Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
OceanGate Co-Founder Says He Hopes Submersible Tragedy Yields Renewed Interest in Exploration
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 2 weeks ago on
September 23, 2024

OceanGate co-founder testifies, hoping Titan tragedy sparks renewed interest in deep-sea exploration despite company's troubled history. (AP/Pelagic Research Services)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The co-founder of the company that owned the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic told a Coast Guard panel Monday that he hoped that the silver lining of the disaster will inspire a renewed interest in exploration, including the deepest waters of the world’s oceans.

“This can’t be the end of deep ocean exploration. This can’t be the end of deep-diving submersibles and I don’t believe that it will be,” said businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Stockton Rush.

Sohnlein ultimately left the company before the Titan disaster in June 2023. Rush was among the five people who died when the submersible imploded. Though Sohnlein left the Washington company years ago, he spoke in defense of its efforts in the aftermath of the submersible’s implosion.

OceanGate’s Vision for Deep-Sea Exploration

On Monday, he testified that the company wanted to create a fleet of four or five deep-diving submersibles capable of carrying five people to 6,000 meters (6,500 yards) deep. The plan for the company was to have no dedicated mothership — which would’ve lowered costs substantially, he said.

“We wanted to give humanity greater access to the ocean, specifically the deep ocean,” Sohnlein said.

Sohnlein testified that the company zeroed in on the use of carbon fiber for the doomed vessel because the company wanted a lightweight, less costly submersible that did not need to be tethered to a specific mother ship. He testified that the use of carbon fiber as “not a novel idea” and said “people have looked at that before.”

No existing submersible builders could meet the company’s requirements, necessitating the pivot to building its own subs, Sohnlein said. And he said the company worked closely with the Coast Guard during development.

Sohnlein’s Involvement and Departure from OceanGate

Sohnlein said he had the opportunity to dive in Titan “many times” and he declined. He said his reasons included not wanting to take space away from potential customers. He said when Rush reached a point when it was “time to put a human in there,” he wanted to do it himself. Rush felt it was his design and said “if anything happens, I want it to impact me,” Sohnlein said.

The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month that is part of a high level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some of the testimony has focused on the troubled nature of the company.

Earlier in the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money. “The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”

But Sohnlein said Monday that neither he nor Rush was ever “driven by tourism” and the idea of visiting the Titanic, which had already been explored by others, was not exciting to either of them.

Sohlein also testified Monday that he left the company in 2013 as the company transitioned to engineering, which he described as a bigger strength of Rush’s than his. He said it was a “fairly easy decision” for Rush to take over the company, but it was more difficult to decide whether to stay on at all.

Ultimately, Sohnlein said, he didn’t feel it made sense for the company to continue paying him a salary of $120,000 for a reduced role. He said he maintained a minority stake in the company that still exists.

“It just didn’t make sense financially to keep paying me that kind of salary when I wasn’t going to be doing much other than overseeing business operations,” Sohnlein said, adding that it was “one of the hardest decisions I had to make” and he once thought it was going to be “the last job he ever had.”

Ongoing Investigation and Future of Deep-Sea Exploration

The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include more witnesses. Roy Thomas of the American Bureau of Shipping also testified Monday and detailed the challenges associated with carbon fiber as a material for submersibles. He said carbon fiber is “susceptible to fatigue failure under repeated external pressurization.”

Former OceanGate engineering director Phil Brooks was also scheduled to testify Monday.

Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a troubled company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.

Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.

During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.

One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual re-creation presented earlier in the hearing.

When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.

OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Russia Urges Citizens to Leave Israel as Tensions with Hezbollah Escalate

DON'T MISS

Taxpayers in 24 States Will Be Able to File Their Returns Directly With the IRS in 2025

DON'T MISS

California Collects Millions in Stolen Wages, but Can’t Find Many Workers to Pay Them

DON'T MISS

Sweet Lola on the Mend, Ready for a Forever Home

DON'T MISS

Houthis Vow Retaliation Against US for Yemen Airstrikes

DON'T MISS

Chavez-Quintero Debate: How Would You Rate City-County Cooperation?

DON'T MISS

Biden Talks Election, Economy and Middle East in Surprise News Briefing

DON'T MISS

Big Money Rolling in from Commercial Builders for Local School Bond Measure Campaigns

DON'T MISS

Behind the Scenes at Fresno Chaffee Zoo’s Sea Lion Cove: A Flipper-tastic Adventure

DON'T MISS

Clovis Daytime Burglary: 2 Suspects Arrested, 1 at Large

UP NEXT

Taxpayers in 24 States Will Be Able to File Their Returns Directly With the IRS in 2025

UP NEXT

California Collects Millions in Stolen Wages, but Can’t Find Many Workers to Pay Them

UP NEXT

Sweet Lola on the Mend, Ready for a Forever Home

UP NEXT

Houthis Vow Retaliation Against US for Yemen Airstrikes

UP NEXT

Chavez-Quintero Debate: How Would You Rate City-County Cooperation?

UP NEXT

Biden Talks Election, Economy and Middle East in Surprise News Briefing

UP NEXT

Big Money Rolling in from Commercial Builders for Local School Bond Measure Campaigns

UP NEXT

Behind the Scenes at Fresno Chaffee Zoo’s Sea Lion Cove: A Flipper-tastic Adventure

UP NEXT

Clovis Daytime Burglary: 2 Suspects Arrested, 1 at Large

UP NEXT

Trump Stalled California Wildfire Aid? Ex-Aide Reveals Political Motive

Sweet Lola on the Mend, Ready for a Forever Home

7 hours ago

Houthis Vow Retaliation Against US for Yemen Airstrikes

18 hours ago

Chavez-Quintero Debate: How Would You Rate City-County Cooperation?

19 hours ago

Biden Talks Election, Economy and Middle East in Surprise News Briefing

20 hours ago

Big Money Rolling in from Commercial Builders for Local School Bond Measure Campaigns

20 hours ago

Behind the Scenes at Fresno Chaffee Zoo’s Sea Lion Cove: A Flipper-tastic Adventure

21 hours ago

Clovis Daytime Burglary: 2 Suspects Arrested, 1 at Large

22 hours ago

Trump Stalled California Wildfire Aid? Ex-Aide Reveals Political Motive

22 hours ago

Costa Bill Opens Grants for Heavy Manufacturers to Start Using Hydrogen

22 hours ago

Watch: Fresno County Supervisor District 3 Debate

23 hours ago

Russia Urges Citizens to Leave Israel as Tensions with Hezbollah Escalate

Russia has advised its citizens to leave Israel amid rising tensions with Hezbollah and Iran, reports Newsweek. Moscow’s ambassador to...

3 hours ago

3 hours ago

Russia Urges Citizens to Leave Israel as Tensions with Hezbollah Escalate

6 hours ago

Taxpayers in 24 States Will Be Able to File Their Returns Directly With the IRS in 2025

6 hours ago

California Collects Millions in Stolen Wages, but Can’t Find Many Workers to Pay Them

7 hours ago

Sweet Lola on the Mend, Ready for a Forever Home

18 hours ago

Houthis Vow Retaliation Against US for Yemen Airstrikes

Challenger Luis Chavez and incumbent supervisor Sal Quintero debate in Fresno, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024.
19 hours ago

Chavez-Quintero Debate: How Would You Rate City-County Cooperation?

20 hours ago

Biden Talks Election, Economy and Middle East in Surprise News Briefing

20 hours ago

Big Money Rolling in from Commercial Builders for Local School Bond Measure Campaigns

MENU

CONNECT WITH US

Search

Send this to a friend