Final day of Coast Guard hearing into Titan disaster closing out in North Charleston

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Friday is the final day of the public hearing portion of the Coast Guard’s investigation into why a submersible imploded on its way to view the Titanic’s shipwrecked remains.

The Marine Board of Investigation panel had previously heard from NASA and Boeing employees, who described their brief relationships with OceanGate, the owners of the imploded Titan submersible.

Justin Jackson, a materials engineer, said OceanGate contacted NASA about the facility manufacturing a composite cylinder. Due to COVID, NASA did not manufacture anything but did act as an advisor remotely on OceanGate’s 1/3rd-scale models.

According to Mark Negley, material and process engineer, Boeing entered into an agreement with OceanGate for a preliminary feasibility study that made recommendations for a concept vessel. OceanGate did not implement all of Boeing’s recommendations. When asked why the partnership ended, Negley said, “I don’t know exactly. I think maybe we were too expensive.”

John Winters, a master marine inspector from the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound, previewed his work on OceanGate’s first submersible, Antipodes. Winters made sure Antipodes was inspected and later certified as an Oceanographic Research Vessel. He also clarified that late OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush did not contact the Coast Guard regarding any part of the Titan’s design, certification, or build.

During his testimony, Lt. Cmdr Jonathan Duffett with the Coast Guard Office of Commercial Vessel Compliance explained the U.S. Code regarding submersibles and small passenger vessels.

The final day will hear recounts of the response effort following the Titan’s loss of contact with its support vessel in June 2023. Coast Guard Search and Rescue Specialist Scott Talbot will close out the hearing as the last witness.

Former OceanGate employee Matthew McCoy and Sector Commander Cpt. Jamie Frederick with Coast Guard Sector Boston are also on the schedule for Friday.

LIVE UPDATES:

3:09 p.m.

Talbot extends condolences to the friends and family of those lost in the Titan incident.

3:06 p.m.

The SAR mission coordinator changed at least 3 times during the Titan response effort due to fatigue concern issues.

2:49 p.m.

Talbot said he did not know what an Oceanographic Research Vessel was until this hearing and he would guess most of the personnel do not know what it is.

2:47 p.m.

Talbot said the Coast Guard is currently rewriting the SAR system training and regulations.

2:46 p.m.

In Talbot’s career, he has never seen someone voluntary report submersible operations. In his opinion, being aware of a submersible operation in the Coast Guard area would help if a SAR operations were necessary.

2:22 p.m.

The Coast Guard Sector Boston search team did not initially contact the Navy although SAR guidelines say the Navy is the primary source for complex underwater SAR incidents.

2:19 p.m.

Coast Guard sectors cannot suspend SAR operations when a person is missing without concurrence from the district commander.

2:15 p.m. – 2:17 p.m.

There are many factors that go into suspending search and rescue operations and it is basically a case by case basis. The district commander and SAR commander typically make the decision to suspend a SAR operation.

2:14 p.m.

Coast Guard SAR does not do recovery operations like body recovery or debris recovery.

2:00 p.m.

DAILY BRIEFING SLIDES OF THE FIRST DISTRICT SEARCH AND RESCUE OPS FOR TITAN INCIDENT

1:44 p.m.

Talbot said there was so much information pertaining to the incident that it was “almost overwhelming,” but the board found recommendations in four main categories.

He went on to say it was evident that the SAR system was overwhelmed by the incident.

1:40 p.m. – 1:55 p.m.

Talbot was asked to conduct a SAR case study on the Titan incident. Below is a summary of the case study and findings:

1:33 p.m.

A SAR specialist is responsible for managing the search and rescue operations for the specific district under the SAR director, according to Talbot.

1:31 p.m.

Scott Talbot called to witness stand.

12:22 p.m.

Recess until 1:30 p.m.

12:18 p.m.

Interview with the Polar Prince crew master, which is similar to the captain, after the Titan debris was found.

12:11 p.m.

The process of getting Pelagic’s ROV to the Titan incident location would normally take days but the search and rescue team member’s were able to move the over 70,000 ton equipment to the incident site in hours.

12:01 p.m.

District 1 does not monitor dive activity at the Titanic wreck site or the Andrea Doria.

11:57 a.m.

OceanGate had a plan in case something went wrong that had ROV numbers on it, although Unified Command was never notified of this plane.

In Capt. Frederick’s understanding, Pelagic was made aware of the dive and the incident the night of June 18.

Deep Energy was contacted through ISMERLOW.

11:54 a.m.

Unified Command was notified of underwater noises during the search for the Titan. It was one piece of data that was not definitive and could not say 100% that it was an implosion. The team was also receiving conflicting evidence of knocking noises.

No one knew what the answer was and Unified Command was not keeping the search ongoing when they had “secret” information, Capt. Frederick said.

11:51 a.m.

Hearing back in session.

11:31 a.m. – 11:33 a.m.

OceanGate representative Kyle Bingham was apart of Unified Command.

The First Coast Guard District was not aware of the Titan’s dive when the incident occurred.

When the ROV found the tail cone debris and more debris was found Thursday morning, Unified Command determined the incident to be a total loss.

11:26 a.m.

There was never an OceanGate search plan presented to the Coast Guard. There were sonar noises coming from buoys in the distance. The data was packaged and turned over to the Navy for analyzing.

The Navy reported they were 100% certain that it was not sonar noise from humans.

11:19 a.m. – 11:21 a.m.

The Coast Guard’s first district exercises with the Canadian’s on an annual basis.

Several days the ceiling was low limited to 500 feet, search conditions were good in general terms, but the team was not severely hampered by weather, according to Capt. Frederick.

11:16 a.m. – 11:18 a.m.

When the 6000 meter ROV was able to get on scene, the debris was found quickly. There was also a backup plan. A French vessel with a 6000 meter ROV was also on the way and arrived Thursday.

11:14 a.m.

Capt. Frederick said OceanGate reached out to Pelagic research services initially which notified the Coast Guard.

The team had to move 70,000 pounds of search equipment to St. John’s and then trucked to the sea port and moved onto the Horizon Arctic.

10:49 a.m. – 11:05 a.m.

Capt. Frederick was notified on Sunday (JUNE 18, 2023) at 5:40 p.m. EST and it was a report of an overdue sub at the site of the Titanic. An overdue vessel means you have confirmed departure and confirmed non-departure which puts the situation in the distress phase.

It was a multi-dimensional search due to the distance offshore, the sub was supposed to resurface in emergency and there were no readily accessible response resources on the surface, Capt. Frederick said.

A C-130 was on deck in St. Johns and sent to conduct a surface search over the area, he said. The Navy did not have available resources to help.

ISMERLOW put out a global broadcast for at sea vessels that have ROV capability. The vessel Deep Energy responded and headed to the incident location with there ROV’s. It took them 34 hours to get to the location.

By Monday morning, Canadian aircraft and US aircraft were flying. When one landed another would take off up until Wednesday. The US and Canada worked closely through the response.

Deep Energy arrived Tuesday morning but there ROV’s could only go 3000 meter. Deep Energy pushed one of their ROV’s passed 3000 meters and it failed, he said.

At the same time, the Coast Guard put together an elite search and rescue team that was called Unified Command. The Canadian Air Force, the New York National Guard and Coast Guard worked together for search response.

The Coast Guard’s search and rescue ops did have contact with OceanGate and the Polar Prince did have contact through the search for the Titan and it’s passengers. Polar Prince was the search lead at the beginning.

The search lead transfer occurred on Wednesday.

The airplanes during fly searches were receiving sonar noises underwater on Monday.

10:47 a.m.

Capt. Frederick was an active search suspension authority during the Titan incident and the responsibilities were for him to communicate with the next of kin during the Titan case and that person also makes the decision to suspend a search

10:42 a.m.

Capt. Frederick offers condolences to lost Titan passengers. He then details his professional Coast Guard background in search and rescue operations.

10:41 a.m.

Cpt. Jamie Frederick with Coast Guard Sector Boston called to the witness stand.

10:01 a.m.

Hearing in recess.

9:53 a.m.

McCoy started at OceanGate in April 2017 and left in September 2017.

No one paid to go on the Antipodes and Cyclops 1 dives while McCoy was there. It was all staff he said.

9:51 a.m.

During McCoy’s time at OceanGate, the team just performed test dives and training dives on Antipodes and Cyclops 1.

9:45 a.m. – 9:47 a.m.

McCoy said he does not think there was a professional engineer on staff at OceanGate. There was not a set safety process. The concerns were brought up to your supervisor and then the supervisor would have a conversation with Stockton.

There was no safety officer at OceanGate.

9:42 a.m.

McCoy said the conversation before he left was very tense and Stockton was defensive. Stockton knew McCoy’s Coast Guard background and did not care, he said.

9:41 a.m.

Two contractors who worked for OceanGate during the time had a lot of knowledge on submersibles and asked questions but they weren’t getting answered, according to McCoy.

9:39 a.m.

McCoy said Stockton was in and out and he seemed to be defensive when people asked pointed questions. Scott Griffith and Neal McCurdy would listen and be open, but the one person who would take concerns seriously was David Lochridge, according to McCoy.

9:38 a.m.

McCoy said he did not know much about the Coast Guard Adm. Lockwood who was on the OceanGate board.

9:36 a.m.

McCoy said Stockton was not even open to testing the Titan unmanned. He said the engineering staff was not really qualified as there was Tony Nissen and one other on staff with the rest of the employees being “basically college interns.”

9:34 a.m.

Allegedly, Lochridge reached out to McCoy and told him he had reached out to OSHA after McCoy left.

Eventually, McCoy said he just quit following what OceanGate was doing because he assumed the OSHA complaint would lead to safety issues at the company being dealt with.

9:33 a.m.

At the time of the conversation of between McCoy and Rush, the Titan had not dived in the US and so he did not know whether to notify the Coast Guard.

9:31 a.m.

McCoy said Scott Griffith would just go along with what Stockton Rush would say.

9:30 a.m.

The conversation between Stockton and McCoy happened in 2017 around September. McCoy said he resigned the following day after that conversation.

He did have an unofficial exit interview with Bonnie Carl. He said she just pulled him aside and just asked him why he was leaving because the company was having a lot of turnover.

9:27 a.m.

McCoy was in the Coast Guard reserves during this conversation and felt he was holding himself to a higher standard.

McCoy said he did not believe that the Titan would not be operated out of the US.

9:24 a.m. – 9:26 a.m.

McCoy did raise these concerns and asked how they were doing this without certifying and inspecting the sub. He was taken to a meeting with Stockton Rush where he brought up his operating concerns.

Rush gave him a long list of reasons why and how the regulations were “stifling ingenuity” according to McCoy.

Rush also told McCoy that they were taking the Titan to the Bahamas so it would not be diving out of the US.

Rush allegedly told him he would “buy a congressman” and make the problems go away if the Coast Guard decided to get involved.

After this, McCoy resigned, he said. Scott Griffith was also at the lunch.

9:23 a.m.

McCoy said after a dive with Renata Rojas and learning that she had gotten paid to go on the Andrea Doria dive was strange to him.

Then he started learning more about mission specialists and became more concerned, he said.

9:19 a.m.

McCoy said he was concerned with the overall design of the Titan. He said initially the OceanGate Foundation was going to raise money and operate it as an Oceanographic Research Vessel.

9:15 a.m. – 9:19 a.m.

When McCoy started working with OceanGate the company was in a partnership with the University of Washington Applied Physics Lab.

He said during his time OceanGate and the physics lab broke ties and McCoy said this concerned him.

Scott Griffith was McCoy’s supervisor and he said Griffith seemed to be over former marine operations chief David Lochridge at the time as well.

9:08 a.m.

McCoy dealt with a lot of passenger vessels during his time stationed in Kauai with the Coast Guard.

9:07 a.m.

McCoy began working with OceanGate in April 2017.

9:05 a.m.

McCoy is a former Coast Guard member. He was active duty from 2002 to 2015.

9:04 a.m.

Matthew McCoy, former OceanGate operations technician, called to the witness stand.

9:00 a.m.

Hearing begins.

—

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP.