“Everything is fine here.”
Those were some of the last words spoken by the crew of the doomed Titan submarine before the submarine imploded during its mission to the Titanic wreck site in June 2023.
The message, revealed as part of a Coast Guard hearing Monday into the circumstances of the failed mission, was sent to the support ship Polar Prince on June 18, 2023, shortly before the submarine imploded, killing all five crew members. It was an incident that gripped both sides of the Atlantic as crews made a mad dash to rescue the crew after the submarine lost contact with the surface — without the world realizing the lives lost.
The Coast Guard played an animated reenactment of the Titan's journey, capturing the final, ragged conversation between the submarine and the Polar Prince during Monday's hearing, shedding new light on the sub's final mission.
At approximately 10 a.m. on June 18, Polar Prince asked the Titan crew if they could see the support vessel on the submarine's display. The support vessel asked the crew the same question seven times over the course of seven minutes. The Titan crew then sent “k,” meaning it was requesting a communications check.
The Arctic Prince repeated his question three more times before writing, “I need better communication from you.” The crew finally answered “yes” at 10:14 a.m. before adding, “All is well here.”
At 10:47 a.m., communication between the two ships was lost.
All five crew members later died as a result of the implosion: founder Stockton Rush, 61, French explorer Paul Henri Nargeolet, 77, British explorer Hamish Harding, 58, UK-based Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son Suleman.
In its presentation Monday, the Coast Guard also revealed a pattern of malfunctions the Titan experienced during test dives, long before the ship departed for the wreck site.
Test dives in 2021 revealed 70 equipment problems, while dives the following year revealed 48 equipment problems, including drop weight failures. On top of those problems, after the last test dive in 2022, the ship was stored uncovered in a dock until February 6, 2023 “without protection from the elements.”
The first witness before the panel, Tony Nissen, former OceanGate technical director, testified Monday. He revealed the internal dynamics of the company and some of the disagreements between Stockton Rush and OceanGate employees.
When Nissen was hired, he was not told directly that the submarine would be going to the wreck site. He testified, “I was never told they were going to the Titanic.”
Nissen also said he had “struggles to find the professional words” to describe Rush.
“Stockton would fight for what he wanted… And he wouldn't give an inch. Not one bit,” he said. “Most people would eventually back down from Stockton. It was like death by a thousand cuts.”
The submarine was struck by lightning in 2018, partially damaging its hull, Nissen testified. The following year, after discovering that acoustic tests were not “clean,” he objected to an expedition to the Titanic site, arguing that the hull had been compromised. After refusing to give his consent, he was fired. He told the panel, “I didn’t want to agree to it. So I was fired.”
When asked if there was “pressure” to start operations, Nissen replied: “100 percent.”
The Coast Guard is investigating the circumstances surrounding the loss of the submarine, said Jason Neubauer, chairman of the Marine Board of the Investigation.
The investigation will look for “factors” that led to this catastrophe and try to learn how to prevent it in the future, and will examine whether “acts of misconduct, negligence or willful violation of law” contributed to these casualties. The hearings, expected to last two weeks, will also examine the Coast Guard's search and rescue operations.
