A former OceanGate mission specialist broke down in tears Thursday while being questioned about the company’s doomed Titanic dive, which she insisted was “never sold as a Disney ride.”
Renata Rojas, a New York City-based banker, quickly became overwhelmed and needed a break as he appeared before the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Rojas started crying when the panel said it would start direct questions about the doomed Titan submersible that imploded in June last year, killing OceanGate founder Stockton Rush and his four passengers.
After a brief break, she described her role in helping the crew on launch day — maintaining that they all knew the risks involved.
“This was never sold as a Disney ride,” she said of the experimental sub operated largely by an off-the-shelf game controller.
“It was an expedition that … things happen and you have to adapt to change,” she added.
She continued to cry and wipe tears as she described the last time she saw Rush and his big-spending passengers ahead of the launch.
“I saw five people looking forward to their journey, excited,” Rojas told the panel.
“The weather was great,” Rojas added, noting that she did not notice anything unusual before the submersible deployed from the support ship.
When the submersible failed to return as planned around 4:30 p.m. June 18, 2023, Rojas said, the team on the surface waited a bit before eventually informing the Coast Guard.
“Usually they are allowed at least an hour [of delay],” she explained.
“It didn’t seem to be anything of concern until about 5 or 6 p.m.,” she added.
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Earlier in her testimony, Rojas described herself as an experienced diver who was drawn to OceanGate because of her own lifelong dream of visiting the Titanic wreck.
She frequently served as a mission specialist for OceanGate, which she described as a voluntary position that required a lot of experience.
She did not get on the fateful last Titan mission, but she was on board for two test dives, she explained.
“I knew what I was doing was very risky. I never at any point felt unsafe by the operation,” Rojas told the panel.
The Titan sub had 96 hours of life support on board, she added. “You are in a very remote area, trying to do something very few people can do,” she said of the obvious dangers.
In addition to OceanGate founder and CEO Rush, British explorer Hamish Harding, French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, were killed when the sub imploded.
Some debris from the submersible was found on the ocean floor near the Titanic wreck on June 22, after nearly five days of searching.
Eerie photos of the destroyed vessel came to light this week as multiple former OceanGate associates testified about their own concerns about the company, its CEO, and the Titan’s ability to survive the journey down.
