One of Titan submersible owner's top officials to testify before the Coast Guard
One of the top officials with the company that owned the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic is scheduled to testify in front of the Coast Guard
One of the top officials with the company that owned the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic is scheduled to testify in front of the Coast Guard on Tuesday.
Amber Bay, OceanGate's former director of administration, is one of the key witnesses Tuesday. OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among the five people who died 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’s oceans.
Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Rush, ultimately left the company before the Titan disaster.
“This can’t be the end of deep ocean exploration. This can’t be the end of deep-diving submersibles and I don’t believe that it will be,” said Sohnlein.
Earlier in the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money. “The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”
Sohnlein said Monday he had the opportunity to dive in Titan “many times” and he declined. He said his reasons included not wanting to take space away
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