Titan Tragedy: Ex-OceanGate Employee Reveals Troubling Red Flags
Titan Tragedy: Ex-OceanGate Employee Reveals Troubling Red Flags
A former employee of OceanGate, the company behind the ill-fated Titan submersible, shared troubling information during the second day of the United States Coast Guard’s investigation into the vessel on Tuesday (Sep 17).
David Lochridge, who served as the director of marine operations from 2015 to 2018, testified about the issues he noticed at OceanGate. He pointed out some “red flags,” including co-founder Stockton Rush’s desire to become a qualified submersible pilot in just one day, a process that usually takes much longer.
Lochridge also described Rush’s personality and mentioned a dangerous incident during a dive to the Andrea Doria wreck site, where Rush’s mistake led to him angrily throwing a “PlayStation controller” at Lochridge’s head.
Lochridge’s involvement with OceanGate
He explained that his involvement with OceanGate began in 2015 when his wife noticed a job advertisement while he was working offshore in the North Sea. Lochridge applied, thinking it would be a good match, and after a phone interview, he visited the company in May 2015. From the start, he said, OceanGate’s goal was to reach the Titanic wreck.
Issues with the pilot training process
Lochridge expressed concern about the company’s training process, stating, “OceanGate wanted to qualify a pilot in a day, someone who had never even been inside a submersible.” He called this a major red flag, explaining that there was no formal training program for the pilots, and no one was properly trained to operate the submersible.
He also noted that the Titan was the “only submersible that wasn’t fully certified” by safety organisations. When he asked why Rush and the engineering director, Tony Nissen, insisted on handling the engineering themselves, Lochridge attributed it to their “arrogance,” saying, “They thought they could manage without proper engineering support.”
Lochridge is one of 10 former OceanGate employees testifying in front of the Titan Marine Board of Investigation, alongside 24 other witnesses.
The Titan’s catastrophic implosion on June 18, 2023, claimed the lives of Stockton Rush, British explorer Hamish Harding, businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, as well as French deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
(With inputs from agencies)