Doomed Titan sub's window was "on the path of failure" and its hull showed signs of flaws, engineers testify

The carbon fiber hull of the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic had imperfections dating to the manufacturing process and behaved differently after a loud bang was heard on one of the dives the year before the tragedy, an engineer with the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday. Meanwhile, another engineer testified that the sub's window was "consistent with something on the path of failure."

Engineer Don Kramer told a Coast Guard panel there were wrinkles, porosity and voids in the carbon fiber used for the pressure hull of OceanGate's Titan submersible. Two different types of sensors on Titan recorded the "loud acoustic event" that earlier witnesses testified about hearing on a dive on July 15, 2022, he said.

Hull pieces recovered after the tragedy showed substantial delamination of the layers of carbon fiber, which were bonded to create the hull of the experimental submersible, he said.