OceanGate's hand-drawn maps, risky decisions led to Titan submersible's implosion
Antonella Wilby, a former contractor for OceanGate, has revealed that the company's ill-fated Titan submarine relied on a complex and manual navigation system. The information was disclosed during her testimony before a US Coast Guard panel investigating the sub's implosion last year. The Titan was on a mission to explore the wreckage of the Titanic when it met its tragic end.
Titan's navigation system: A manual process
Wilby detailed that the Titan's ultra-short baseline (USBL) acoustic positioning system, similar to a GPS, used sound pings to generate data on the sub's velocity, depth, and position. This data is usually automatically fed into mapping software to monitor the sub's location. However, in Titan's case, it was manually transcribed into a notebook and then inputted into an Excel spreadsheet, which was subsequently loaded into mapping software to track the sub's location, on a hand-drawn map of the wreckage site.
Company's response to proposed navigation improvements
The OceanGate team attempted to update this data every five minutes, a process that Wilby described as slow and manual. When she suggested using standard software for automatic data processing and plotting, the company expressed its intention to develop an in-house system but cited time constraints. Following her criticism of the navigation method, Wilby was removed from the team. "This is an idiotic way to do navigation," she said.
Testimonies reveal alarming incidents prior to Titan's implosion
Wilby also testified about a loud explosion heard during the Titan's ascent after Dive 80 in 2022. It was loud enough to be heard from the surface. This testimony aligns with that of OceanGate's former scientific director, Steven Ross. He explained that the noise was due to the pressure hull shifting in its plastic cradle, though Wilby testified that the damage was only "a few microns."
Pilot crashed Titan six days before fatal implosion
According to Ross, six days before the Titan submarine's implosion, its pilot and co-founder, Stockton Rush, crashed it into a launch mechanism bulkhead while resurfacing from Dive 87. A ballast tank malfunction inverted the sub, causing passengers to "tumble about," as reported by the Associated Press. Although no one was injured, Ross said he was unsure if the vessel was inspected afterward.
Former director criticizes OceanGate's culture and safety measures
David Lochridge, ex-director of marine operations for OceanGate, criticized the company's culture during his testimony. He claimed the company prioritized profit over scientific progress. Lochridge expressed disappointment that US safety authorities did not act on his warnings about the Titan's safety. These revelations add another layer of complexity to the ongoing investigation into the tragic implosion of the Titan submersible. Oceangate is also being sued by the family of French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who died in the implosion last year.
