OceanGate’s former chief engineer says he didn’t trust co-founder Stockton Rush, and told him he wouldn’t get in the Titan himself.
Tony Nissen is testifying on day one of the U.S. Coast Guard hearings into the loss of the sub and its five crew last year, which is taking place in Charleston, South Carolina and being streamed live on YouTube.
Nissen said his relationship with Rush “turned sour” and “I told him I’m not getting it in. I didn’t trust the operations crew. I didn’t trust Stockton either.”
He added “nothing I got was the truth. It was always a moving target … and I was left holding the bag trying to save him.”
OceanGate’s former director of engineering has been sometimes flippant but frank and blunt in his criticism of overall operations, calling the situation “death by a thousand cuts. It was very stressful,” he said.
Nissen also cited a lot of hand-wringing over the term “experimental” in describing the Titan, saying he insisted that word be included.
But ultimately, he says he refused to sign off on passengers going to the Titanic, adding he didn’t believe the company had a dedicated safety manager.
Earlier today, animation was shown to depict the last moments of the Titan, as part of the two-week hearing into the cause of the disaster.
The Titan suffered a catastrophic implosion, killing all five aboard, on June 18 of last year as it descended to the Titantic.
The last text messages received by its support vessel, Polar Prince, before all communication was lost was “all good here,” followed a short time later by word that they were dropping weights, suggesting they were attempting to abort the dive.
A short time after that, the final ping from the sub is received.
Coast Guard officials also cited neglect and care of the sub, saying it had been exposed to bad weather while in storage for seven months, and did not undergo third-party safety checks, as required.