New Details of theTitanPassengers' Final Moments and 3 More Highlights from Coast Guard Investigation

Mar. 15, 2025

Over the last week, a number of new details and revelations have been made public as part of the U.S. Coast Guard’s ongoing investigation intohow theTitansubmersible implodedduring a doomed dive last summer,killing all five people onboard.

The headline-grabbing moments came at a hearing that began in Charleston, S.C., on Sept. 16 and ends on Friday, Sept. 27. Among them:confirmation of theTitan’s final messagesto the surface, photos and video of recovery teamslater discovering the submersible’s remainson the ocean floor andfirsthand accountsabout what it was like working or diving withTitanoperator OceanGate, which has now ceased operations and is cooperating with the Coast Guard.

Investigators will submit a final report once their work is complete, though that is expected to go beyond the two-week hearing.

Here are some of the highlights from theTitanhearing so far.

A U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation listens to witness testimony during its investigation of the Titan implosion.Petty Officer 2nd Class Kate Kilroy/U.S. Coast Guard

Petty Officer 2nd Class Kate Kilroy/U.S. Coast Guard

TheTitanSub Sent Final Message Seconds Before Losing Contact

The animated video detailed how theTitanbegan diving down from thePolar Princeoff the coast of Canada around 9:20 a.m. local time on June 18, 2023.

At 10:47 a.m., at a depth of about 3,350 meters and a pressure of 4,900 lbs. per square inch, theTitanmessaged that they “dropped two wts,” referring to their weights — and contact was then lost almost immediately, at 10:47:32 a.m., according to the Coast Guard.

An expert has told PEOPLE that dropping the weight was likely just to help theTitantraverse the water around theTitanic.

Titan wreckage.U.S. Coast Guard

U.S. Coast Guard

Eerie Photo and Video ofTitanDebris Helped Confirm Implosion

Last week, authorities released the first photo of what remained of theTitanon the floor of the North Atlantic Ocean after the submersible imploded.

The photographic evidence, from a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), led to “conclusive evidence of a catastrophic loss” of theTitanand the death of its five passengers, officials said in their presentation.

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The victims were Paul-Henri Nargeolet and another adventurer, Hamish Harding; father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood; and Stockton Rush, who co-founded OceanGate, the company behind theTitan.

According to the Coast Guard’s presentation, the ROV, called the Pelagic Research Services 6000, discovered the aft tail cone and other debris after extensive searching on June 22, 2023, four days after the submersible lost contact with the surface.

Stockton Rush.AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee

AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee

Dueling Pictures of OceanGate Founder andTitanPilot

Years before the final dive, Rush took another small group of passengers to see another famed ship beneath the waves — butfell into “panic” due to a lack of experience, a former operations director claimed.

David Lochridge, who worked at OceanGate until 2018, which Rush co-founded and ran as CEO, testified on Sept. 17. He did not mince words about his views on Rush or OceanGate.

“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge said at one point. “That’s it.”

He was no less blunt in recounting a previous voyage, reportedly in 2016, in which Rush insisted on piloting another of OceanGate’s submersibles, called theCyclops 1, down to see the remains of theAndrea Doriaocean liner.

Lochridge said he had expected to be the pilot, as the “most experienced” such member of OceanGate’s team.

“Unfortunately, the CEO decided that he wanted to take it down,” Lochridge said. “I objected because I knew sometimes he could do things to please himself.”

Later, however, a former OceanGate mission specialist — the title given to paying passengers or observers of its underwater dives — struck a defensive and sometimes tearful tone and pushed back on Lochridge’s account in her own testimony on Sept. 19.

The Titan.Xinhua/Shutterstock

Xinhua/Shutterstock

Renata Rojas, a self-describedTitanicobsessive, was aboard the trip down to theAndrea Doriathat Lochridge described.

“He must have gone on a different dive,” she said. “Nobody was panicking. Nobody was crying and there was definitely no swearing or yelling.”

On the day of the finalTitanvoyage last year, Rojas was working as a “platform assistant” and recalled seeing all five passengers, including Rush, “smiling” as they boarded the sub. “They were just happy to go,” she said.

As her testimony came to a close, Rojas cried as she reflected on how, “nothing is going to bring our friends back.”

However, Rojas went on to state that she hoped the investigation “creates an understanding that with exploration there is risk.”

Concerns About the Sub Had Been Discussed Before

Guillermo Söhnlein, who started OceanGate with Rush in 2009 and left the company in 2013, testified on Monday, Sept. 23, that Rush told him he didn’t “want anybody else on that sub” for the first dive to 4,000 meters.

“I understand this kind of risk, and I’m going into it with eyes open and I think this is one of the safest things I will ever do.”

source: people.com