The lead engineer on the submersible Titan which imploded as it dived on a mission to view the Titanic has told an iniquiry he felt “under pressure” to get the experimental vessel in the water.
British adventurer Hamish Harding and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood were killed on board the Titan deep-sea vessel in June last year, alongside French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Stockton Rush, who was the chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions, was also killed when the craft imploded in June 2023.
A marine board of investigation hearing into the tragedy opened in Charleston, South Carolina, on Monday.
Engineer Tony Nissen, who had worked on the Titan project for the company Oceangate, told the inquiry he had years before refused to pilot the craft over safety concerns.
When asked by the inquiry if there was pressure to get the Titan into the water, he told panel members “100%”.
He added that he had stopped the submersible from going to the Titanic in 2019, telling Mr Rush that the Titan was “not working like we thought it would”. The engineer told the hearing he was sacked later that year.
He said he was aware that Titan had undergone more testing before it carried out any more deep sea operations. The engineer also told the inquiry he did not think the pressure on him to ready the Titan for launch had compromised safety.
Mr Nissen, OceanGate’s former engineering director, was the first witness to give evidence at the two-week US Coast Guard hearing.
The deep-sea vessel was on an expedition to the Titanic wreckage around 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland, when it lost contact with the tour operator an hour and 45 minutes into the two-hour descent, with the vessel reported missing eight hours after communication was lost.
After days of searching, wreckage from the submersible was recovered from the ocean floor near the Titanic.
One of the last messages from the Titan’s crew to the support ship Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated “all good here,” the hearing was told.
OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended operations after the implosion.
Jason Neubauer, chairman of the Titan Marine Board of Investigation, held a press conference on Sunday ahead of the hearing.
“Over the past 15 months, our team has worked continuously, in close co-ordination with multiple federal agencies, international partners and industry experts to uncover the facts surrounding this incident,” he said.
He said the upcoming hearing would allow them to hear key evidence from expert witnesses.
“These proceedings are not just a formality,” he said.
“They are a critical step in our mission to understand the contributing factors that led to the incident and, more importantly, the actions needed to prevent a similar occurrence.”
