Cameraman who took Titan sub for test-drive said OceanGate CEO got ‘flustered’ when system failed

A cameraman who went on a ride inside the OceanGate submersible Titan in 2021 has said the sub's systems failed during a test run.

The wreckage of the sub that was destroyed by an implosion as it took five people down to the Titanic is currently under investigation to determine exactly what went wrong and cost five men their lives.

Since the disaster there have been several people who've come forward to share their own reservations about the safety of the sub.

Some have said they had the chance to be on board but felt as though they should turn it down because they didn't trust that the vessel was safe.

Others did go on board the submersible and voiced concerns to OceanGate that they didn't think the sub was safe enough after their experience inside the Titan.

OceanGate

One person who went inside the sub is documentary cameraman Brian Weed, who works for the Discovery Channel.

He told the Associated Press that he 'knew this was going to happen' after going on a test dive in the Titan back in 2021.

Weed's trip quickly ran into problems after the vessel's propulsion system stopped working, their on-board computers went down and the sub's communications with the surface were cut off.

He said this all happened at a depth of about 100 feet and that OceanGate CEO, Stockton Rush, was embarrassed by the apparent failure of the sub.

He said: "You could tell that he was flustered and not really happy with the performance. But he was trying to make light of it, trying to make excuses."

The cameraman said Rush tried to reboot the systems to get things working again, but ultimately his crew decided not to use OceanGate for their planned dive as they felt it was unsafe.

OceanGate/Becky Kagan Schott

According to Insider, Weed's filming crew got in touch with a submersible expert from the US Navy who gave it a 'mostly favourable' verdict but told them the vessel's carbon fiber hull raised concerns about the sub's effectiveness on a series of deep dives.

The expert has said there needed to be 'more research' into how effective the hull of the submersible was.

Weed was worried that the sub would become 'weaker and weaker' with every trip and he likened it to playing 'Russian roulette'.

Back in 2018 there had been some legal wrangling over a former OceanGate employee accused of leaking confidential material about the company, while the employee themselves claimed they'd been fired for raising safety concerns.