Submersible's scientific director says vessel malfunctioned days before fatal dive
Voice of America
FILE - This undated image courtesy of OceanGate Expeditions shows their Titan submersible beginning a descent. The submersible imploded last year while on its way to the Titanic wreckage. (Handout Photo/OceanGate Expeditions/AFP) Renata Rojas, OceanGate mission specialist, center, pauses during at the Titan marine board formal hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers in South Carolina, Sept. 19, 2024. (Corey Connor via AP, Pool) This June 2023 image provided by Pelagic Research Services shows remains of the Titan submersible on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. (Pelagic Research Services via AP)
The scientific director for the company that owned the Titan submersible that imploded last year while on its way to the Titanic wreckage testified Thursday that the sub had malfunctioned just prior to the fatal dive.
Reis Santo Vieira paints a boat on a dry part of the Madeira River, a tributary of the Amazon River, during the dry season in Humaita, Amazonas state, Brazil, Sept. 7, 2024. Residents transport drinking water from Humaita to the Paraizinho community, along the dry Madeira River, a tributary of the Amazon River, during the dry season, Amazonas state, Brazil, Sept. 8, 2024.
The Soyuz-2.1 rocket booster with Soyuz MS-26 space ship blasts off in the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Sept. 11, 2024. (Ivan Timoshenko, Roscosmos space corporation, via AP) Expedition 72 crew members include NASA astronaut Don Pettit, left, Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner, right, pose on Sept. 10, 2024, at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)