'I was booked on doomed Titan sub but backed out after one terrifying comment'

A university professor who nearly got on the ill-fated Titan submersible has talked about what led him to renege on his decision to dive. Jim Kitchen, 60, a business professor from the University of North Carolina, said it was during a pre-dive briefing that he decided he wouldn’t go.

The reason for his about-turn was all to do with how his questions were answered or brushed aside by the OceanGate team. Mr Kitchen remarked how his concerns about the ability of the ship carrying Titan and the weather were just pushed away. However, it was his final question that caused him to change his mind when he asked how many times Titan had been down to the wreck of the Titanic.

When the response was zero, he told OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush that he was no longer willing to get on-board. He told the Times: "The answer was 'none'. So I motioned to Rush and I said, 'Hey, talk to me after.' I didn't want to spook everyone else in the group. I told him I wasn't going to go. There was no way I was getting on board.”

In the end, Mr Kitchen’s decision saved his life as on June 18, 2023, the Titan submersible imploded, killing five passengers on board including Mr Rush.

What’s more, the dive Mr Kitchen was meant to have been on,was also cancelled due to poor weather. As a result, Mr Kitchen says he now suffers from “survivor’s remorse” in large part because, if his dive hadn’t been cancelled due to the weather, it might have been him that was killed.

Two years on from Titan’s final dive and a report from the US coastguard has concluded that the primary cause of the disaster was OceanGate and their failure to “follow established engineering protocols for safety, testing, and maintenance of their submersible”. They added that the disaster had been “preventable”.

One of the whistleblowers to speak out following the disaster, David Lochridge, has issued several damning statements in the years since Titan’s demise. David, who was sacked by OceanGate in 2018 after warning about safety issues, told the BBC just how problematic he felt Titan’s carbon hull was.

He said: “When the carbon hull came in, it was an absolute mess…I brought up all the issues that I was seeing… but I was just met with resistance all the way.”

A spokesperson for OceanGate said: “After the tragedy occurred, the company permanently wound down operations and directed its resources fully towards co-operating with the coastguard's inquiry through its completion.

“We again offer our deepest condolences to the families of those who died on June 18, 2023, and to all those impacted by the tragedy."