The Titan sub malfunctioned days before its doomed voyage to the wreck of the Titanic, its owner’s science director told an inquiry.
OceanGate’s Steven Ross said the issue caused passengers to “tumble about” as co-founder Stockton Rush crashed into bulkheading.
“One passenger was hanging upside down,” said Mr Ross. “The other two managed to wedge themselves into the bow end cap.”
He added that he did not know whether the Titan's hull was inspected for damage after the incident days before it descended into the North Atlantic for its final deadly dive.
Mr Ross said it took a support crew more than an hour to get the sub out of the water.
A US Coast Guard inquiry is hearing evidence over why the vessel imploded in June last year.
British adventurer Hamish Harding and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood were killed alongside French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Mr Rush, who was the chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions – which ran the expedition – also died.
Earlier, the panel heard testimony from Renata Rojas, a mission specialist for OceanGate.
She described watching the crew and passengers depart on the fateful trip, saying: “I saw five people smiling on the way to their journey.
“They were just happy to go, that’s the memory I have.”
Ms Rojas, who was on a surface support vessel, said everything was “working very smoothly” as the sub began its descent before communications were lost.
She told the inquiry she was aware the Titan hadn’t been inspected by Coast Guard and wasn’t built, or classed, to meet industry standards.
Ms Rojas claimed OceanGate made clear to anyone participating in its dives that the technology they were using was “experimental”.
She said: “I found them to be very transparent about everything.
“Anybody could ask any questions, and if you asked questions, like ‘I want to see the monitoring systems for this dive’, it’s like, ‘Come on. I’ll show it to you’.”
The inquiry continues.
