Passenger on a previous Titan sub dive says his mission was aborted due to apparent malfunction

A paid passenger on an expedition to the Titanic with the company that owned the Titan submersible testified before a U.S. Coast Guard investigatory panel Friday that the mission he took part in was aborted due to an apparent mechanical failure.

The Titan submersible imploded last year while on another trip to the Titanic wreckage site. A Coast Guard investigatory panel has listened to four days of testimony that raised questions about the company’s operations before the doomed mission.

Fred Hagen was first to testify Friday and was identified as a “mission specialist,” which he and other witnesses have characterized as people who paid a fee to play a role in OceanGate’s underwater exploration. He said his 2021 mission to the Titanic was aborted underwater when the Titan began malfunctioning and it was clear they were not going to reach the fabled wreck site.

The Titan appeared to be off course on its way to the Titanic, so the crew decided to use thrusters so the submersible could make its way to the wreck, Hagen said. The starboard thruster failed to activate, he said.

“We realized that all it could do was spin around in circles, making right turns,” Hagen said. “At this juncture, we obviously weren't going to be able to navigate to the Titanic.”

Hagen said the Titan dropped weights, resurfaced and the mission was scrapped. He said he was aware of the potentially unsafe nature of getting in the experimental submersible.

“Anyone that wanted to go was either delusional if they didn't think that it was dangerous, or they were embracing the risk,” he said.

OceanGate co-founder and Titan pilot Stockton Rush was among five people who died when the submersible imploded en route to the site of the Titanic wreck in June 2023.

Earlier this month, the Coast Guard opened a public hearing that is part of a high-level investigation into the cause of the implosion. The public hearing began Sept. 16 and some of the testimony has focused on problems the Washington state company had prior to the fatal 2023 dive.

During Thursday's testimony, company scientific director Steven Ross told the investigators the sub experienced a malfunction just days before the Titanic dive. Earlier in the week, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money.

“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”

The hearing is expected to resume next week and run through Sept. 27.

Other witnesses Friday included former OceanGate contractor Antonella Wilby, who worked in operations and engineering for the company. WIlby said she was criticized by company officials when she came forward about concerns about a banging noise during a 2022 submersible dive.

Hagen said during his own testimony that he feared the hull had cracked when he heard a loud bang during a 2022 dive. Wilby said OceanGate's director of administration told her “you don't seem to have an explorer mindset” after she raised the concern about noise.

She said she also never saw anyone inspect the sub's hull after the banging noise, which she described as similar to an explosion.

“I saw what I would classify as safety theater,” Wilby said.

Dave Dyer of the University of Washington Applied Physics Lab also testified Friday to provide details about the lab's relationship with OceanGate while its submersible was in development and said the company and lab disagreed about fundamental aspects of its engineering.

OceanGate felt it was better to terminate the relationship and take over the engineering itself, Dyer said.

“It was the engineering. We were butting heads too much,” Dyer said.

Another Friday witness, Triton Submarines chief executive officer Patrick Lahey, recounted meeting OceanGate personnel in 2019 and getting a look at their submersible when it was in development. He said he “wasn't particularly impressed” by what he saw.

Lahey stressed that it's important for submersibles to be accredited to ensure safety.

“I just said it looked to me like a lot of the stuff was not quite ready for primetime. And that there were many things in it that I thought had not been executed as appropriately as they should be,” Lahey said.

Lochridge and other witnesses have painted a picture of a company led by people who were impatient to get the unconventionally designed craft into the water. Lochridge said he filed a complaint with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration about the company. OSHA “promptly referred his safety allegations regarding the Titan submersible to the Coast Guard,” a spokesperson for the agency said Thursday.

The deadly accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration. Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

OceanGate suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.

During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about the Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.

One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual recreation presented earlier in the hearing.

When the submersible was reported missing, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Four days later, wreckage of the Titan was found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.

OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. The Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.

Triton Submarines chief executive officer Patrick Lahey departs after testifying at the Titan marine board of investigation hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (Corey Connor via AP, Pool)

Fred Hagan, seated at left, faces officials while testifying before the Titan marine board of investigation hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (Corey Connor via AP, Pool)

Attorney Jane Schvets asks a question during the Titan marine board of investigation hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (Corey Connor via AP, Pool)

Dave Dyer, an engineer based at the University of Washington Applied Physics Lab, departs after testifying at the Titan marine board of investigation hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (Corey Connor via AP, Pool)

Fred Hagan leaves the chambers after testifying at the Titan marine board of investigation hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (Corey Connor via AP, Pool)

Renata Rojas, OceanGate mission specialist, wipes tears away during testimony at the Titan marine board formal hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (Corey Connor via AP, Pool)

Renata Rojas, OceanGate mission specialist, center, pauses during at the Titan marine board formal hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (Corey Connor via AP, Pool)

Jason Neubauer, board chairman, left, and Thomas Whalen, board member, right, listen during the Titan marine board formal hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (Corey Connor via AP, Pool)

This June 2023 United States Coast Guard still frame from video provided by Pelagic Research Services, shows remains of the Titan submersible, center, on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard Video courtesy Pelagic Research Services via AP)

In a still from from a video animation provided by the United States Coast Guard an illustration of the Titan submersible, right, is shown near the ocean floor of the Atlantic Ocean, as June 18, 2023 communications between the submersible and the support vessel Polar Prince, not shown, are represented at left. (United States Coast Guard via AP)

This June 2023 United States Coast Guard still frame from video provided by Pelagic Research Services, shows remains of the Titan submersible, center, on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard Video courtesy Pelagic Research Services via AP)

Titan submersible testimony to enter fourth day after panel hears of malfunction and discord

Titan submersible testimony to enter fourth day after panel hears of malfunction and discord

This June 2023 image provided by Pelagic Research Services shows remains of the Titan submersible on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. (Pelagic Research Services via AP)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia on Thursday called on Emirati-backed separatists in southern Yemen to withdraw from two governorates they now control, a move that has threatened to spark a confrontation within a fragile coalition that has been battling the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the country's north.

The statement from Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry appeared aimed at putting public pressure on the Southern Transitional Council, a separatist Yemeni force long supported by the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia backs the National Shield Forces of Yemen's internationally backed government in the war against the Houthis.

The separatists' actions have “resulted in an unjustified escalation that harmed the interests of all segments of Yemeni people, as well as the southern cause and the coalition’s efforts,” the ministry said. “The kingdom stresses the importance of cooperation among all Yemeni factions and components to exercise restraint and avoid any measures that could destabilize security and stability.”

Meanwhile, the Houthis buried four of their fighters, including the group's top missile and drone commander who was presumed killed in March, in the first round of U.S. airstrikes to hit the rebels in March.

The Southern Transitional Council moved earlier this month into Yemen's governorates of Hadramout and Mahra. The Saudi statement said that meditation efforts were underway to have the council's forces return to “their previous positions outside of the two governorates and hand over the camps in those areas” to the National Shield Forces.

“These efforts remain in progress,” the ministry said.

The local Hadramout governorate's authority said that it supported the Saudi announcement and called for the Emirati-backed separatists to withdraw to positions outside the governorates.

Those aligned with the council have increasingly flown the flag of the flag of South Yemen, which was a separate country from 1967-1990. Demonstrators rallied on Thursday in the southern port city of Aden to support political forces calling for South Yemen to again secede from Yemen.

Following the capture of Yemen's capital, Sanaa, and much of the country's north by the Houthis in 2014, Aden has been the seat of power for the internationally recognized government and forces aligned against the Houthi rebels.

The actions by the separatists have put pressure on the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which maintain close relations and are members of the OPEC oil cartel, but also have competed for influence and international business in recent years.

There has also been an escalation of violence in Sudan, another nation in the Red Sea where the kingdom and the Emirates support opposing forces in an ongoing war.

The Houthis seized Sanaa in September 2014 and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. Iran denies arming the rebels, although Iranian-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in sea shipments heading to Yemen despite a U.N. arms embargo.

A Saudi-led coalition armed with U.S. weaponry and intelligence entered the war on the side of Yemen’s exiled government in March 2015. Years of inconclusive fighting have pushed the Arab world’s poorest nation to the brink of famine.

The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the globe’s worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more.

The Houthis have launched attacks on hundreds of ships in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war, greatly disrupting regional shipping.

While traffic has inched up recently in the lull in attacks, many shippers continue to go around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Further chaos in Yemen could again draw in the United States.

Washington launched an intense bombing campaign targeting the rebels earlier this year that U.S. President Donald Trump halted just before his trip to the Middle East in October. The Biden administration also conducted strikes against the Houthis, including using B-2 bombers to target what it described as underground bunkers used by the Houthis.

In Sanaa, crowds gathered as uniformed men carried five coffins draped in Yemen’s flag and topped with flowers during the funerals for the four Houthi fighters.

The dead fighters include Maj. Gen. Zakaria Abdullah Yahya Hajar, whom analysts identified as the group’s drone and missile chief. U.S. forces reportedly targeted Hajar, who allegedly received training from the expeditionary Quds Force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, in a strike in March in Sanaa.

The Houthis provided no information on how or when he died. However, a transcript of a discussion between top American officials on the messaging app Signal later published by The Atlantic magazine included then national security adviser Mike Waltz referencing the initial March 15 attack targeting a Houthi missile commander.

“The first target — their top missile guy — we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed,” Waltz wrote at the time.

The Houthis have increasingly threatened Saudi Arabia and taken dozens of workers at U.N. agencies and other aid groups as prisoners, alleging without evidence that they were spies — something fiercely denied by the United Nations and others.

Supporters of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a coalition of separatist groups seeking to restore the state of South Yemen, hold South Yemen flags during a rally, in Aden, Yemen, Dec. 25, 2025. (AP Photo)

Supporters of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a coalition of separatist groups seeking to restore the state of South Yemen, hold South Yemen flags during a rally, in Aden, Yemen, Dec. 25, 2025. Arabic reads, "announcement of South Arab state". (AP Photo)

Houthi supporters carry the coffin of one of their leaders, who they said were killed during previous Israeli airstrikes, during a funeral at the people's mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

A boy prays in front of his relative coffin during the funeral of 5 Houthi leaders, who they said were killed during previous Israeli airstrikes, at the people's mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

Houthi supporters carry the coffins of 5 leaders, who they said were killed during previous Israeli airstrikes, during a funeral at the people's mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

Houthi supporters carry the coffins of 5 leaders, who they said were killed during previous Israeli airstrikes, during a funeral at the people's mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)

Houthi supporters carry the coffins of 5 leaders, who they said were killed during previous Israeli airstrikes, during a funeral at the people's mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)