A former OceanGate contractor claims the Titan submersible used handwritten notes being inputted into Microsoft Excel to track the vessel’s underwater position.
Last June, five passengers boarded the 21-foot vessel named Titan to descend into the North Atlantic Ocean to visit the final resting place of RMS Titanic.
The wreckage is situated off the coast of the coast of Newfoundland, Canada and is thought to be approximately 12,500 feet below the water’s surface.
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OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and British explorer Hamish Harding were on board the experimental watercraft when it imploded, along with British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman and French diver Paul-Henri Negeolet.
On September 16, the US Coast Guard commenced a hearing into the ‘catastrophic implosion’ that killed all five passengers onboard, which will last two weeks.
During the hearing in South Carolina, an image of the Titan’s aft tail cone planted in the sea bed was shared with the Charleston County Council Building in South Carolina as well as the final communication the sub had with its support ship, the Polar Prince.
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A few testimonies from various people, including OceanGate's former science director and ex-operations director, were also heard.
Now, a former OceanGate contractor has claimed that the vessel used a bizarre navigation system.
On Friday (September 20), Antonella Wilby, a former contractor for OceanGate, testified that the Titan’s team would manually update the vessel’s coordinate data, Business Insider reports.
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According to Wilby, the team would use the Titan’s ultra-short baseline (USBL) acoustic positioning system to generate data.
Information on the submersible’s velocity, depth and position was then reportedly highlighted using sound pings.
After receiving the information, Wilby claimed that it would be jotted down in a notebook before the numbers were transferred to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
She further claimed that recorded data was then imported into specific mapping software so the vessel’s position could be tracked.
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"There were delays because there was this manual process of first writing down the lat-long coordinates and then typing them in." Wilby said via video.
“We tried to do that every five minutes, but it was a lot to do.”
The contractor continued to claim that she’d previously expressed how ‘idiotic’ the navigation system was before acknowledging that it wasn’t the most ‘tactful way’ to communicate her concerns.
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"But I do stand by that. It was. It just — the whole system was absolutely idiotic." Wilby said.
"But that, of course, wasn't received well after the dive.”
Wilby also alleged during the hearing that she was removed from the navigation team due to not being ‘solution-orientated’.
Titan sub inquiry - everything we know from the investigation so far
The US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation hearing into the deaths of five people onboard the Titan submersible opened on September 16.
The public hearing is expected to last two weeks in total.
Titan was 'unregistered, non-certificated and unclassed'
The first day of the hearing heard how the vessel was built in 2020 and was 'unregistered, non-certificated and unclassed'.
It was also said the submersible possessed no identification number.
The submersible's hull was never subject to third-party checks and officials said it was left exposed to the elements while in storage for seven months between 2022 and 2023.
Parts of Titan 'bonded together using an adhesive'
In 2017, the year OceanGate announced it would be conducting trips to the Titanic, employees bonded together the submersible's carbon fibre hull and titanium rings 'using an adhesive', the court heard.
Titan found 'partially sunk' month before tragedy
During its 2023 expedition, the Titan was found 'partially sunk' in the ocean.
Image released of Titan debris on sea floor
An image showing debris, including the Titan's tail cone, on the sea floor after the implosion was revealed by the US Coast Guard.
One of the last texts from submersible revealed
One of Titan’s final responses was revealed to be: "All good here."
After a number of exchanges, it eventually lost contact with its support ship, the Polar Prince.
Titan 'struck by lightning'
Tony Nissen, OceanGate Expeditions’ former engineering director, testified that the Titan was hit by lightning during a test mission in 2018.
Nissen, who was allegedly fired in 2019 after not letting the submersible go to the Titanic, told OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush it was 'not working like we thought it would'.
When asked to pilot the submersible, Nissen said: “I’m not getting in it.”
Titan engineer 'felt pressure to get submersible ready for wreck dive'
When asked if there was pressure to get the Titan into the water, Nissen replied: “100%.”
Waivers
While Bonnie Carl, OceanGate's former human resources and finance director, said she was aware of a waiver people had to sign, she testified she 'never saw anyone sign anything'.
"When I was taking money, we hadn't even finished building the Titan," she claimed.
'No red flags' on day Titan went missing
Former OceanGate contractor Tym Catterson said: "There were no red flags... it was a good day."
Footage of Titan wreckage released by US Coast Guard
New, unseen footage of the Titan sub has been released to the public by the US Coast Guard, with the camera panning around to see the tail cone of the sub on the ocean floor.
Former scientific director claims sub had malfunctioned days before descent
Former OceanGate scientific director Steven Ross claimed a malfunction took place six days before the fatal Titan dive.
"The pilot crashed into the rear bulkhead, the rest of the passengers tumbled about, I ended up standing on the rear bulkhead, one passenger was hanging upside down, the other two managed to wedge themselves into the bow endcap," Ross explained before adding that no one was injured.
Topics: Titan submersible, World News, US News, Titanic, Travel
Ella Scott