A key employee with the company that owned the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic pushed back at a question from a Coast Guard investigator about whether OceanGate felt a sense of 鈥渄esperation鈥 to complete the dives because of the high price tag.
鈥淣ot a desperation, there definitely was an urgency to delivery on what we had offered and a dedication and perseverance towards that goal,鈥 said Amber Bay, director of administration for the company that owned the doomed Titan submersible. She insisted the company would not 鈥渃onduct dives that would be risky just to meet a need."
Other witnesses have characterized those who paid $250,000 to participate in OceanGate voyages to the Titanic as passengers, but Bay described them more as explorers who were invited to take an active role in the missions. 鈥淭hese were the people we were looking for. Explorers. Adventurers,鈥 Bay testified Tuesday.
OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among the when the submersible imploded in June 2023.
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.
The co-founder of the company told the Coast Guard panel 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鈥檚 oceans.
Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Rush, ultimately left the company before the Titan disaster. 鈥淭his can鈥檛 be the end of deep ocean exploration. This can鈥檛 be the end of deep-diving submersibles and I don鈥檛 believe that it will be,鈥 Sohnlein said.
, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money. 鈥淭he whole idea behind the company was to make money,鈥 Lochridge testified. 鈥淭here was very little in the way of science.鈥
Sohnlein said Monday he had the opportunity to dive in Titan 鈥渕any times鈥 and he declined. He said his reasons included not wanting to take space away from potential customers. He also said when Rush reached a point when it was 鈥渢ime to put a human in there,鈥 he wanted to do it himself. Rush felt it was his design and said 鈥渋f anything happens, I want it to impact me,鈥 Sohnlein said.
But Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a troubled company that was impatient to get its into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.
The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include several more witnesses, some of whom were closely connected to the company.
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鈥檚 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 during the hearing.
During the submersible鈥檚 final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan鈥檚 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 (700 kilometers) south of St. John鈥檚, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) 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.
