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| OceanGate Ex-Director Reveals Shocking Malfunction Details of Titan |
Steven Ross, who was the scientific director of OceanGate at the time, told MassTLC that six days before the last dive, something broke on Titan.
US Coast Guard diving officer provides testimony in the wake of 2023 Titan sub implosion that killed five said that the U. S. Coast Guard has taken testimony from a former marine scientist and one of the crew members who dove to depth with Titan on its fourth mission, Dive 87, in June 2023 when it imploded and killed all five onboard.
He also remembered the Dive 87 platform malfunction, which caused five people aboard to “roll around like bowling balls” toward the back of the ship for an hour.
The scientific director revealed that the dive was called off due to some mechanical problem. Upon retrieving the vessel, it was learned that a ballast tank problem caused the platform to tilt 45 degrees with the stern pointed upward.
“Some people had tumbled in the back”. “I made it to rear bulkhead( aft deck). One was hanging upside down, and two of them tried to squeeze themselves up into what they call an end cap”, Ross testified to the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation on September 19.
There was a debate about [the bang] with the whole crew, the researchers and also with the mission specialists,” he said. That’s likely caused by something called the pressure hull, which surrounds the metal cradle of a submarine: “The theory about this sound was that it was the ping of a shifting pressure hull stuck in some (metal) supports and swinging like an oversized trapeze artist; when it popped put back into place in fear shape, exhaustion at the release of held breath would cause such loud noise.
Ross said he did not know whether the Titan was inspected after its unsuccessful dive on June 12, 2023; however, he agreed that the United States Coast Guard did not inspect the submersible in 2021, 2022 or 2023.
In addition, the United States Coast Guard will hear about the incident through next week.