David Lochridge, the former director of operations at OceanGate, stated at a recent public hearing that he thought a safety issue was “inevitable” because of the company’s disregard for conventional operating procedures. Lochridge raised concerns about potential OceanGate Titan safety issues before they fired him in 2018. However, he claims the company ignored his warnings.
A dive to the Titanic ruins in June 2023 killed five people on the Titan submarine. On Monday, the US Coast Guard began a two-week inquiry into the disaster as part of a 15-month probe. Lochridge had severe worries about the Titan’s design in his first public statement after voicing his concerns about OceanGate. He specifically mentioned the use of carbon material, which he thought would degrade with every dive. He also stated that “there was very little in the way of science” in their methodology, charging the corporation with putting profit ahead of scientific integrity.
Lochridge also chastised OceanGate and CEO Stockton Rush for their conceit and inability to work with University of Washington specialists. He asserted that instead of obtaining the necessary assistance, the business decided to manage engineering internally. OceanGate fired Lochridge due to his self-described troublemaker status and his persistent safety concerns.
The session highlighted key contacts between the Titan and its mother ship, the Polar Prince. Among the final communications was the message “All good here” before the submersible lost contact and collapsed. Officials briefly recounted the Titan’s history, noting that it was exposed to weather during storage and never underwent third-party testing.
According to the hearing, during the 13 dives to the Titanic in 2021 and 2022, the Titan had 118 equipment malfunctions. One particular set of problems was a battery breakdown that confined people inside for 27 hours. Other tragic submersible passengers were Stockton Rush, French diver Paul Henri Nargeolet, British explorer Hamish Harding, and Pakistani entrepreneur Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman. OceanGate titan submersible safety issues halted all commercial and exploratory operations after the event.
