NASA, Boeing describe limited roles despite Titan's owner touting aerospace ties

OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush said the carbon fiber hull used in an experimental submersible that imploded was developed with help of NASA and aerospace manufacturers, but a NASA official said Thursday that the agency had little involvement and a Boeing official said some recommendations were ignored.

NASA intended to play a role in building and testing the carbon fiber hull. But the COVID-19 pandemic prevented NASA from fulfilling its role, other than consulting on a one-third scale mockup, not the submersible Titan that imploded while attempting to go to the Titanic wreckage, said Justin Jackson, a materials engineer for NASA.

At one point, Jackson said NASA balked at allowing its name to be invoked by OceanGate. “The language they were using was getting too close to us endorsing, so our folks had some heartburn,” he told a Coast Guard panel.

Boeing was involved in an early feasibility study of the use of carbon fiber for Titan's hull and in OceanGate's acoustic sensors on the hull, but OceanGate departed from recommendations on the hull thickness and orientation of carbon fiber layers for greatest strength, said Mark Negley, material and process engineer at Boeing.

Rush was among the five people who died when the submersible imploded in June 2023.

The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month that is part of a high-level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

John Winters, a Coast Guard marine inspector in Washingon state, testified that Rush railed against regulations that he said stifled innovation but also noted that Rush did not attempt to circumvent any Coast Guard regulations.

He testified Thursday that he was familiar with two other OceanGate submersibles before learning that the company had created a new submersible that could go deeper to reach Titanic. Winters said he was not aware that Oceangate ever notified the Coast Guard of its construction or requested a Coast Guard guidance or inspection.

“We didn’t get into about what standards it was built to, who built it. None of that was discussed,” Winters said. “It was just, 'Hey, we have a submarine. It’s good for 4,000 meters. We have a submarine to do that now,’" he said.

The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include more witnesses.

Earlier in the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money. “The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”

Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.

OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.

During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan’s depth and weight as it descended, and concern grew on the support ship Polar Prince. One of the last messages from Titan’s crew before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” the Coast Guard said.

When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.

OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.

Don Kramer, National Transportation Safety Board engineer, right, testifies Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, at the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation hearing into the June 2023 loss of the Titan submersible, in North Charleston, S.C. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Kate Kilroy/U.S. Coast Guard via AP, Pool)

Don Kramer, National Transportation Safety Board engineer, right, testifies Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, at the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation hearing into the June 2023 loss of the Titan submersible, in North Charleston, S.C. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Kate Kilroy/U.S. Coast Guard via AP, Pool)

Don Kramer, National Transportation Safety Board engineer, testifies Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, at the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation hearing into the June 2023 loss of the Titan submersible, in North Charleston, S.C. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Kate Kilroy/U.S. Coast Guard via AP, Pool)

Don Kramer, National Transportation Safety Board engineer, right, testifies Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, at the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation hearing into the June 2023 loss of the Titan submersible, in North Charleston, S.C. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Kate Kilroy/U.S. Coast Guard via AP, Pool)

Gim Kang, special counsel for the Coast Guard's Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation, listens during the formal hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (Laura Bilson/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)

In a still from from a video animation provided by the United States Coast Guard an illustration of the Titan submersible, right, is shown near the ocean floor of the Atlantic Ocean, as June 18, 2023 communications between the submersible and the support vessel Polar Prince, not shown, are represented at left. (United States Coast Guard via AP)

Members of the Coast Guard's Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation listen during the formal hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (Laura Bilson/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)

NASA, Boeing and Coast Guard representatives to testify about implosion of Titan submersible

NASA, Boeing and Coast Guard representatives to testify about implosion of Titan submersible

This June 2023 image provided by Pelagic Research Services shows remains of the Titan submersible on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. (Pelagic Research Services via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Police in a majority Black Mississippi city discriminate against Black people, use excessive force and retaliate against its critics, the Justice Department said Thursday in a scathing report detailing findings of an investigation into civil rights abuses.

The Lexington Police Department “has created a system where officers can relentlessly violate the law" in one of the poorest counties in America, according to the Justice Department. Investigators found that police also sexually harassed women and kept people behind bars for minor offenses because they couldn't afford to pay fines.

“Today’s findings show that the Lexington Police Department abandoned its sacred position of trust in the community by routinely violating the constitutional rights of those it was sworn to protect,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in an emailed statement.

A Lexington Police Department staff member who answered a phone call seeking comment said Police Chief Charles Henderson was not immediately available for an interview.

The Justice Department found police routinely arrested people for low-level violations and then left them to languish behind bars until they could come up with the money to pay a fine.

One man was jailed for four days because he refilled a cup of coffee at a gas station while only paying for one cup. Another woman was arrested and chained to a bench at a police station for parking in a space reserved for people with disabilities, according to the report. Another officer told a 60-year-old Black woman that she had to pay an old $90 fine to avoid jail.

“You better find some money, or you’re going to jail," the officer said, according to the report.

Lexington residents owe police $1.7 million in outstanding fines, and the city court has issued bench warrants seeking the arrest of more than 650 people — roughly half of the city’s population — because of unpaid fines, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke told reporters.

“In America, being poor is not a crime. But in Lexington, their practices punish people for poverty,” Clarke said.

Investigators also found that officers used Tasers like a “cattle-prod” to punish people and punch or kick people who are unarmed and handcuffed. In one case, an officer kicked an unarmed Black man so hard that he wet himself, according to the report. The officer told the dispatcher: “I didn't give two (expletive) about his civil rights," the report says.

"Black people bear the brunt of the Lexington police department’s illegal conduct,” Clarke said.

The Justice Department’s investigation and report followed the filing of a federal lawsuit in 2022 by a group of residents who accused the police department of “terrorizing” residents through false arrests, intimidation and other abuses.

It also follows the June 2023 arrest of Jill Collen Jefferson, the president of JULIAN, the civil rights organization that filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of residents. The organization had previously obtained an audio recording of then-Lexington Police Chief Sam Dobbins using racial slurs and talking about how many people he had killed in the line of duty. Dobbins was later fired.

In June, Jefferson was arrested after filming a traffic stop conducted by Lexington police officers. The arrest came nine days after Clarke had traveled to Lexington to meet with community members about alleged police misconduct. Federal prosecutors have said the probe into Lexington is part of a broader effort to crack down on unconstitutional policing at small and mid-size police departments and in underserved regions throughout the Deep South.

"Gone are the days when rural isolation and remoteness could conceal the injustice of unconstitutional policing," said Todd Gee, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi. Addressing other police departments in the country, Gee said: “Make changes now if your agency is policing in these same unlawful ways.”

FILE - A Lexington, Miss., police cruiser is parked outside their facility near the town square, Aug. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)