Amateur adventurer Renata Rojas took a trip to the Titanic in OceanGate’s Titan submersible in 2022, and she was aboard Titan’s support ship last year when the sub and its crew were lost. Now she’s worried that the regulatory response to the tragedy will close off opportunities she and other citizen explorers have enjoyed.
Rojas fought back tears as she shared her concern today at a Coast Guard hearing that was aimed at determining the cause of Titan’s loss and formulating recommendations to avoid future tragedies.
“What we’ve all gone through is still very raw. Nothing is going to bring our friends back,” she told the investigators on the panel.
“I hope that this investigation creates an understanding that with exploration, there’s risk. And without taking that risk and the exploration, the world would still be flat,” she said. “I hope that innovation continues so we can make the oceans accessible to people like me who got to fulfill a dream, and that you still allow citizen scientists to participate in expeditions.”
Rojas is a Mexican-born, New York-based banker who began diving when she was 11 years old and long dreamed of seeing the Titanic up close. She participated in OceanGate’s dive to the wreck of the Andrea Doria in 2016, and also took submersible trips through New York’s Hudson Canyon and in the waters close to OceanGate’s home base in Everett, Wash. All that led up to her Titanic dive.
The price tag was more than $100,000, but Rojas said she accepted the cost — and the risk. “Problems arise,” she said. “This was never really sold as a Disney ride. This was an expedition where things happen, and you have to adapt to change.”
She recalled one trip — not her own — where Titan’s crew “spent the night in the sub” because rough weather temporarily ruled out a timely return to the surface. “They slept,” she said.
In June 2023, Rojas served as a volunteer on the Polar Prince, the support ship for Titan’s final dive. She said she assisted the crew members as they entered the submersible in preparation for the expedition.
“”They have to take their hat out, their life jacket out. We all place that into each individual bag so they know it’s their belongings,” Rojas explained. “I was the one holding that bag for them as they got in the sub.”
She recalled that Titan’s last crew was “happy to go.”
“I saw five people smiling, looking forward to their journey,” Rojas said. “We had wonderful weather. We had been waiting for a while for the wonderful weather. Just everything was done on time. So, we’re all excited.”
The five people making the dive were Stockton Rush, who was OceanGate’s co-founder and CEO as well as the sub’s chief pilot; veteran Titanic explorer P.H. Nargeolet; British aviation executive and adventurer Hamish Harding; and Pakistani-born business executive Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman.
Rojas recalled that all seemed to go well until contact with the sub broke off about an hour and a half into the dive. The support team tried to restore the communication link — but after hours of silence, the Coast Guard and other authorities were notified. “We went into ‘go’ mode at that point,” Rojas said.
Four days later, a remotely operated vehicle captured views of the wreckage from Titan’s catastrophic implosion — confirming the loss of the crew.
This month’s hearings are expected to result in tighter regulations for submersible trips, on the federal level and perhaps on the international level as well. In her closing statement, Rojas said she hoped the Coast Guard and other maritime authorities would recognize the need for the kind of privately funded deep-sea exploration that served as the basis for OceanGate’s business model.
“Expeditions are needed, and the oceans are significantly underfunded,” she said. “Private citizens are the ones funding the expeditions, and I hope that doesn’t stop.”
Among other highlights from today’s hearing in South Carolina:
- Rojas took issue with OceanGate whistleblower David Lochridge’s description of the Andrea Doria expedition in 2016. Lochridge suggested that Rush was reckless in his piloting of the Cyclops 1 submersible, and that a heated argument broke out over who should take the controls. “He must have gone on a different dive,” Rojas said. “Nobody was panicking, nobody was crying, and there was definitely no swearing and yelling.”
- Steven Ross, a marine biologist who served as OceanGate’s chief scientist for the Titanic expeditions, acknowledged that he was in the sub last year for a rough dive that preceded the final, fatal trip. That outing, which didn’t go to the Titanic, ended in a tumble when a malfunction on the sub’s platform left Titan stuck at a 45-degree slant. “The pilot crashed into the rear bulkhead,” Ross said. “The rest of the passengers tumbled about. I ended up standing on the rear bulkhead. One passenger was hanging upside down, and the other two managed to wedge themselves into the bow end cap.” He said the ordeal lasted about an hour, but no one was injured.
- Ross said that he managed the scientific program for OceanGate, and that a research paper based on data gathered during Titan’s dives was “in development still.” But he acknowledged that OceanGate had “multiple agendas” for its expeditions. What did he consider the primary mission for Titan’s trips in 2021, 2022 and 2023? “To visit and view the Titanic shipwreck,” Ross replied.
- Ross said he once asked Rush how many dives he thought the Titan sub would be able to take on before it needed refurbishment. One of the panel members asked what Rush’s answer was. “Indefinite,” Ross recalled.
The Coast Guard hearings continue on Friday with testimony from OceanGate mission specialist Fred Hagen; Dave Dyer of the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory; and Patrick Lahey of Triton Submarines. The proceedings will be livestreamed beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET (5:30 a.m. PT):
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