David Lochridge, the former operations director for OceanGate, the firm behind the deep sea diving craft, testified during a US Coast Guard hearing that he alerted the company to safety concerns he had about the submersible, but was largely ignored.
His testimony came as video footage of the remains of Titan was released for the first time by the Coast Guard. In the video, a broken tail cone can be seen on the ocean floor, with fragments of the vessel visible around the cone.
During his highly anticipated testimony, Lochridge said that the “whole idea” of OceanGate was to “make money”, adding: “There was very little in the way of science.”
Safety Concerns Ignored: A Warning Heeded Too Late
Lochridge told the hearing of his doubts about how the Titan was built in 2017. “[I had] no confidence whatsoever, and I was very vocal about that, and still am,” he said.
Lochridge was later fired in 2018 and sued by OceanGate, alleging that he improperly disclosed confidential information to regulators. The company also accused Lochridge of refusing to listen to assurances from a lead engineer on the matter. Lochridge and OceanGate settled their suit in November 2018.
Lochridge also gave an account of the OceanGate CEO, Stockton Rush, previously crashing another submersible in 2016 after attempting to pilot the vessel to the Andrea Doria shipwreck, located off the Massachusetts coast.
During that chaotic and near-disastrous trip, Rush reportedly threw the vessel’s controls at Lochridge in a fit of rage after a passenger asked that someone else pilot the submersible when, Lochridge said, Stockton rushed the craft too close to the wreck, got into difficulty and panicked, then would not cede control until the tearful passenger yelled at him.
The US Coast Guard hearing to investigate the Titan tragedy comes more than a year after the submersible experienced a “catastrophic implosion” deep underwater under intense ocean pressure on its way to the Titanic wreck at the bottom of the north Atlantic.
Five people, including Rush, were killed in the June 2023 incident. The other victims were the British explorer Hamish Harding; the British businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman; and the French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
A Culture of Profit over Safety
Lochridge’s testimony paints a disturbing picture of a company prioritizing profit over safety, pushing the launch of the Titan before it was adequately tested and reviewed. He claims that OceanGate bypassed “all the standardized rules and regulations” in their rush to “push” the launch for profit-making purposes.
“It was inevitable something was going to happen. It was just a [question of] when,” Lochridge told the Coast Guard’s Titan Marine Board of Investigations panel.
He further emphasized that “they were very push push push to get this out the door as fast as possible so they could start making profit,” highlighting the company’s reckless disregard for potential risks.
A Submersible Flawed from the Start
Lochridge was far from alone in his concerns. He said that the Titan's hull was made of carbon fiber and only five inches thick, significantly thinner than the titanium hulls typically used in deep-sea submersibles. This decision, combined with the submersible’s unconventional design, subjected the Titan to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.
The Coast Guard also noted that the Titan had never been independently reviewed, a standard practice for such vessels. Lochridge felt that the Titan was an “abomination of a sub” and that the company’s “total disregard for safety” made the tragedy almost inevitable.
A Tragic End: Lessons for the Future?
The tragedy of the Titan submersible has raised serious questions about the regulation and safety of private undersea exploration. Experts believe that this incident could lead to stricter regulations for future companies offering similar ventures, ensuring that a similar tragedy never occurs again.
As investigators delve deeper into the cause of the Titan’s implosion, the world awaits the answers. The findings of the US Coast Guard hearing, and the subsequent actions taken, could have a profound impact on the future of deep-sea exploration, ensuring that the pursuit of adventure does not come at the cost of human life.
