lab, at approximately 10.45am.
Co-founder and CEO of Triton Submarines Patrick Lahey will testify at 1.30pm with a final break down of the day’s events taking place at 5.15pm.
The hearing break over the weekend and will then return on Monday at 8.30am.
Ex-contractor recalls drop weight problems
Friday 20 September 2024 09:42
Michelle Del Rey
Catterson recalled drop weight issues on the two test dives he was a part of years before the ill-fated Titan set sail.
He described how drop weights work. “The sub became neutral so the sub became neutral...They were only able to drop 70 pounds. That’s not enough to do what they needed to have happen,” Catterson told the panel.
‘Like a bathtub compared to the North Atlantic’: Catterson said the training wasn’t reflective of the conditions the Titan would see on its mission
Friday 20 September 2024 07:42
Michelle Del Rey
When asked whether OceanGate staffing in Expedition 2023 was “sufficient to ensure safety,” Catterson paused before responding: “I think training and operations at sea could have been better.”
They did their training out of Everett which is “like a bathtub compared to the North Atlantic,” he said. They didn’t have practice in rougher conditions, like fog. “The training probably didn’t reflect as good as a base of knowledge for out there,” referring to where the Titan set sail.
Lochridge forced to sign new contract after ‘embarrassing’ Rush in front of client, he testifies
Friday 20 September 2024 03:42
Michelle Del Rey
He said that he and Stockton Rush “pretty much stopped talking to me rationally” after the Andrea Doria incident.
At the end of the summer 2016, Rush and others told him OceanGate was “no longer willing to pay” for his wife and daughter’s permanent residence. Lochridge believed it was because he “embarrassed him in front of clients,” referring to the Andrea Doria crash, which was a “turning point” in his and Rush’s relationship.
The following day, Rush presented him with a new contract that he sign a new contract that stipulated he would have to reimburse the company if he left within the next 12 months. Rush instructed him not to tell his immigration attorney about the new arrangement.
Catterson said he had ‘doubts’ — and voiced them
Thursday 19 September 2024 23:42
Michelle Del Rey
“I had my doubts,” Catterson said about the carbon fiber hull.
“I think that when you put it under compression, they can buckle, they can shift, they can move all these directions three-directionally,” he added.
When aksed if he had voiced his concerns about the hull to any OceanGate employees, Catterson said he told Stockton Rush, Tony Nissen, the first witness today who is an engineer, and David Lochridge, who was terminated shortly after detailing his concerns with the Titan’s design in an inspection report.