Four days, 10 witnesses, and dozens of exhibits in the US Coast Guard's Marine Board of Investigation hearing on the Titan submersible implosion have made public a flood of information about the doomed vessel's design and operation. But one thing the hearings have not yet explained is why the submersible suddenly failed on a sightseeing trip to the Titanic in June 2023, nor who might shoulder the blame for the deaths of its five crew. OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who died piloting the Titan, took the bulk of the blame during the hearing's first two days. Tony Nissen, former director of engineering, characterized Rush as someone who made critical decisions based on speed and cost, changing his mind on a daily basis. Nissen said that Rush eventually fired him over his insistence on scrapping the Titan's first carbon fiber hull on safety grounds. David Lochridge, a former director of marine operations for OceanGate, then testified that Rush had once made piloting errors on the...
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