Doomed Titan sub had to abort a dive days before its fatal implosion, says science chief
The former science chief of the company that operated the doomed Titan submersible has revealed a chilling update on what happened to the vessel just days before its fatal implosion.
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The doomed Titan submersible aborted a dive just days before its implosion which killed five passengers, a public inquiry has heard.
Former scientific director of OceanGate - the company that operated the vessel - Steven Ross, gave the chilling testimony on Thursday as part of the US Coast Guard’s two-week hearing into the 2023 catastrophe, which claimed the lives of all five onboard who were on a tour to see the wreckage of the Titanic.
Ross told the hearing an earlier dive had to be aborted due to a valve malfunction that left at least one passenger hanging upside down, and took “considerable time” to correct.
He said that when the privately-owned and operated submersible surfaced during that dive, it tilted so its bow was pointing upwards at a 45 degree angle.
Ross, who was inside along with four other passengers, said that “there’s nothing to hold on to inside this submersible.”
The pilot that day - OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who died in the implosion days later - “crashed into the rear bulkhead,” Ross told the hearing.
“The rest of the passengers tumbled about. I ended up standing on the rear bulkhead,” he said.
“One passenger was hanging upside down, and the other two managed to wedge themselves into the the bow end cap.”
He said no one was injured in the incident, but that inside the cramped and confined space “it was uncomfortable and unpleasant, and it took considerable time to correct the problem” - at least an hour, he estimated.
Rush, he said, was “upset” by the incident.
More than 100 issues were recorded on the vessel in the year’s leading up to its demise, a previous hearing was told.
Investigators revealed the vessel suffered 70 equipment issues in 2021 and 48 issues in 2022.
The Titan submersible disappeared on 18 June, 2023 two hours after their departure.
A vast rescue operation was launched in hope that the passengers had simply lost power and were drifting helplessly in the ocean’s depths.
However, within days it became clear the sub had been destroyed in a cataclysmic implosion.
Victims were presumed to have died instantly in the disaster, which occurred under the crushing pressure of the North Atlantic at a depth of more than two miles (nearly four kilometers).
A debris field was found 1,600 feet (500 meters) from the bow of the Titanic, which sits 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
On board were Mr Rush, businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, British explorer Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French mariner and expert on the Titanic. His family has sued OceanGate last month, claiming that Mr Rush overstated the vessel’s safety.
The hearing continues.
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Originally published as Doomed Titan sub had to abort a dive days before its fatal implosion, says science chief