Titan sub hearings live: Co-founder says the cause of implosion may never be known

“All good here” were some of the final words that the doomed Titan submersible crew communicated before the submersible imploded on its mission to the Titanic wreckage site in June 2023.

The message, revealed as part of the Coast Guard’s Monday hearing into the circumstances of the failed mission, was sent to support vessel Polar Prince on June 18, 2023, shortly before the submersible imploded, killing all five of its crew members. It was an incident that captivated both sides of the Atlantic as crews made a mad dash to save the crew after the sub lost contact with the surface – with the world unaware that the lives had been lost.

The Coast Guard played an animated re-enactment of the Titan’s voyage that captured the submersible’s final, spotty exchange with the Polar Prince, during the Monday hearing that shed new light on the sub’s final mission.

Around 10am on June 18, Polar Prince asked the Titan crew whether they were able to see the support vessel on the submersible’s display. The support vessel asked the crew the same question seven times over the course of seven minutes. The Titan crew then sent “k,” meaning it was asking for a communications check.

“This was not supposed to happen,” Sohnlein said during his closing remarks on Monday. “Five people should not have lost their lives.”

Despite the efforts of the investigating panel, the former OceanGate CEO said he’s not sure the public will ever know want led to the tragedy.

Still, he’d like the memories of those who died to be preserved by continuing deep ocean exploration.

“Someday in the near future, we’ll look back on this time as a major turning point in human history when the general public took an active interest in our efforts to explore the deep ocean,” he said. “If that happens, then that’s probably the most fitting tribute for the memories of these five individuals.”

Brooks has been released as a witness. Amber Bay, the former OceanGate director of administration, is the next person to testify at 8.30am Tuesday.

OceanGate ran out of money several times before the fatal implosion that killed five people, Brooks says, adding the company asked him to go without his paycheck on multiple occasions.

“They asked for volunteers,” he said. The “company was economically stressed.” Brooks says he’s unsure about whether the company successfully recruited volunteers.

The company promised employees they’d get us “caught up in paychecks after the 1st of the year.” he said.

No testing or maintenance was done on the Titan submersible’s hull between 2022 and 2023. The vessel’s hull was made of carbon fiber which is susceptible to damage and failure, especially after repeated dives to extreme depths.

According to the former OceanGate employee’s LinkedIn, Brooks worked for the submersible company first as an embedded linux engineer in 2019. He was promoted to director of engineering in 2021.

He left OceanGate in March 2023. He’s now a senior hardware engineer in Seattle.

Brooks is continuing his testimony, currently speaking about the process of collecting data for OceanGate.

The US Coast Guard’s hearing into the Titan tragedy is on a short break. It will reconvene momentarily.