Monday, September 9th 16, the U.S. Coast Guard is convening a Marine Board of Inquiry hearing into the loss of OceanGate. Titan submersible in June 2023 and the deaths of all five people on board, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush. It intends to use the Live Streamed hearing in Charleston, South Carolina, to help determine what caused the submarine to implode, whether there was incompetence or negligence and whether any laws were broken. It could then refer the matter to criminal prosecutors and make recommendations to improve maritime safety.
The company hopes to do all that without publicly hearing from most of OceanGate’s remaining executives or Rush’s wife, Wendy, who sometimes played a prominent role during Stockton’s dives. The investigation also will not include public testimony from any of the companies that designed and built the project. Titan‘s Innovative carbon fiber helmetsor any member of the senior operations staff who prepared, maintained or supported the Titan on their 2023 expedition.
In fact, it appears that few of the 24 witnesses cited were even on board the plane. Titan support vessel, the Polar princefor the final mission: Renata Rojas, an unpaid volunteer, and Tym Catterson, a contractor with experience in submarine piloting.
Anonymous sources close to the investigation but not authorized to speak to the media told WIRED that the Coast Guard had contacted some OceanGate staff and executives, as well as outside vendors, but had been told that if compelled to appear, they would assert their Fifth Amendment rights. That means they could refuse to testify on the grounds that their answers could incriminate them or expose them to legal risk.
WIRED reached out to OceanGate and the hull manufacturers for comment. An attorney for Janicki Industries, which cured and machined part of the hull, wrote that it would not participate in the hearings. WIRED did not receive responses from the others before publication.
There was speculation that former U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Lockwood, who joined OceanGate’s board in 2013, would testify, but he is also missing from the list.
The absence of anyone who appears to have relevant knowledge has caused consternation among former OceanGate employees and marine experts, who are skeptical that the full story of the case is known. Titan Death can be told without them.
“Personally, if I were in the Coast Guard, I would bring them in and force them to plead the Fifth Amendment,” says Alton J. Hall Jr., a maritime lawyer. “They have subpoena power, so I’m not really sure why they don’t.”
Melissa Leake, a Coast Guard public information officer and deputy director of public affairs for the Atlantic area, said the Coast Guard does not discuss why it does not subpoena specific witnesses. However, she denied that the Coast Guard did not subpoena certain people or organizations because they would invoke the Fifth Amendment.
What the board does have is a wealth of physical and digital evidence, including data from previous dives and wreckage. Titan They were recovered from the Atlantic seabed, including part of its carbon fiber hull. One of the expert witnesses called is a materials engineer from the National Transportation Safety Board’s Materials Laboratory.
