The Titan's former chief engineer says he felt pressured to finish the submersible

The chief engineer of an experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreck of the Titanic testified Monday that he felt pressured to make the ship ready for diving and therefore refused to pilot it on a voyage several years earlier.

“'I'm not getting in that,'” Tony Nissen told Stockton Rush, co-founder of OceanGate, the company that owned the Titan submersible.

Nissen, OceanGate's former chief technical officer, was the first witness to testify at what is expected to be a two-week U.S. Coast Guard hearing. The Titan imploded on June 18, 2023, killing Rush and four others on board and sparking a global debate about the future of private underwater exploration.

Nissen said Rush could be a difficult employer and was often very concerned about costs and project schedules, among other issues. He said Rush would fight for what he wanted, which often changed from day to day. He added that he tried to keep the conflicts between the two behind closed doors so others in the company wouldn't find out.

“Most people would ultimately just go back to Stockton,” he said at the hearing in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Nissen also pointed out that Titan was struck by lightning during a test mission in 2018, which may have damaged its hull.

When asked if there was pressure to put the Titan in the water, he replied: “100%.”

He said he refused to pilot the Titan years ago because he didn't trust the operations staff, and he prevented the submersible from going to Titanic in 2019 by telling Rush the Titan “wasn't working the way we thought it was.” He was fired that year. The Titan underwent additional testing before later diving to Titanic, Nissen added.

When asked if he thought Rush's pressure had affected safety decisions and testing, Nissen paused and then replied, “No. And that's a difficult question because if you had infinite time and an infinite budget, you could do infinite testing.”

The submersible was exposed to the elements during seven months of storage in 2022 and 2023, and the hull was also never inspected by a third party, as is standard practice, Coast Guard officials said in their initial remarks Monday. The lack of an independent inspection and the submersible's unconventional design exposed the Titan to the attention of the underwater exploration community.

One of the last messages from the Titan's crew to the supply ship Polar Prince before the submersible imploded was “all is well here,” according to a pictorial recreation presented by the Coast Guard earlier in the hearing.

The crew lost contact after exchanging text messages about the submersible's depth and weight during the descent. The Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the vessel on its onboard display.

OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended operations after the implosion. Bonnie Carl, the company's former chief financial and human resources officer, testified Monday that she was aware of safety concerns about the Titan and that the company's operations manager, David Lochridge, had called it “unsafe.” Lochridge is scheduled to testify Tuesday. Tym Catterson, a contractor who worked with the company, told the Marine Board Monday that “training and operations at sea could have been better.”

Among those not on the witness list is Rush's widow, Wendy Rush, the company's communications director. Asked about her absence, spokeswoman Melissa Leake said the Coast Guard would not comment. She said it is common practice for a Marine Board of Investigation “to hold multiple hearings or conduct additional testimony in complex cases.”

OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein and former science director Steven Ross are also expected to appear at the hearing later, according to a Coast Guard list. Numerous guard officials, scientists, and government and industry officials are also expected to testify. The Coast Guard has subpoenaed witnesses who are not government employees, Leake said.

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 has been cooperating fully with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began, the statement said. The Titan had been traveling to the Titanic wreck site since 2021.

Last year, the submersible lost contact with its escort vessel about two hours after its last dive. When the overdue was reported, rescue crews rushed ships, aircraft and other equipment to an area about 435 miles south of St. John's, Newfoundland.

The search for the submersible drew worldwide attention as it became increasingly unlikely that anyone could have survived the implosion. Wreckage from the Titan was later found on the sea floor about 1,000 feet off the Titanic's bow, Coast Guard officials said.

The time frame for the investigation was originally set at one year, but the investigation has taken longer. The ongoing Marine Board of Investigation is the highest level of marine casualty investigation conducted by the Coast Guard. After the hearing is completed, recommendations are made to the Commandant of the Coast Guard. The National Transportation Safety Board is also conducting an investigation.

“There are no words that can ease the loss of the families affected by this tragic incident,” said Jason Neubauer of the Coast Guard Office of Investigations, who chaired the hearing. “But we hope this hearing will help shed light on the cause of the tragedy and prevent something like this from happening again.”

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