Whistleblower testifies Titan submarine tragedy was ‘inevitable’

A former employee of the company behind the doomed Titan submersible told a public hearing he believed a safety incident was “inevitable” because the company had “bent” all standard rules.

Former OceanGate COO David Lochridge testified to U.S. Coast Guard investigators that he warned of potential safety concerns before he was fired in 2018 but was ignored.

Five people aboard the Titan submarine died when the experimental deep-sea craft imploded in June 2023 as it began a planned descent to the wreck of the Titanic.

Public hearings began Monday as part of a two-week investigation by the U.S. Coast Guard into the disaster. The probe has been ongoing for 15 months.

Mr Lochridge’s highly anticipated testimony on Tuesday marked the first time he had spoken publicly since raising concerns with his former employer.

He was fired from OceanGate and sued by the company for revealing confidential information. He countersued for wrongful termination.

A former key employee of the company, he had been tasked by CEO Stockton Rush with writing a quality inspection report for the Titan in 2018.

US court documents show Mr Lochridge had serious concerns about the Titan’s design, including that it was made from carbon fibre, warning the material would become more damaged with each dive.

On Tuesday, he told U.S. Coast Guard investigators that the “general idea” of OceanGate was to “make money.”

“There was very little in the way of science,” he said.

Mr Lochridge also accused the company and its CEO of “arrogance”, saying they refused to work with experts from the University of Washington to develop the Titan submersible and chose to do all the engineering in-house.

“They think they could do it themselves without proper technical support,” he said.

He testified that his relationship with the company began to deteriorate in 2016 because he raised safety concerns, saying he was likely labeled a “troublemaker” for his outspokenness.

Mr. Lockridge was one of ten former OceanGate employees, including co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein, and experts in maritime security and underwater exploration who were scheduled to testify before the Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Inquiry (MBI).

On Monday, authorities detailed communications between the Titan and its mothership, the Polar Prince.

It was revealed that “everything is fine here” was one of the submersible’s last messages before it imploded.

Former OceanGate technical director Tony Nissen testified at the hearing that he once refused to board the submarine several years before Titan’s final voyage.

“I’m not going to get in it,” Mr. Nissen told company CEO Rush, also testifying that he felt compelled to prepare the ship to dive.

While offering a historical overview of the Titan, officials noted that it had never undergone third-party testing and had been left exposed to the elements and the elements while in storage.

They noted that during 13 dives on the Titanic in 2021 and 2022, the submersible experienced 118 equipment problems.

Officials also gave some specific examples of submersible failures, including when its batteries died, leaving passengers trapped inside for 27 hours.

Besides OceanGate CEO, British explorer Hamish Harding, veteran French diver Paul Henri Nargeolet, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman were on board the ship.

OceanGate has suspended all exploration and commercial operations following the incident.