Titan Submersible Incident: Live Updates on Official Report

An experienced submersible pilot was fired after raising critical safety concerns about the Titan. The whistleblower report he filed after his firing failed to get traction, Coast Guard investigators found.

OceanGate’s director of marine operations was tasked with overseeing safety operations and personnel at OceanGate between 2016 to 2018, a report by the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation states.

Before OceanGate’s first expedition to the Titanic wreck site in 2018, the director inspected the Titan and flagged critical safety concerns that needed to be addressed before the submersible set out with passengers.

“These concerns were not just theoretical; the Director of Marine Operations believed they could pose a significant risk to personnel if left unaddressed,” the report says.

The director raised his concerns directly to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush on January 19, 2018, in a conversation Rush recorded, in which he pushes back against the concerns.

“… Quite frankly, everyone is replaceable,” Stockton said, according to a transcript of the call.

“You’re going to be highly uncomfortable if we continue down this path to the level of it’s not appropriate for me to put you in that position, for me to go do stuff that you think is insane, that I’m going to kill myself with a vehicle that hasn’t been checked out to the way you want,” Stockton continued.

The director was fired days later, the report states, and filed a retaliation complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, claiming that he was fired for raising valid safety concerns.

OceanGate in turn filed a lawsuit against the director, claiming that he shared confidential information with OSHA, the report says.

OSHA never began an investigation into the director’s complaint against OceanGate, and communication about the matter between OSHA and the Coast Guard appeared to fall through the cracks, the report notes.

By December 2018, the director withdrew his complaint against OceanGate, citing “the emotional toll of the ensuing legal battle and stating that he and his wife had simply wanted the ordeal to be over due to the lack of progress on his case,” the report says.

Ocean Gate might have tried to meet regulatory requirements or abandon its plans for Titanic expeditions altogether had government agencies intervened after the whistleblower report, the investigative board said.