OceanGate’s ill-fated Titan sub relied on a hand-typed Excel spreadsheet

An image of the OceanGate Titan from the side as it sits underwater. — Image: OceanGate

A former OceanGate contractor, Antonella Wilby, testified before a U.S. Coast Guard panel on Friday that the company’s Titan submarine, which imploded last year during a dive to the Titanic’s wreckage, relied on an incredibly convoluted navigation system.

As Wilby described it during the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation hearing, the Titan’s GPS-like ultra-short baseline (USBL) acoustic positioning system generated data on a sub’s velocity, depth, and position using sound pings.

Screenshot: U.S. Coast Guard video courtesy of Pelagic Research Services

Images of the remains of the Titan submarine lying on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean were shared as part of the US Coast Guard hearing,

That information…