On Monday, September 16, the US Coast Guard convenes a Marine Board of Investigation hearing into OceanGate’s disappearance Titan submersible in June 2023 and the deaths of five people on board, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush. It intends to use the two-week livestreamed hearing in Charleston, South Carolina, to help it determine what caused the sub’s explosion, whether incompetence or negligence was involved, and whether any laws were broken. It can refer the matter to criminal prosecutors and make recommendations to improve safety at sea.
It hopes to do all that without a public hearing from most of OceanGate’s remaining executives or Rush’s wife, Wendy, who sometimes takes the lead role during Stockton’s dives. The investigation also did not include public testimony from any of the companies that designed and built the Titanof state-of-the-art carbon fiber hulls, or any of the senior operations staff who prepared, maintained, or supported the Titan on his 2023 expedition.
In fact, it seems that few of the 24 subpoenaed witnesses were on board to Titan support vessel, the Polar princefor the final mission: Renata Rojas, an unpaid volunteer, and Tym Catterson, a contractor with experience piloting submersibles.
Anonymous sources close to the investigation but not authorized to speak to the media told WIRED that the Coast Guard approached some contemporary OceanGate staff and executives, and third-party suppliers, but were told that if forced to appear they will assert their Fifth Amendment rights. That means they can refuse to testify on the grounds that their responses could incriminate them or expose them to legal jeopardy.
WIRED has reached out to OceanGate and the hull manufacturers for comment. A lawyer for Janicki Industries, which cured and machined part of the hull, wrote that it is not participating in the hearings. WIRED did not receive responses from others prior to publication.
There had been speculation that former US Coast Guard rear admiral John Lockwood, who joined OceanGate’s board in 2013, would testify, but he was also missing from the list.
The absence of people who appear to have relevant knowledge has caused anxiety among former OceanGate employees and marine experts, who doubt that the full story of the to Titan death can be said without them.
“Personally, if I were in the Coast Guard, I’d take them and I’d take the Fifth,” said Alton J. Hall Jr., a maritime lawyer. “They have subpoena power, so I’m not sure why they don’t.”
Melissa Leake, a Coast Guard public information officer and its deputy public affairs officer for the Atlantic region, noted that the Coast Guard has not commented on the reasons for not calling specific witnesses. However, he denied that the Coast Guard did not subpoena certain individuals or organizations because they would plead the Fifth.
What the board has is a wealth of digital and physical evidence, such as data from previous dives and wrecks Titan recovered from the Atlantic seafloor, including some of its carbon fiber hull. One of the expert witnesses called is a materials engineer from the Materials Laboratory of the National Transportation Safety Board.
