(Photo courtesy of NBC News) “Titan submersible tail cone wreckage on ocean floor.”

Samantha Festa

Connector Contributor

Is OceanGate going to be shut down for good? Responsible for the deaths of five innocent people, OceanGate had been forced to shut down its operations in June 2023 temporarily. On the 18th of June,  OceanGate had set out its submersible, “The Titan,” to explore the Titanic wreckage. The expedition was originally supposed to last about eight hours. Within about an hour of the dive, contact was lost between the support vessels. Four days later, debris of the submersible had been found a few miles out from the Titanic wreckage, therefore confirming that the submersible had catastrophically imploded, killing all five passengers on board. The victims included the founder of OceanGate himself, Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

 As of September 16th, 2024, several witnesses had come forward regarding the 2023 OceanGate implosion and many other secrets the company and its late CEO, Stockton Rush, had attempted to conceal. Some of the more notable witnesses to testified so far include Renata Rojas, one of the OceanGate mission specialists, Dr. Steven Ross, a former scientific director for OceanGate, and David Lochridge, a former director of marine operations for OceanGate.  

Renata Rojas had witnessed the events of the submersible failure throughout the 18th-22nd of June. During her testimony, Rojas reportedly broke into tears while recalling the events during the June 18th dive.  On the day of the dive, Rojas volunteered to assist the surface crew. She claimed all the passengers “were just very happy to go,” and none knew what could go wrong during the expedition. On the day of the dive, everything had gone decently well, at least from Rojas’s knowledge. The weather was great, and the vessel had been launched right on time. The concern was minor until the news was later delivered that the US Coast Guard had discovered the remains of the Titan.  

Before the Titan’s tragic implosion, there had been several issues with previous dives. According to one of the witnesses on trial, Dr. Steven Ross, one of the recent dives before the submersible had gone out on its deathly dive, the platform had a valve malfunction. Luckily, no one had been injured on the dive, but the pilot supposedly crashed into the rear bulkhead. On another 2022 expedition that both witnesses Rojas and Ross were on, the pilot had faced issues with the thruster controls, which were reversed. Luckily, everyone had come up from the 2022 expedition safely and successfully.  

Not only were the OceanGate vessels a problem, but so was the man behind the company itself: Stockton Rush. According to witness David Lochridge, Rush was stubborn and refused to let anyone else control the vessel after getting it stuck in the wreckage. Lochridge even claimed that Rush had thrown the PlayStation controller at his head, breaking one of the buttons. However, Rojas contended that none of that had happened, and Lochridge must have “gone on a different dive.”  

Rojas ended her testimony by stating that she enjoyed her time as a mission specialist with OceanGate. The sub’s failure was a heart-breaking experience for everyone involved in the project. There are still a few witnesses left to testify throughout the following week. The hearing is set to end on September 27th.