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An inquiry into the implosion of OceanGate’s Titan submarine launched this week and it’s unearthing all kinds of issues that arose in the buildup to the death of five passengers onboard the craft in June 2023. Now, it’s emerged that co-founder and pilot Stockton Rush reportedly crashed the craft just days before its doomed dive.
The inquiry into the OceanGate disaster kicked off on Monday, with a hearing into the disaster by the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation already learning that one of the company’s chief engineers was fired after saying they would never ride in the craft. Now, the investigation has learned that Rush crashed the sub just days before it imploded, reports Sky News.
Rush reportedly crashed the Titan sub into a bulkhead that formed part of its launch mechanism, reports Sky. The collision flipped the sub around and even left some of its passengers hanging upside down, as the site reports:
Dr Steven Ross says during one dive in June 2023 – just days before the implosion – that the platform malfunctioned. The malfunction caused passengers onboard the submersible to “tumble about” and it took an hour to get them out of the water.
The submersible pilot, OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush, crashed into bulkheading during the malfunction, Dr Ross says. He says: “One passenger was hanging upside down. The other two managed to wedge themselves into the bow end cap.”
Ross, the former scientific advisor at OceanGate, told the inquiry that he was able to stay standing during the ordeal while some passengers were less fortunate. While nobody was hurt in the crash, he added that it was “uncomfortable and unpleasant and took considerable time to correct,” reports AutoEvolution.
Following the collision, the sub’s dive to the Titanic was aborted and it returned to the surface to allow all passengers out. However, Ross told the inquiry that “there were multiple issues” with the launch platform that the “surface team was having to deal with” on the Titan’s return.
When quizzed by the panel over the aftermath of the crash, Ross was asked if OceanGate carried out any inspections of the craft or analysis of the hull. To this, he responded “I am not aware of whether they did or did not.” Additionally, when asked if there was a debrief about what went wrong with the sub to lead to the crash, he added “I do not recall that.”
Just a few days later, OceanGate sent the Titan back into the depths with Rush, British explorer Hamish Harding; the British Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman; and the French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet. All five people onboard died when there was a failure of the craft’s carbon fiber hull.
