Titan sub hearings live: NDA threat stopped contractor from raising safety concerns after ‘loud bang’ incident
Patrick Lahey, the co-founder of Triton Submarines, OceanGate’s rival, told Stockton Rush about concerns he had with the Titan’s prior glass dome design when he saw the submersible in 2019, and stressed the importance of certifying the vessel.
Rush called classification “an impediment to innovation,” Lahey told US Coast Guard panelists. Classification is not a requirement for operating a deep sea vessel, but Lahey, who has built several submersibles for clients, said he’d never sell one without classification.
Other witnesses raised concerns about the submersible’s design, including Antonella Wilby, a former OceanGate operations and engineering tech contractor, who said she wouldn’t go inside Titan. Dave Dyer, an engineer from the University of Washington’s applied physics lab, said he also had concerns about the vessel’s design in 2017.
But former OceanGate mission specialist Fred Hagen told panelists that climbing aboard the Titan submersible for a trip to view the Titanic wreckage up close “wasn’t supposed to be safe.”
“It was supposed to be a thrilling adventure,” he said, adding, “Anyone that wanted to go was delusional if they thought it wasn’t dangerous.”
Proceedings will resume on Monday at 8.30am ET.
