OceanGate’s Titan Submersible Tracking Method Criticized as ‘Idiotic’

A contractor for OceanGate’s Titan submersible has revealed troubling details about the company’s navigation practices. Antonella Wilby testified during a recent hearing regarding the implosion of the vessel, explaining that the team relied on an outdated and manual method to monitor the submersible’s position.

According to Wilby, the tracking involved first recording coordinates in a notebook before transferring the data to an Excel spreadsheet. This information would subsequently be uploaded into mapping software to pinpoint the submersible’s location.

“There were delays because there was this manual process of first writing down the lat-long coordinates and then typing them in,” she stated during her virtual testimony. “We tried to do that every five minutes, but it was a lot to do.”

Wilby expressed her frustrations regarding the system, which she described as “idiotic.” She acknowledged that her choice of words was not very tactful but maintained her stance: “It was just — the whole system was absolutely idiotic.”

In her testimony, Wilby recounted her conversation with Wendy Rush, a representative of OceanGate and wife of CEO Stockton Rush. Wilby stated that after voicing her concerns, Rush suggested they could retrain her to better understand the mapping system designed by an expert.

Ultimately, Wilby was removed from the navigation team following her criticisms of the operations. She explained that she was told she “wasn’t being solution-oriented,” a comment that highlighted the tension within the organization when it came to addressing safety issues.

Her credentials aside, Wilby is not the only former employee to raise alarms about the readiness of the Titan for deep-sea exploration. Tony Nissen, a previous engineering director at OceanGate, also testified about his reservations, stating he had declined to dive in the submersible.

The hearings are part of an ongoing investigation led by the U.S. Coast Guard to uncover the facts surrounding the Titan’s tragic incident and to develop recommendations to prevent future tragedies. These proceedings began on September 16 and are expected to continue for two weeks.

This inquiry comes more than a year after the Titan submersible launched on June 18, 2023, with the goal of exploring the wreck of the RMS Titanic, located about 13,000 feet below the surface.

Tragically, less than two hours into its descent, the submersible lost contact, prompting an urgent search and rescue operation. On June 22, the U.S. Coast Guard and OceanGate announced that debris discovered on the ocean floor confirmed the vessel had imploded, resulting in the deaths of the five people on board.

The victims included Stockton Rush, billionaire Hamish Harding from the UK, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, along with former French navy diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

These testimonies continue to shed light on the practices at OceanGate, raising crucial questions about safety protocols in deep-sea exploration.