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)

Florida residents began repairing damage from Hurricane Milton, which smashed through coastal communities and tore homes to pieces, flooded streets and spawned a deadly tornadoes.

At least nine people are dead, but many expressed relief that Milton wasn’t worse.

Follow AP’s coverage of tropical weather at https://apnews.com/hub/hurricanes.

Here’s the latest:

An apartment complex in Clearwater was evacuated early Friday when water from a canal started rising.

Residents were gathered in a shopping center parking lot as crews worked to clear the property.

Jared Lynch, 32, said he was at home on his first floor apartment when the water started to rise Thursday night.

“It wasn’t that bad at 10 o’clock, but that’s when it started rising,” he said, adding that by 2 a.m., the water was up to his doorknobs. That’s when he left.

“There were literally people walking through the water with baskets on their heads. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” Lynch said.

But Deanne Criswell says FEMA will need additional funding at some point.

Criswell says the agency is keeping account every day of how much they’re drawing from the disaster assistance fund. That’s a pot of money allocated specifically to help the agency respond to emergencies across the country.

The fund gets replenished every year by Congress and is used to pay for recovery from hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and other disasters.

Congress recently replenished the fund with $20 billion — the same amount FEMA got last year. About $8 billion of that is set aside for recovery from previous storms and mitigation projects.

Criswell says the fund won’t have enough money to last through the entire fiscal year, which stretches to September of next year. She says at some point, they’ll have to go back to Congress to ask for a boost to the disaster relief fund.

“We will need one. It’s just a matter of when,” she said.

Mayor Lynne Matthews spoke at a news conference Friday with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and the city’s manager, Gregory B. Murray.

Matthews says 121 people had to be rescued after Hurricane Helene made landfall Sept. 26 but rescuers only had to save three people after Milton came through.

“So people listened to the evacuation order,” Matthews said.

“I know we had teams out with the megaphones going through all of our mobile home communities and other places to let people know that they needed to evacuate,” she said.

Bruce Kinsler, 68, was part of a Polk County “push crew” that began clearing roads before 6 a.m. on Thursday. A truck struck Kinsler as he and a coworker were trying to clear a tree that had fallen across the road as the storm passed through the area. The driver of the truck was a county employee who was arriving to join Kinsler for post-storm recovery work.

“The tragedy of this incident is compounded by the fact that Bruce Kinsler was killed serving the residents of this county,” said Bill Braswell, chairman of the Polk County Commission. “We ask a lot of the employees as public servants, and they respond to the call. For this to happen is just a tragedy.”

The White House announced Biden’s visit but did not detail exactly where the president will travel.

Biden was scheduled to be briefed by aides Friday afternoon on the federal response and recovery in the aftermath of Hurricanes Milton and Helene. He’ll then deliver remarks from the White House to update the public about those efforts.

One of those Friday was a large pig stuck in high water at a strip mall in Lithia, FLorida, which is east of Tampa. Cindy Evers led the rescue of the pig and she’s also saved a donkey and several goats.

The animals are being taken to Evers’ farm for the time being.

“I’m high and dry where I’m at and I have a barn and nine acres,” she said. “So we have plenty of room for these animals to be safe.” Evers said she’ll figure out next steps later, such as finding the animals' owners.

Gov. DeSantis noted interactions with downed power lines and water.

“We are seeing hazards that are still there,” he said. He said people should take care around standing water and should use generators properly.

“You have to make the proper decisions and know that there are hazards out there,” he said.

Human-caused climate change intensified deadly Hurricane Milton ’s rainfall by 20 to 30% and strengthened its winds by about 10%, scientists said in a new flash study. The analysis comes just two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated the southeastern United States, a storm also fueled by climate change.

World Weather Attribution researchers said Friday that without climate change, a hurricane like Milton would make landfall as a weaker Category 2, not considered a “major” storm, instead of a Category 3.

WWA’s rapid studies aren’t peer-reviewed but use peer-reviewed methods. The WWA compares a weather event with what might have been expected in a world that hasn’t warmed about 1.3 degree Celsius since pre-industrial times.

▶ Read more about how climate change affected Milton.

Only authorized personnel are allowed on the bases. There was damage and flooding at MacDill, which is home to U.S. Central Command and Special Operations Command.

There's no significant damage at Patrick and teams are working to restore critical infrastructure, according to the Air Force.

The river is 25 miles (40 kilometers) long and runs from eastern Hillsborough County, east of Tampa, into Tampa Bay.

The sheriff’s office asked people to call 911 if they need help getting out of their homes.

A pair of unwelcome and destructive guests named Helene and Milton have stormed their way into this year’s presidential election.

The back-to-back hurricanes have jumbled the schedules of Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, both of whom devoted part of their Thursdays to tackling questions about the storm recovery effort.

The two hurricanes are forcing basic questions about who as president would best respond to deadly natural disasters, a once-overlooked issue that has become an increasingly routine part of the job. And just weeks before the Nov. 5 election, the storms have disrupted the mechanics of voting in several key counties.

A pick up drives past a guard gate on a flooded street in Siesta Key, Fla., following the passage Hurricane Milton, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

FILE - People are rescued from an apartment complex after flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Oct. 10, 2024, in Clearwater, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)

FILE - A house sits toppled off its stilts after the passage of Hurricane Milton, alongside an empty lot where a home was swept away by Hurricane Helene, in Bradenton Beach on Anna Maria Island, Fla., Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)