Was the sinking of the Titan submersible ‘inevitable’? Shocking revelations from an Oceangate whistleblower – Firstpost

Was the tragedy surrounding Oceangate’s submersible Titan “inevitable”?

A former employee said this at a Coast Guard hearing.

David Lochridge, the company’s former operations manager, described the tragedy this week as “inevitable” and only a matter of time.

The Titan imploded on June 18, 2023, killing OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush and four others on board and sparking a global debate about the future of private underwater exploration.

Tony Nissen, another Oceangate employee, also said he felt pressured to finish the ship and refused to conduct any dives with the submarine.

OceanGate, based in Washington state, ceased operations after the implosion.

It owned the Titan and has brought it to the Titanic on several dives since 2021.

But what do the employees say? Was the sinking of the submersible Titan inevitable?

Let’s take a closer look:

What does he say?

ABC quoted Lochridge as saying that Oceangate hired him in 2015 to work on the Titan.

Lochridge joined the company as an experienced engineer and submersible pilot.

He said he quickly felt he was being exploited to give the company scientific credibility.

He said he felt like the company was selling him as part of the project “so that people would come and pay money,” and he didn’t like that.

“I felt like a show pony,” he said. “The company forced me to stand there and give presentations. It was difficult. I had to go up there and give presentations. Everything.”

According to BBC, Lochridge said he had repeatedly raised problems with the submarine since 2016 – and had been branded a troublemaker.

Lochridge said he was “taken out of circulation” after the collision with Rush.

“Total disregard for safety”

He also accused Rush of “arrogance” because he allegedly did not want to consult experts on the draft.

Washington Post quoted Lochridge as saying Rush had “complete disregard for safety, not just his own but everyone else’s,” Lochridge said. “He didn’t care.”

“The way this company approached this project, bypassing all the standardized rules and regulations set by experienced people… they bypassed everything,” Lochridge was quoted as saying by The Independent.

“It was inevitable that something would happen. It was just a [question of] when,” he continued.

Lochridge referred to a 2018 report that raised security concerns about OceanGate’s operations. He said that given all the security concerns he saw, “there’s no way I would consider signing that.”

“Ultimately, safety comes first,” Lochridge was quoted as saying by ABC News“Yes, you take a risk when you go down in a submersible, but don’t take unnecessary risks with faulty – and I mean faulty, inadequate – equipment.”

He also accused the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of not taking his complaints seriously.

“I believe that if OSHA had attempted to investigate the seriousness of the concerns I have raised on numerous occasions, this tragedy may have been prevented,” he said.

“As a seafarer, I am deeply disappointed with the system that is designed to protect not only seafarers but also the general public.”

According to ABC, Lochridge contacted OSHA in February 2018.

Lochridge said during his testimony that eight months after he filed an OSHA complaint, a caseworker told him the agency had not yet begun its investigation and that there were 11 more cases pending.

By that time, OceanGate had already sued Lochridge and Lochridge had filed a countersuit.

About ten months after he filed the complaint, he decided to withdraw the case. The case was closed and both charges were dropped.

“I gave them nothing, they gave me nothing,” he said of OceanGate.

OSHA officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

“Likes to make things cheap”

Lochridge had stated earlier that day that there had been frequent confrontations with the company’s co-founder and that he had the impression that the company was only interested in making money.

ABC quoted Lochridge as saying that Rush “liked to do things cheaply.”

He explained this with the “desire to get to the Titanic as quickly as possible in order to make a profit.”

“There was a lot of pressure to get this done,” he added. “Many steps were missed along the way.”

Lochridge was one of the most eagerly awaited witnesses to appear before a commission.

His testimony was consistent with that of other former employees on Monday, one of whom described OceanGate boss Stockton Rush as unpredictable and difficult to deal with.

“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge said. “Science was barely involved.”

Lochridge’s testimony began a day after other witnesses painted a picture of a struggling company eager to launch its unconventionally designed vessel. The accident sparked a global debate about the future of private underwater exploration.

“I knew it would fail”

When asked if he had confidence in the way the Titan was being built, he said: “No confidence at all.”

ABC quoted Lochridge as saying that Rush wanted to conduct manned safety tests of the prototype.

“I knew the hull was going to give way,” Lochridge said. “It’s absolute chaos.”

The New York Post Lochridge quoted him as saying that the hull was made of carbon fiber and only five inches thick

Lochridge added that ship hulls are typically made of titanium and that it weakens with each dive.

The submersible was exposed to the elements during its seven-month storage period in 2022 and 2023 and, as is customary, the hull was never inspected by a third party, Coast Guard officials said in their initial remarks Monday.

The lack of independent verification and the submersible’s unconventional design led to the Titan being subjected to critical scrutiny in the underwater research community.

Employee turnover was very high at the time, Lochridge says, and management dismissed his concerns because they were more focused on “poor engineering decisions” and the desire to get to the Titanic as quickly as possible and make money.

“It screams like a mother”

He said he was eventually fired after raising safety concerns.

The Independent quoted Lochridge as saying he was invited to a board meeting after raising concerns.

“That meeting turned out to be a two-hour discussion about my resignation and how my disagreements with the organization regarding safety were irrelevant,” he told the panel.

“I didn’t want to lose my job. I wanted to see the Titanic. But I wanted to dive for sure. That was also on my wish list,” he said.

ABC News cited OceanGate documents that indicated Lochridge and Ridge had reached an impasse regarding the hull.

“The only option was to terminate your employment,” the document states.

“It doesn’t just implode. It screams like a motherfucker before it implodes,” Rush said of carbon fiber, according to Lochridge.

Tony Nissen, OceanGate’s former engineering director, began his testimony Monday by telling investigators he felt pressured to get the ship ready to dive and refused to pilot it for several years before Titan’s final voyage. Nissen worked on a prototype hull built before the Titanic expeditions. “‘I’m not getting on that,'” Nissen told Rush.

Bonnie Carl, OceanGate’s former chief financial officer and human resources officer, testified Monday that Lochridge had described the Titan as “unsafe.”

Lochridge also noted that those who worked for Nissen “were kids straight out of university, some of them had never even been to university,” The New York Post.

Coast Guard officials noted at the beginning of the hearing that the submersible had not undergone an independent inspection, as is standard practice.

This and Titan’s unusual design led to the underwater research community being viewed with skepticism.

During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after exchanging text messages about Titan’s depth and weight during the descent. The escort vessel Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the vessel on its onboard display.

One of the Titan crew’s last messages to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded was “all is well here,” according to a visual recreation presented earlier during the hearing.

When the submersible’s arrival was reported delayed, rescue crews moved ships, aircraft and other equipment to an area about 700 kilometers south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage from the Titan was later found on the sea floor about 300 meters off the Titanic’s bow, Coast Guard officials said.

With contributions from agencies