Karl Stanley has done more than 2,000 dives in submersibles that he’s built himself, so he was intrigued when OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush invited him down to the Bahamas for a test dive in the company’s Titan sub in 2019. But by the end of that dive, Stanley’s curiosity turned to concern.
“In retrospect, there were a lot of red flags,” Stanley said today during a Coast Guard hearing into last year’s loss of the Titan sub and its crew during a trip to the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic. Rush, who was the sub’s pilot, and four other people lost their lives in last year’s tragedy.
The Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation, meeting in South Carolina, is looking into the causes of the tragedy and is expected to recommend measures to head off such tragedies in the future. Part of its job is to review OceanGate’s missteps during Titan’s development.
Back in 2019, Everett, Wash.-based OceanGate was testing the sub in the Bahamas, in anticipation of taking its first trips to the Titanic later that year. Rush had made a solo trip to more than 3,900 meters (12,800 feet) in depth the previous December, and Stanley was one of three people set to accompany him on a follow-up dive.
Stanley, who operates a submersible tour company in Honduras, had come to know Rush through the tight-knit community of sub operators. He recalled traveling to Everett to help out with the construction of Titan’s landing and recovery platform — and said he was “excited” about OceanGate’s plan to use a lightweight carbon-fiber hull for Titan.
For the test dive, Titan was brought about 10 miles offshore, and made a gradual descent into the depths. Stanley said he had been warned to “be prepared for noises” — but even with that warning, he wasn’t prepared for what he heard on the way down.
