TitanMission Specialist Refutes Account of CEO Panicking but Says Crew Considered Using Ctrl+Alt+Delete During a Dive

Mar. 15, 2025

OceanGate sub.Photo:GDA via AP

GDA via AP

A former OceanGate mission specialist — the title given to paying passengers or observers of its underwater dives — struck a defensive and sometimes tearful tone and pushed back on some other testimony while appearing in theCoast Guard’s ongoing hearinginto theTitan tragedythat killed five people last summer, including CEOStockton Rush.

Renata Rojas, a self-describedTitanicobsessive, testified on Thursday, Sept. 19, that she disagreed with former OceanGate operation director David Lochridge’s account of a 2016 dive, which he said resulted in Rushfalling into a “panic” due to a lack of experience.

At the time, Rush was piloting another OceanGate submersible called the Cyclops 1 on a trip to see the remains oftheAndrea Doriaocean liner. The shipwreck is relatively close to the surface of the Northern Atlantic Ocean and the Cyclops crew had a “clear sonar image,” Lochridge said in his testimony on Tuesday, Sept. 17.

However, Lochridge said that Rush “smashed straight down on the bottom," and although Lochridge cautioned him to wait for better visibility before continuing on with the journey, Rush did not listen and eventually “got us jammed in underneath” the wreckage.

Lochridge testified that Rush kept repeating “we’re stuck, we’re stuck, we’re stuck” and only handed the sub controller when “one of the paying clients…shouted at Stockton to ‘give me the f–ing controller.’ ”

“She had tears in her eyes,” Lochridge said.

Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty

But in her testimony on Thursday, Rojas, who was part of the small group of passengers, refuted Lochridge’s recollection of onboard chaos.

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“He must have gone on a different dive,” she said. “Nobody was panicking. Nobody was crying and there was definitely no swearing or yelling.”

According to Rojas, the mission specialist role at OceanGate was a volunteer position that allows someone to get “involved in the operation.” She explained that after making a payment to the dive team, “you had the option once you showed up … to be an observer or passenger.”

She went on to recall how during a 2022 dive, the crew thought of using “ctrl+alt+delete” — a common keyboard shortcut used to reboot many computers and close frozen windows — when they reached the bottom of the ocean but were unable to keep moving forward.

Rojas, part of the “Explorers Club,” which lost membersHamish HardingandPaul-Henri Nargeoletin the Titan implosion, said that she always understood what she was doing was “very risky” but that they “never at any point felt unsafe” with OceanGate.

On the day of the finalTitanvoyage last year, Rojas was working as a “platform assistant” and recalled seeing all five passengers, including Rush, “smiling” as they boarded the sub. “They were just happy to go,” she said.

As her testimony came to a close, Rojas cried as she reflected on how, “nothing is going to bring our friends back.”

However, Rojas went on to state that she hoped the investigation “creates an understanding that with exploration there is risk.”

“Without taking that risk and the exploration, the world would still be flat,” she added. “I hope that innovation continues, so that we can make the oceans accessible to people like me, who got to fulfill a dream.”

During the hearing, the Coast Guard will “review testimony from technical experts, crew members, and other relevant parties, and will examine evidence related to the submersible’s design, operation, and safety protocols.” Afterward, investigators are expected to submit a final report.

source: people.com