Former Titan passenger's mission was aborted as 'all sub did was spin in circles'

A passenger who paid for an expedition to the Titanic with the company that owned the Titan submersible has revealed how his own trip was aborted due to mechanical failure

A passenger who paid for an expedition to the Titanic with the company that owned the Titan submersible has revealed how his trip was aborted due to mechanical failure.

The Titan submersible imploded last year while on another trip to the ill-fated liner on the bed of the North Atlantic Ocean. A US Coast Guard investigatory panel is undertaking a public enquiry to determine the cause that led to five men - including three Brits - losing their lives in June 2023.

Fred Hagen testified today as a "mission specialist," which he and other witnesses have characterised 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 wouldn't reach the fabled wreck site.

"We realised that all it could do was spin around in circles, making right turns," Hagen told the enquiry. "At this juncture, we obviously weren't going to be able to navigate to the Titanic." Hagen said the sub resurfaced, and the mission was scrapped.

He said he knew 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 Stockton Rush was among those who died when the submersible imploded en route to the site of the Titanic.

Earlier this month, the US Coast Guard opened a public hearing that is part of a high-level investigation into the cause of the implosion. The enquiry began this week, and some of the testimony focused on the company's problems before the fatal dive.

Earlier, company scientific director Steven Ross told the investigators the sub experienced a malfunction just days before the Titanic dive. Meanwhile, 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." He and other witnesses painted a picture of a company led by people who were impatient in getting the sub into the water. Lochridge said he filed a complaint with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration about the company.

During the submersible's final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after exchanging texts about the Titan's depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then repeatedly messaged the Titan, asking if it could still see the ship on its onboard display. According to a visual recreation presented earlier in the hearing, one of Titan's crew's last messages to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded was, "All good here."

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

As well as Rush, the others killed were Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, father and son British-Pakistani Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood; and British adventurer Hamish Harding.