NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – The Titan window creator raised concerns about the submersible’s effectiveness before the 2023 implosion that killed five people.
Wednesday marked day seven in the Coast Guard Marine Board Investigation into the OceanGate submersible imploded during an expedition to the shipwreck of the Titanic with three people testifying.
Second to testify on Wednesday was William Kohnen, a submersibles expert, Founder and CEO of Hydrospace Group Inc., and Executive Director for the World Submarine Organization.
OceanGate reached out to Kohnen to build the acrylic window for the Titan, requesting an unusual shape different from what Hydrospace typically built. Kohnen provided OceanGate with the window design for a spherical sector window.
During the ordering process of the window, Kohnen said Hydrospace provided one window to OceanGate but told them how to properly test the window. He stated they told OceanGate what needed to be done before the window could be used to go to the depths and pressure the Titan intended to use it for.
Kohnen said OceanGate never explained why they did not pursue the testing Hydrospace had required.
“Something happened at OceanGate. There was a lot of conversation of all the testing they were going to do, and they changed their mind; somewhere, they changed their mind. I don’t know when it happened, but there was a change,” Kohnen said.
“It was somewhere around the time we delivered the window. I was like, ‘What do you mean you are not testing? You need to do the testing.’ It was left as a hanging ‘we will see.’ I was like, ‘Oh this is not optional,’” he added.
After OceanGate received the window, Kohnen still had concerns about the effectiveness of the window for the deep depths of where the Titanic was located. He reached out to Kemper Engineering for a study of the window.
An email sent from Kohnen provided OceanGate with the results of the study from Kemper Engineering stating “the results were not what was expected.” It also stated, “the PSI indicates significant strain that is consistent with potential short cycle failure modes.”
OceanGate never replied to the information Kohnen provided.
In 2019, the first window made by Hydrospace was damaged. A second window was made by Heinz Fritz GmbH but used the design Kohnen made.
Following a lunch break, a letter previously discussed in the hearing was brought forward again. In 2018, the Marine Technology Society, which Kohnen is the chairman of, drafted a letter to Rush on best practices for the safe development of new submersibles, specifically with OceanGate.
“It went from, I don’t know about it, to serious professional concern that this is really dangerous,” Kohnen said. “This is extremely serious diving around the Titanic and expressing more than concern, more disbelief how casually this seemed to be taken.”
There were multiple drafts of the letter with around 40 people signing it with the individuals representing every country MTS represents.
The letter reads in part, “The society was apprehensive of the experimental approach by OceanGate that could result in negative outcomes that would have serious consequences for everyone in the industry.”
The letter was never officially sent to Rush, but a committee member shared the letter with Rush in its drafting process.
Once Rush received the letter, he called Kohnen. Kohnen recalls a very interesting conversation between the two about the letter.
“We are all very concerned about the direction you (Rush) are taking with the company,” Kohnen recalled him saying.
Kohnen and Rush’s conversation mainly surrounded Kohnen’s concerns about the language of the expedition that was advertised to the public and the classification of the Titan.
“He said the usual response that it (classification) takes too long, it’s too expensive and they don’t know about this technology, I don’t have time to explain my technology,” Kohnen said.
The parting words of the conversation were simpler with Kohnen recalling Rush asking to leave MTS but Kohnen saying you cannot since Rush never even paid to be a part of the association.
National Transportation Safety Board Engineer Dr. Don Kramer was the first witness to testify.
Kramer presented a materials investigation of the experimental OceanGate Submersible Titan giving details on the co-bonding process, acoustic sensors and overall makeup of the hull of the sub.
The findings from Kramer’s lab are based on where the Titan wreckage was discovered with multiple pieces of the hull spread over the ocean floor.
Importantly, his investigation reported delamination and separation in the adhesive used in the hull. In the multi-layered hull structure, wrinkles, rubbing and voids were found in the co-bonding process.
Kramer noted he does not know whether the issues in his findings were from before or after the implosion.
A member of the Coast Guard’s investigation panel asked Kramer if the issues he observed factor into the implosion of the Titan.
“That is still subject to our own internal analysis at this point,” Kramer said in response to the question.
The third and final witness of the day was Bart Kemper, the principal engineer of Kemper Engineering. The engineering firm was requested by the Coast Guard to provide expertise in the investigation
Kemper presented a summary of preliminary findings regarding OceanGate and loss of the Titan Submersible. The initial results regard window design, pressure hull, testing and simulations and operations and safety procedures.
His overall observations included failure to have an integrated life cycle systems engineering approach and failure to have a responsible-in-charge professional.
The hearing will resume Thursday at 8:30 a.m. with four new witnesses expected to testify.
OceanGate employee pushes back against idea of ‘desperation’ to complete missions
A key employee with OceanGate, the company that owned the experimental Titan pushed back at a question from a Coast Guard investigator about whether the company felt a sense of “desperation” to complete the dives because of the high price tag.
Amber Bay, OceanGate’s director of administration, insisted Tuesday that the company would not “conduct dives that would be risky just to meet a need.”
But she agreed that the company wanted to deliver for those who paid $250,000 and were encouraged to participate as “mission specialists.”
“There definitely was an urgency to deliver on what we had offered and a dedication and perseverance towards that goal,” she told a Coast Guard panel.
OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush, two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet; died when the submersible imploded.
The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month that is part of a high level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some of the testimony has focused on the troubled nature of the company.
Bay pushed back Tuesday at earlier testimony from Antonella Wilby, a former OceanGate contractor who said Bay told her “you don’t seem to have an explorer mindset” after she raised safety concerns. Bay said Wilby’s concerns were noted at the time and treated with respect. Bay added that her own duties did not include engineering or operations.
She later broke down in tears when discussing the tragedy, which was personal, because she knew the victims.
“I had the privilege of knowing the explorers lives who were lost,” Bay said through tears. “And there’s not a day that passes that I don’t think of them, their families and the loss.”
Earlier in the hearings, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money. “The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”
Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a 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.
Submersible pilot and designer Karl Stanley of the Roatan Institute of Deepsea Exploration also testified on Tuesday to provide perspective about deep-sea submersible operations and safety. He said the phenomenon of “billionaires courting scientists” has upset the economics of the industry.
Stanley also said he viewed OceanGate’s characterization of paid passengers as “mission specialists” to be an attempt to avoid accountability.
“It’s clearly a dodge with trying to get around U.S. regulations with passengers,” Stanley said.
Additionally, the company’s “entire business plan made zero sense,” Stanley said. He also said he felt the implosion ultimately stemmed from Rush’s desire to leave his mark on history.
“There was nothing unexpected about this. This was expected by everyone who had access to a little bit of information,” Stanley said.
The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include several more witnesses, some of whom were closely connected to the company.
Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Rush, said during testimony Monday that he hoped a silver lining of the disaster is that it will inspire a renewed interest in exploration, including the deepest waters of the world’s oceans.
“This can’t be the end of deep ocean exploration. This can’t be the end of deep-diving submersibles and I don’t believe that it will be,” he said.
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.
OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.
During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.
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. No one on board survived.
OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.
Copyright 2024 WCSC. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved.