Titan sub hearings live: OceanGate co-founder says the cause of implosion that killed five may never be known
Guillermo Sohnlein, the co-founder of the company whose submarine imploded on a trip to see the wreckage of the Titanic, killing all five people on board, has told a hearing into the disaster the cause of the accident may never be known.
Sohnlein and Stockton Rush founded the company in 2009. Rush was among the five people who died when the submersible imploded in June 2023.
The former CEO left the company in 2013 but after the submersible’s implosion, he defended his former business partner. Sohnlein told investigators he wants the world to honor his friends by continuing deep-sea exploration.
Roy Thomas, a senior principal engineer with the American Bureau of Shipping, provided testimony on the nuances of carbon fiber materials used to make the Titan’s hull. He said OceanGate never made any attempts to classify their vessel with the agency, one of the main regulators for submersibles in the world.
Had it been recognized, the vessel would have undergone several assessments ensuring its safety. Rush once called classification “an impediment to innovation” and told an employee getting inside Titan is “one of the safest things I will ever do,” adding, “no-one is dying under my watch — period.”
