A mission specialist for the company that owned the Titan submersible that imploded last year told the U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday that the firm was staffed by competent people who wanted to "make dreams come true."The Titan submersible, operated by OceanGate Expeditions to explore the wreckage of the sunken RMS Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland, imploded in June 2023.
Rojas's testimony struck a different tone than some of the earlier witnesses, who described the company as troubled from the top down and focused more on profit than science or safety. "I knew what I was doing was very risky. I never at any point felt unsafe by the operation," she said.The U.S. Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation this week released video gathered by remotely operated underwater vehicles of the ill-fated Titan submersible that exploded on the way to the Titanic wreck last summer. A two-week hearing into the expedition in which five people aboard were killed is underway in South Carolina.
"The whole idea behind the company was to make money," Lochridge testified. "There was very little in the way of science." OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.