Former Titan enger recalls day of deadly implosion at hearings

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC/AP) - A former enger of the submersible Titan who acted as a mission specialist testified before a Coast Guard investigation into the deadly 2023 implosion that killed five.

Renata Rojas, a mission specialist with OceanGate testified on Thursday during the third day of a Coast Guard Marine Board Investigation into the tragedy, which imploded on June 18, 2023, while on its way to explore the famous shipwreck of the Titanic.

Rojas was on the Polar Prince ship that towed the LARS platform with the Titan onboard when the submersible went into the ocean with OceanGate co-founder and CEO Stockton Rush, veteran Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet; two of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood; and British adventurer Hamish Harding aboard.

A member asked Rojas to describe the demeanor of the five engers before they got into the submersible. She answered the question through tears.

“I saw five people smiling, looking forward to the journey, excited. We had wonderful weather. Everything was done on time; we were all excited,” Rojas said.

After the Titan submerged, crew ate breakfast while communications with the submersible were monitored. At one point, an update on communications had not been given, so crew moved to the bridge of the Polar Prince for an update.

“We all went to the bridge to check. We hadn’t heard from them. We don’t know where they are. Where are they?” Rojas said.

She said after the crew tried unsuccessfully for hours to make with the Titan, she and others were told to sleep because they would need to help if the Titan resurfaced.

“Procedures were explained,” Rojas said. “We didn’t know how fast or slow they (Titan engers) were coming back.”

The Titan was expected to surface at approximately 3 p.m. In accordance with OceanGate’s Loss of Communications protocol and after three hours of searching the surface with no results, it was not until 7:10 p.m. that the Canadian Coast Guard was ed.

“The conversation was, another 15 minutes. We are calling the Coast Guard. At this point, they were very overdue, and that is what they did. We went into ‘Go mode’ at that point,” Rojas said.

Pieces of Rojas testimony contradict OceanGate’s Former Operations Director David Lochridge’s testimony from Tuesday. Lochridge called the Titan project an “abomination” where Rojas detailed her experience with the dives, expressing minimal problems or concerns.

Wrapping up her testimony, Rojas provided a statement directly to the investigation .

“What we have all gone through is still raw. Nothing is going to bring our friends back,” Rojas said. “I hope that this investigation creates an understanding that with exploration there is risk. Without taking that risk, the world would still be flat.”

Mission specialist position explained

Rojas, a banker in New York City who participated in multiple OceanGate exploration dives, paid to be on each one. A scuba diver since age 12, she said she always had an obsession with the Titanic.

When paying to be on explorations with OceanGate, engers had the opportunity to decide if they wanted to simply enjoy the experience or become a mission specialist. Becoming a mission specialist for OceanGate did not require many credentials.

“It sounds really glamorous but it’s really just standing by to see if anyone needs a wrench,” Rojas said. “The payment was for the dive, but you had the option when you showed up for the expedition if you wanted to participate or just be an observer and enger.”

Board asked Rojas detailed questions about each of her dives with OceanGate. During a 2021 test dive to the Titanic that Rojas was a member of, 70 equipment issues were reported including the submersible’s dome falling off during recovery.

Rojas successfully participated in a Titanic expedition in 2022 but problems were still recorded.

“This was never sold as a Disney ride. It was sold as an expedition and you had to adapt to change,” Rojas said.

When asked if Rojas knew about the inspection history of the Titan, she stated she was aware the U.S. Coast Guard had not inspected the submersible.

“I knew the risk I was taking and still decided to go,” Rojas said.

History of previous dives

Dr. Steven Ross, the company’s former scientific director, also testified Thursday afternoon but provided a much shorter testimony.

Since 2021, Ross was a crew member of multiple expeditions on the Titan and was hired by the company to develop a science program with OceanGate.

On June 7, Ross was onboarding the last Titan mission before it’s the final and fatal dive. When conducting the dive, the Titan experienced a variable ballast tank issue

“The dive was aborted. The pilot indicated there was a problem with a valve,” Ross said. “We tried to fix that and there was a malfunction in the platform.”

Upon resurfacing, an error caused the submersible to become inverted to a 45-degree angle and with the bow of the Titan up, five people slammed into the submersible. The Titan became partially disconnected to the LARS and slammed the submersible and the occupants for one hour until the platform was corrected.

“There was nothing to hold onto inside the submersible. The pilot crashed into the rear (of the platform) and the rest of the engers tumbled. One enger was hanging upside down, the other two wedged themselves into the bow.

Stockton was the pilot of this specific dive, and when asked by a member in the Marine Board Investigation if there were any conversations, safety or inspection of the Titan following the problems, Ross said he was not aware or could not recall.

“Stockton was upset,” Ross said.

This incident took place on June 12 and the tragic dive that killed five was just six days after on June 18.

The hearing will resume Friday at 8:30 a.m. with three new witnesses scheduled to testify.

Key employee says tragedy could have been prevented

A key employee who labeled a doomed experimental submersible unsafe prior to its last, fatal voyage testified Tuesday that the tragedy could have been prevented if a federal safety agency had investigated his complaint.

David Lochridge, OceanGate’s former operations director, said he felt let down by the Occupational Safety and Health istration’s decision not to follow through on the complaint.

“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 Tuesday’s hearings. “As a seafarer, I feel deeply disappointed by the system that is meant to protect not only seafarers but the general public as well.”

Lochridge said that eight months after he filed an OSHA complaint, a caseworker told him the agency had not begun investigating it yet and there were 11 cases ahead of his. By then, OceanGate was suing Lochridge and he had filed a countersuit.

About 10 months after he filed the complaint, he decided to walk away. The case was closed and both lawsuits were dropped.

“I gave them nothing, they gave me nothing,” he said of OceanGate.

OSHA officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money.

Lochridge was one of the most anticipated witnesses to appear before a commission. His testimony echoed that of other former employees Monday, one of whom described Rush as volatile and difficult to work with.

“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge said. “There was very little in the way of science.”

OceanGate owned the Titan and brought it on several dives to the Titanic going back to 2021.

Lochridge’s testimony began a day after other witnesses painted a picture of a troubled company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.

Lochridge ed the company in the mid-2010s as a veteran engineer and submersible pilot and said he quickly came to feel he was being used to lend the company scientific credibility. He said he felt the company was selling him as part of the project “for people to come up and pay money,” and that did not sit well with him.

“I was, I felt, a show pony,” he said. “I was made by the company to stand up there and do talks. It was difficult. I had to go up and do presentations. All of it.”

Lochridge referenced a 2018 report in which he raised safety issues about OceanGate operations. He said with all of the safety issues he saw “there was no way I was g off on this.”

Asked whether he had confidence in the way the Titan was being built, he said: “No confidence whatsoever.”

Employee turnover was very high at the time, Lochridge said, and leadership dismissed his concerns because they were more focused on “bad engineering decisions” and a desire to get to the Titanic as quickly as possible and start making money. He eventually was fired after raising the safety concerns, he said.

“I didn’t want to lose my job. I wanted to do the Titanic. But to dive it safely. It was on my bucket list, too,” he said.

OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion.

OceanGate’s former engineering director, Tony Nissen, kicked off Monday’s testimony, telling investigators he felt pressured to get the vessel ready to dive and refused to pilot it for a journey several years before Titan’s last trip. Nissen worked on a prototype hull that predated the Titanic expeditions.

“‘I’m not getting in it,’” Nissen said he told Rush.

OceanGate’s former finance and human resources director, Bonnie Carl, testified Monday that Lochridge had characterized the Titan as “unsafe.”

Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost after an exchange of texts about the Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.

One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual re-creation presented earlier in the hearing.

When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said.

Scheduled to appear later in the hearing are OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein, according to a list compiled by the Coast Guard. Numerous guard officials, scientists, and government and industry officials are also expected to testify. The U.S. Coast Guard subpoenaed witnesses who were not government employees, Coast Guard spokesperson Melissa Leake said.

Among those not on the hearing witness list is Rush’s widow, Wendy Rush, the company’s communications director. Lochridge said Wendy Rush had an active role in the company when he was there.

Asked about Wendy Rush’s absence, Leake said the Coast Guard does not comment on the reasons for not calling specific individuals to a particular hearing during ongoing investigations. She said it’s common for a Marine Board of Investigation to “hold multiple hearing sessions or conduct additional witness depositions for complex cases.”

OceanGate currently has no full-time employees but will be represented by an attorney during the hearing, the company said in a statement. The company said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began.

The ongoing Marine Board of Investigation is the highest level of marine casualty investigation conducted by the Coast Guard. When the hearing concludes, recommendations will be submitted to the Coast Guard’s commandant. The National Transportation Safety Board is also conducting an investigation.