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(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Coast Guard has released its final report on the catastrophic implosion of OceanGate’s Titan submersible, which killed five people on a deep-sea voyage to the Titanic wreckage in June 2023, criticizing the company’s CEO, Stockton Rush, and singling him out as a major reason for the disaster.

The 335-page report, released Tuesday, comes nearly a year after the Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation held a two-week hearing into the unprecedented implosion of the experimental vessel.

Rush was warned repeatedly about how dangerous his submersible was and not only ignored all the warnings, but threatened anyone who raised concerns, according to the report released Tuesday. Many who spoke up were threatened with lawsuits or termination, it said.

“A false sense of safety and security was created by Mr. Rush through his misrepresentation of the TITAN’s safety, achieved by falsely claiming substantial safety margins, misleading mission specialists regarding testing procedures, and exaggerating the number of hull test dives for the final TITAN hull,” the report says.

Rush, the co-founder of OceanGate, was among those killed in the implosion. Had he survived, the Coast Guard’s investigative team would have recommended manslaughter charges to the DOJ, the report said.

“This marine casualty and the loss of five lives was preventable,” Jason Neubauer, Titan MBI chair, said in a statement about the report’s release. “The two-year investigation has identified multiple contributing factors that led to this tragedy, providing valuable lessons learned to prevent a future occurrence. There is a need for stronger oversight and clear options for operators who are exploring new concepts outside of the existing regulatory framework. I am optimistic the ROI’s findings and recommendations will help improve awareness of the risks and the importance of proper oversight while still providing a pathway for innovation.”

In addition to Rush, those killed in the June 2023 implosion included French explorer and Titanic expert Paul Henri Nargeolet, British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman.

The submersible company suspended all exploration and commercial operations after the deadly implosion.

In response to the report, OceanGate said in a statement, “We again offer our deepest condolences to the families of those who died on June 18, 2023, and to all those impacted by the tragedy. After the tragedy occurred, the company permanently wound down operations and directed its resources fully towards cooperating with the Coast Guard’s inquiry through its completion.”

The board heard from more than two dozen witnesses during its September 2024 hearing. They included several former employees of OceanGate.

The main purpose of the hearing was to uncover the facts related to the implosion — including the submersible’s design, operation and safety protocols — to help determine the cause of the incident and make recommendations to prevent similar casualties. The board also set out to determine if there was any evidence of misconduct, negligence or violations by anyone licensed or certified.

The report also singles out OceanGate’s “inadequate design, certification, maintenance and inspection process for the Titan,” as was often highlighted during the board hearing last year.

“OceanGate’s toxic safety culture, corporate structure, and operational practices were critically flawed and at the core of these failures were glaring disparities between their written safety protocols and their actual practices,” the report says.

Ahead of the report’s release, the Coast Guard said in June that its Marine Board of Investigation was in the “final portion of its analysis phase” as part of its over two-year probe, and that the report would come out once the commandant’s review was completed.

The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the implosion and will make its own determination as to the probable cause. That investigation is ongoing. A final report is expected in the coming months.

The Coast Guard’s hearing last year revealed one of the last messages sent from Titan to the surface vessel Polar Prince as the doomed submersible descended toward the ocean floor.

The short text messages were the only means of communication between the Titan crew and the personnel on the Polar Prince as the vessel attempted to reach the Titanic, which sits 3,800 meters below sea level.

At approximately 2,274 meters, the Titan sent the message, “All good here,” according to an animation created by the Coast Guard that showed the text communications.

The last communication from the submersible was sent at approximately 3,341 meters: “Dropped two wts,” meaning drop weights, according to the Coast Guard.

All communications and tracking from the submersible to Polar Prince were lost at 3,346 meters, according to the Coast Guard.

Neubauer revealed during the hearing that the master of the Polar Prince told them that in hindsight, he believes he felt the ship “shudder” around the time when communications with the sub were lost.

The Coast Guard also released footage during the hearing that showed Titan debris, including the tail cone, aft dome, aft ring, hull remnants and carbon fiber debris, on the seafloor. The footage was from a remotely operated vehicle, which located the Titan debris approximately 500 meters from the bow of the Titanic following a four-day search.

The Coast Guard heard lengthy testimony from David Lochridge, the former director of marine operations for OceanGate, who had raised concerns about the Titan’s carbon fiber hull.

“I knew that hull would fail,” Lochridge said during the hearing. “It’s an absolute mess.”

He also testified that the company wasn’t interested in scientific research and only cared about making money, and that Rush “liked to do things on the cheap.”

Lochridge said he was fired days after he submitted a report in January 2018 outlining his safety concerns about the submersible’s carbon-fiber hull, including imperfections, and he subsequently filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. His whistleblower retaliation case was closed in late 2018 after he and OceanGate entered a settlement agreement in their respective lawsuits, OSHA said. Lochridge’s safety allegations regarding the Titan were referred to the Coast Guard, OSHA said.

Issues and concerns with the Titan and its transport were revisited in testimony throughout the hearing.

In 2022, the thruster controls malfunctioned and caused the vessel to spin once it reached the Titanic depth, though the pilot was able to retrain it himself and they completed the dive. In another dive that year, a loud bang was heard as the Titan ascended. The NTSB determined that the hull’s strain response changed after this loud bang incident in subsequent dives, an agency official testified.

In 2023, the Titan partially sank four weeks before the implosion following a night of high seas and fog, according to the Coast Guard. Days before the implosion, passengers slammed against the vessel during resurfacing when the platform malfunctioned.

One former OceanGate employee testified that there were also concerns about having to tow the sub on the open seas when they switched to using the Polar Prince in 2023.

The Titan had 70 equipment issues in 2021 that needed correcting, and 48 more in 2022, according to the Coast Guard.

The submersible made 13 successful dives to the Titanic wreckage until its fatal implosion.

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(SOLVANG, Calif.) — The Gifford Fire, a wildfire burning in Central California that has destroyed over 72,000 acres in five days, continues to rage and is now accompanied by two additional fires emerging nearby, according to officials.

Since it started on Friday afternoon, the Gifford Fire — which is situated within the Los Padres National Forest in Solvang, California — has burned 72,460 acres and has only reached 7% containment, prompting evacuation orders for those in the Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, officials said.

While the flames have been centered around thick brush and rugged terrain, officials said over 800 structures are threatened by this wildfire.

Nearly 2,000 personnel have been dispatched to help fight the flames, with “great progress made on the west, north and east flanks of the fire” on Monday, according to Los Padres National Forest officials.

Warmer weather on Thursday and Friday could increase the “fire behavior” and pose a threat to the already raging flames, officials said.

On Tuesday, officials said they will deploy helicopters to “deliver very significant water drops” and will establish two new base camps to allow personnel to “more efficiently access the fire perimeter.”

An air quality alert in Cuyama, California, and an air quality watch for the rest of Santa Barbara County continues to remain in place “until conditions improve,” according to the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District.

The fire is also impacting those outside of California, with smoke from the flames filtering into the Las Vegas Valley, “reducing visibility and air quality,” according to the National Weather Service Las Vegas.

Officials expect smoky conditions in the Las Vegas area “for at least another couple of days.”

Along with the Gifford Fire, firefighters are now also battling two additional flames in Central California that began on Monday — the Rosa Fire and the Gold Fire, according to Cal Fire.

The Rosa Fire, which is situated within Riverside County, has prompted evacuation orders and has destroyed 1,200 acres as of Tuesday, according to Cal Fire. The Gold Fire, which is located in San Bernardino County, is centered around “steep, rugged terrain in the northern area of the Mountaintop Ranger District” and has burned 348 acres, Cal Fire said.

As of Tuesday, the Rosa Fire is 5% contained and the Gold Fire is 0% contained, officials said.

The cause of all three fires remains under investigation, officials said.

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(JACKSON, Tenn.) — A manhunt for the suspect in the Tennessee kidnappings and killings of four people, including three from the same family, ended Tuesday when he was taken into custody, police said.

Austin Robert Drummond, 28, was taken into custody in Jackson by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, according to the Jackson, Tennessee, Police Department.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
 

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(WASHINGTON) — The Texas House of Representatives is scheduled to reconvene Tuesday afternoon, although it’s unclear whether the body will be able to as several Democratic members have fled the state over a Republican redistricting plan.

Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, on Tuesday ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to find and arrest the Democrats who fled the state, an order Abbott said will remain in effect until they are “accounted for and brought back” to Austin.

The Texas House is scheduled to be in session at 1 p.m. CT, according to the official website.

Many Texas Democrats left the state on Sunday in protest of a Republican-led effort, backed by President Donald Trump, to create a new congressional map that could create up to five new Republican seats and help the party keep control of the U.S.House in the 2026 midterm elections.

They received support from blue state governors on Monday, including New York’s Kathy Hochul and California’s Gavin Newsom. Both Hochul and Newsom said they would effort partisan redistricting in their own states as a response to Texas.

On Tuesday morning, Democratic National Committee chairman Ken Martin will join Texas House Democrats and Illinois Gov JB Pritzker for a press conference.
President Trump also weighed in on Tuesday morning amid the heightened tensions in a phone interview on CNBC, arguing Republicans are “entitled” to more seats in Congress.

“We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats. We have a really good governor, and we have good people in Texas. And I won Texas. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats,” Trump claimed.

At the same time, he criticized Democratic governors are working on plans to potentially draw new congressional maps in their favor and used it as an argument for the efforts in Texas to continue.

“That’s all gerrymandered. California is gerrymandered. We should have many more seats in Congress. In California, it’s all gerrymandered,” the president said.

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(NEW YORK) — Nearly 24 years after the 9/11 attacks, New York lawmakers say the health program created to care for survivors and responders is faltering and they’re demanding answers.

In a new letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand raised concerns about staffing shortages, frozen research grants and ongoing communication blackouts at the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP), which provides care to more than 140,000 people exposed to toxic dust at Ground Zero, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

“This is unacceptable,” the senators wrote. “Individuals with 9/11-related conditions should not have to rely on repeated uproars from the public and the media to obtain the care they are owed under the law and so desperately need.”

The senators pointed to a pattern of administrative setbacks over the past six months, including a hiring freeze, restrictions on staff travel, and the halting of key steering committee meetings. While some staff have been reinstated, they noted that the program still operates with fewer people than when Secretary Kennedy took office in February
The WTCHP was created under the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act to provide long-term medical monitoring and treatment to those impacted by the attacks.

Last year alone, enrollment grew by 10,000 people and at least that many more are expected to enroll in the coming year, according to Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act, an advocacy group for 9/11 responders and survivors. But with only 80 staff members currently supporting the program — down from the authorized level of 138 — advocates say delays in care and treatment approvals are growing worse.

“I have always fought to keep the funding and maintaining of the World Trade Center Health Program a bipartisan cause, and while I continue to look for a Republican partner in the Senate, I am proud of the strong partnership I have with Representative Garbarino and his House Republican colleagues,” Senator Gillibrand said in a statement to ABC News.

She added, “Right now, the main issue is the care of the responders and survivors who put their lives on the line when our nation was in its darkest hour. We are seeing deep logistical issues in the program that Secretary Kennedy must address. The ball is in his court for how we can best assess next steps so that responders and survivors continue to receive the lifesaving care that this program provides and that they deserve.”

One critical concern the letter points to is the lack of communication. The senators say in the letter that an ongoing “temporary” communications ban, which is now in its eighth month, has disrupted routine meetings and cut off vital feedback from the 9/11 community. The senators say program staff are also barred from traveling to monitor clinics and contractors, which lawmakers warn could result in billing delays and lapses in care.

Also on pause is the petition process that allows for the consideration of adding new illnesses to the list of covered 9/11-related health problems, including cardiac and autoimmune condition, according to the senator’s letter. The program had promised decisions by March, but none have been announced.

The senators also questioned how a planned reorganization, which involves moving the WTCHP under a new agency called the Administration for Healthy America, will affect staffing, research and oversight.

Many 9/11 health advocates applauded the letter, agreeing it’s time to get the program moving after months of inaction.

“Given Secretary Kennedy’s record of chaos for the first six months of his administration and with the 24th Anniversary of 9/11 just a few weeks away, Senators Gillibrand and Schumer are calling attention to continuing issues with the World Trade Center Health Program that the Secretary must address,” said Benjamin Chevat, the executive director of Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act.

John Feal, a prominent 9/11 advocate and founder of the FealGood Foundation, said he is also grateful to the senators for their support of survivors.

“We shouldn’t keep having to have this conversation,” Feal said. “Kennedy needs to be held accountable, and I hope he honors this program and protects it from future cuts.”

Gary Smiley, a former firefighter who is a survivor of the attacks on the World Trade Center and now the WTC fire inspector’s liaison, agreed that Kennedy has not done enough for the program.

“The administration has promised us time and time again that this communications pause was temporary. Eight months is not temporary. Eight months is a failure to act,” Smiley said.

ABC News reached out to HHS for a response but did not receive one immediately. However, at a senate hearing in May, Kennedy acknowledged of the program that “We made a couple of mistakes,” and promised to address them.

“With the 24th anniversary of 9/11 approaching,” the senators wrote, “we must do everything in our power to uphold our promises to those still suffering from the aftermath of that day.”

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Red flag warnings remain in place for parts of Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming due to very dry conditions, low humidity and gusty winds and fires in these areas may undergo rapid development as new fires could begin quickly.

This comes as 741 wildfires continue to burn in Canada, with 304 labeled “out of control” and fires have burned more than 16 million acres in Canada this year — more than double their 10-year average to date.

This is already the third most destructive year for wildfires in Canada by acres burned since records began in 1983.

In fact, with only 1 million more acres needed to reach the number two spot, it is almost inevitable at this point that 2025 will likely be second on the list for most acres burned by wildfires in Canada since recording began, with first place being 2023 when more than 42 million acres burned.

Meanwhile, these western wildfires are creating smokey skies for millions, from Los Angeles to San Diego and to Las Vegas.

Air quality alerts are now in place for 10 states from Minnesota to Connecticut and, on Tuesday afternoon, Boston is expected to see a nice break from the smoke thanks to onshore winds keeping smoke inland as Detroit and New York City may catch more of a break due to winds from the east as well.

Smoke will be medium to heavy from Duluth to Green Bay to Buffalo to the Hudson Valley as smoke is expected to continue around the region on Wednesday as well.

Elsewhere, Tropical Storm Dexter continues to push out to sea without threat to land as an area with a 30% chance for tropical development remains off America’s southeast coast.

A low pressure system may develop later this week and then push west or northwest but, regardless of development, additional rainfall is expected for the late-week and weekend in the Southeast.

A disturbance has also moved off the coast of Africa and ,with gradual development over the Atlantic, a tropical depression may form late this week or weekend as the system continues moving west over the central tropical Atlantic with the National Hurricane Center giving this system a 50% chance for development over the next seven days.

On Tuesday, more than 9 million Americas in Georgia and Alabama are under a flood watch, including Atlanta, because heavy rainfall with rates of 2 inches per hour may lead to flash flooding.

Heat continues to be a problem around parts of the country as record high temperatures are possible in the Southwest, including for cities like Phoenix and Tucson, as an extreme heat warning is in place for more than 7 million Americans here with temperatures from 108 to 118 possible through Friday.

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(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Coast Guard has released its final report on the catastrophic implosion of OceanGate’s Titan submersible in June 2023, which killed five people on a deep-sea voyage to the Titanic wreckage.

The 335-page report, released Tuesday, comes nearly a year after the Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation held a two-week hearing into the unprecedented implosion of the experimental vessel.

The board heard from more than two dozen witnesses during its September 2024 hearing. They included several former employees of OceanGate, whose co-founder and CEO, Stockton Rush, was among those killed.

The main purpose of the hearing was to uncover the facts related to the implosion — including the submersible’s design, operation and safety protocols — to help determine the cause of the incident and make recommendations to prevent similar casualties. The board also set out to determine if there was any evidence of misconduct, negligence or violations by anyone licensed or certified.

Ahead of the report’s release, the Coast Guard said in June that its Marine Board of Investigation was in the “final portion of its analysis phase” as part of its over two-year probe, and that the report would come out once the commandant’s review was completed.

The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the implosion and will make its own determination as to the probable cause. That investigation is ongoing.

In addition to Rush, those killed in the June 2023 implosion included French explorer and Titanic expert Paul Henri Nargeolet, British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman.

The submersible company suspended all exploration and commercial operations after the deadly implosion.

The Coast Guard’s hearing last year revealed one of the last messages sent from Titan to the surface vessel Polar Prince as the doomed submersible descended toward the ocean floor.

The short text messages were the only means of communication between the Titan crew and the personnel on the Polar Prince as the vessel attempted to reach the Titanic, which sits 3,800 meters below sea level.

At approximately 2,274 meters, the Titan sent the message, “All good here,” according to an animation created by the Coast Guard that showed the text communications.

The last communication from the submersible was sent at approximately 3,341 meters: “Dropped two wts,” meaning drop weights, according to the Coast Guard.

All communications and tracking from the submersible to Polar Prince were lost at 3,346 meters, according to the Coast Guard.

U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation Chair Jason Neubauer revealed during the hearing that the master of the Polar Prince told them that in hindsight, he believes he felt the ship “shudder” around the time when communications with the sub were lost.

The Coast Guard also released footage during the hearing that showed Titan debris, including the tail cone, aft dome, aft ring, hull remnants and carbon fiber debris, on the seafloor. The footage was from a remotely operated vehicle, which located the Titan debris approximately 500 meters from the bow of the Titanic following a four-day search.

The Coast Guard heard lengthy testimony from David Lochridge, the former director of marine operations for OceanGate, who had raised concerns about the Titan’s carbon fiber hull.

“I knew that hull would fail,” Lochridge said during the hearing. “It’s an absolute mess.”

He also testified that the company wasn’t interested in scientific research and only cared about making money, and that Rush “liked to do things on the cheap.”

Issues and concerns with the Titan and its transport were revisited in testimony throughout the hearing.

In 2022, the thruster controls malfunctioned and caused the vessel to spin once it reached the Titanic depth, though the pilot was able to retrain it himself and they completed the dive. In another dive that year, a loud bang was heard as the Titan ascended. The NTSB determined that the hull’s strain response changed after this loud bang incident in subsequent dives, an agency official testified.

In 2023, the Titan partially sank four weeks before the implosion following a night of high seas and fog, according to the Coast Guard. Days before the implosion, passengers slammed against the vessel during resurfacing when the platform malfunctioned.

One former OceanGate employee testified that there were also concerns about having to tow the sub on the open seas when they switched to using the Polar Prince in 2023.

The Titan had 70 equipment issues in 2021 that needed correcting, and 48 more in 2022, according to the Coast Guard.

The submersible made 13 successful dives to the Titanic wreckage until its fatal implosion.

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(NEW YORK) — Much of what the Justice Department wants a federal judge to unseal from the Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury investigation is already known and, at least so far, the attorney general is seeking to unseal nothing else, according to a new court filing Tuesday.

The Justice Department turned over a version of the Maxwell grand jury transcripts that identifies which information is not already publicly known. That annotated version shows that “much of the information provided during the course of the grand jury testimony — with the exception of the identities of certain victims and witnesses — was made publicly available at trial or has otherwise been publicly reported through the public statements of victims and witnesses,” the filing said.

The Justice Department is asking two federal judges in New York to unseal the grand jury transcripts in the Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein cases. It is not asking the judges to unseal the grand jury exhibits, though the attorney general asked for several more days to consider “its position with respect to unsealing of the grand jury exhibits,” the filing said.

The Epstein grand jury met twice on June 18, 2019, and July 2, 2019, before he was indicted on charges accusing him of sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of minor girls.

The Maxwell grand jury met on June 29, 2020, July 8, 2020, and March 29, 2021, before she was indicted on charges she conspired with Epstein to entice minors to travel so they could engage in illegal sex acts.

Maxwell was convicted and is serving a 20-year prison sentence at an all-female federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, where she was recently moved from a minimum security prison in Tallahassee, Florida.

The Justice Department said it has provided notice of the unsealing motions to all but one of the victims who are referenced in the grand jury transcripts. Federal prosecutors have been unable to contact that remaining victim.

“With respect to victims who are not identified in the grand jury transcripts but who have previously received victim notifications in the Maxwell and Epstein matters, the Government will over the coming days alert those victims to the fact of the unsealing motions,” the filing said.

On Monday, the court placed on the docket letters from anonymous purported Epstein victims criticizing the Trump administration’s approach.

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(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York declined on Monday to grant Sean “Diddy” Combs bail, finding no “exceptional reasons” to release him prior to his October sentencing.

Combs was convicted of transportation to engage in prostitution, which the judge said mandates incarceration. His sentencing is set for Oct. 3.

Judge Arun Subramanian said Combs remains a risk of flight and a danger to the community, pointing to the violence exhibited on 2016 hotel surveillance footage that shows him kicking and dragging Cassie Ventura.  

Defense attorneys said Combs transported male escorts not for profit or under duress but to join his “swingers lifestyle,” arguing those unique circumstances warranted release. The judge said that argument “might have traction” in a different case but not one that included evidence of violence, coercion or subjugation in connection with the prostitution.

“The record here contains evidence of all three,” Subramanian said.

“While Combs may contend at sentencing that this evidence should be discounted and that what happened was nothing more than a case of willing ‘swingers’ utilizing the voluntary services of escorts for their mutual pleasure, the Government takes the opposite view: that Cassie Ventura and Jane were beaten, coerced, threatened, lied to, and victimized by Combs as part of their participation in these events,” the opinion said. Combs also argued for release on bail because of the squalor and danger at the Metropolitan Detention Center. But the judge said jail staff “has been able to keep him safe,” even during an incident of threatened violence from an inmate, according to the opinion. The judge’s order did not elaborate on the nature of the threat or what jail staff did to mitigate it.

Combs has been incarcerated at the federal jail in Brooklyn for 11 months.

Following an eight-week federal trial, a jury convicted Combs last month of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution but acquitted him of more serious sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges.

Subramanian denied him bail following the verdict, citing then as well the violence that was “starkly depicted” in the 2016 hotel security footage.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Firefighters in Maui are battling a brush fire burning above Kaanapali, Hawaii, on Monday.

The fire is near the old Sugar Cane Train warehouse, the Maui Emergency Management Agency said.

Both lanes of Honoapiʻilani Highway between Puʻukoliʻi Road and Lower Honoapiʻilani Highway have been shut down amid firefighting efforts, according to the agency.

The Maui County Fire Department said in an update on X that the fire “is slowly being contained.”

Officials asked motorists to avoid the area. “Smoke continues to impact the highway, necessitating the continued road closure,” the department said.

The blaze is just a couple of miles north of where the devastating Lahaina wildfires occurred nearly two years ago.

The fires, which became the fifth deadliest in U.S. history, left over 100 people dead, destroyed thousands of structures and parched the local landscape.

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