Engineer: OceanGate Didn't Test the Window We Built It

Wrinkles were found in the carbon fiber hull of OceanGate's Titan submersible a year before the sub imploded, an engineer with the National Transportation Safety Board testified Wednesday, the seventh day of a Coast Guard hearing expected to wrap up Friday. Don Kramer said flaws in the hull were discovered after sensors recorded a "loud acoustic event" during a dive on July 15, 2022, per the AP. The Titan responded differently to strain after that, Kramer said, per the BBC. The outlet notes carbon fiber is considered unreliable in deep water and would've been compressed and damaged with each dive.

• Kramer didn't say what part of the sub failed first but noted pieces of the hull pulled from the ocean after the June 2023 implosion showed that delamination was visible in its carbon fiber, meaning the layers were coming apart, per the AP.

• Kramer said the sub's viewport window was rated to a depth of 4,300 feet by its manufacturer, per the BBC. The Titan was at a depth of roughly 12,500 feet when it imploded.
• The second witness to testify Wednesday was deep sea engineer William Kohnen of Hydrospace Group Inc.; he helped build the non-standard window OceanGate requested. While an arched window is typically recommended, OceanGate wanted something flat for better passenger viewing. They settled on a hybrid flat-round window.
• Kohnen said he gave OceanGate "very clear directions" related to window testing and how to "do it right." In his view, testing was "not optional" and they had plenty of conversations about it. But at some point, OceanGate "changed their mind" and decided not to do it, he says.
• Bart Kemper, principal engineer of Kemper Engineering, is expected to testify later Wednesday.

• Karl Stanley, a sub operator and friend of Rush, testified Tuesday, claiming OceanGate gave sub passengers job titles like "mission specialist" as a way to skirt federal regulations and stay profitable, per the Washington Post. He said these mission specialists only held wrenches and counted fish.
• Stanley said OceanGate emerged out of Stockton's "desire to leave his mark on history," per the Post. But after an April 2019 dive, in which loud cracking noises were heard, Stockton was "scared," Stanley said, per the Independent. He previously claimed Rush "knew it was going to end like this."

(More Titan submersible stories.)