Years Before “Titan” Implosion, CEO Told Passengers to 'Brace Yourselves' for 'Loud Noises' During Dive: Hearing

Karl Stanley, a passenger on the 2019 dive, testified that "nobody wanted to be the one to say they wanted to go up first"

In a dive that took place years before the Titan submersible's doomed voyage to the Titanic, Stockton Rush warned that there would be "loud noises," according to one of the passengers.

Karl Stanley, a friend of Rush's as well as the owner of the Roatan Institute of Deepsea Exploration, a diving expedition business, testified on Tuesday, Sept. 24, as the Coast Guard's ongoing hearings into the tragedy entered its sixth day.

Stanley said that he was invited by Rush to come to the Bahamas in April 2019 for a crewed dive with the OceanGate co-founder and two other people.

"He told us to be prepared for noises,” Stanley said of Rush, “He had recently done [a] solo dive on his own, and basically just said, ‘This is going to make noise’ and ‘Brace yourselves.’ ”

Related: Titan Sub Malfunctioned Days Before Deadly Implosion, Causing Passengers to Tumble, Ex-Scientific Chief Testifies

Stanley said that in retrospect that there were a lot of “red flags” during the dive, including the noise, which he believed was the carbon fiber hull snapping.

“We were hearing it so often,” he told the investigators on the panel, noting that even though Rush had warned them, “The first couple of times [were unnerving].”

He added that "nobody wanted to be the one to say they wanted to go up first."

Related: Final Message from Doomed Titan Sub Revealed, Sent Seconds Before Losing Contact with the Surface

During the hearing, the Coast Guard also reviewed emails between Stanley and Rush over concerns with the sub, with Stanley writing in one message:  “I think that hull has a defect near that flange, that will only get worse. The only question in my mind is will it fail catastrophically or not.”

In that same email, Stanley claimed that Rush had "indirectly told me not to speak about the noises I heard on the dive."

A month after the dive, ABC News reported that a crack was found in the hull, but that the vessel was not used for any dives to the Titanic.

During earlier testimony, former OceanGate employee Antonella Wilby said that noise had been at the heart of a customer's concerns after another dive in 2022.

Wilby said during her testimony that the customer reported a bang "as loud as an explosion" was heard upon resurfacing, but, she claimed that after raising her corners, she was allegedly told, "you don't seem to have an explorer's mindset."

Eventually, Wilby quit.

Related: Titan Mission Specialist Refutes Account of CEO Panicking but Says Crew Considered Using Ctrl+Alt+Delete During a Dive

During his testimony on Sept. 24, Stanley said that he regretted taking part in the 2019 dive.

“There’s a lot of things that, if I had known, I wouldn’t have gone. People have told me that I was stupid, naive," he said. "A lot of the things I’ve learned in the last 18 months have been very shocking.”

In his final remarks, Stanley went on to say that he believed Rush was motivated by "a desire to leave his mark on history," but that his business plan made “zero sense.”

“I think these wealthy individuals...threw money at him,” Stanley said. “And he was painted into a corner…I think that’s why he kept diving."

Stanley’s comments to the panel echoed similar remarks that he made in a 60 Minutes Australia interview last year.  “He definitely knew it was going to end like this,” he said at the time about Rush. “He quite literally and figuratively went out with the biggest bang in human history that you can go out with.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

The investigative hearings, which began on Sept. 16 and are expected to conclude on Friday, Sept. 27, have featured testimonies from former OceanGate employees discussing their experiences and concerns regarding the company's operations, especially in the area of safety.

In an earlier statement obtained by PEOPLE, OceanGate wrote that the company "has no full-time employees," and has "been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB [National Transportation Safety Board] investigations since they began, including at the ongoing public hearing convened by the Coast Guard. OceanGate is represented at the hearing by Jane Shvets and Adrianna Finger of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP."

"OceanGate expresses our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those who died in the tragic implosion of the Titan," the statement read. "There are no words to ease the loss endured by the families impacted by this devastating incident, but we hope that this hearing will help shed light on the cause of the tragedy."

The Coast Guard hearings will resume on Wednesday, Sept. 25. 

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.