A former OceanGate worker reportedly confided in one of his colleagues that he had serious concerns over the company’s CEO Stockton Rush, a series of leaked emails published by The New Yorker has revealed.
David Lochridge, formerly the director of marine operations at OceanGate until 2018, was one of multiple expedition leaders and employees who were interviewed by the outlet.
In the bombshell report – which detailed how the Titan submersible was “an accident waiting to happen” – Lochridge revealed that he’d been fired for continuing to raise concerns about the safety of the sub during much of its building process.
Throughout the report, Lochridge consistently claims that his warnings – which were delivered when he was on the factory floor – were routinely dismissed by management.
In fact, he stated that he’d even emailed OceanGate’s project associate Rob McCallum shortly after being fired in 2018, where he wrote that he was worried Rush would wind up dead on the submersible. He added that he believed Rush’s quest to “boost his ego” would get himself and others killed.
Sadly, Lochridge’s email foreshadowed an eerie series of events that saw the Titan – which had been on a doomed voyage to visit the wreck of the Titanic – meet a catastrophic end on June 18, with the incident resulting in the tragic loss of five lives.
As well as Rush, four other men perished on the trip – including British entrepreneur Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani-British billionaire Shahzada Dawood, and his teenage son, Suleman.
Just four days after the vessel was initially reported missing, the US Coast Guard said the Titan submersible was destroyed by a ‘catastrophic implosion’.
One of the emails sent by Lochridge and obtained by the New Yorker read: “I don’t want to be seen as a Tattle tale but I’m so worried he kills himself and others in the quest to boost his ego.”
He then reportedly continued: “I would consider myself pretty ballsy when it comes to doing things that are dangerous, but that sub is an accident waiting to happen. There’s no way on earth you could have paid me to dive the thing.”
Lochridge admitted there was a multitude of errors and issues with the Titan sub that sparked concerns, which he had discovered after a thorough inspection.
One particular issue was part of a since-settled lawsuit filed in the Seattle District Court by Lochridge, where he stated that he had found glue that was peeling away at the seams of the sub’s ballast bags, and that haphazardly placed mounting bolts could potentially cause a rupture.
In the legal documents, Lochridge also alleged that he’d located snagging hazards, and that he was concerned by the fact that vital components on the vessel were attached with zip-ties. Not only this, but the former employee noted the Titan had flammable flooring and interior vinyl wrapping that would apparently emit toxic gases upon ignition.
Lochridge, however, did have one chief concern with the sub – which he stated in the court documents was the vessel’s carbon fiber core. According to the explosive report, this safety measure was responsible for keeping passengers on board the sub alive as they plunged to the icy depths of the Titanic wreckage, which is rest 13,000 feet down in the Atlantic Ocean.
At those depths, external water pressure is at its peak, hence why Lochridge had been relentless in voicing his concerns. He stated that the carbon fiber pressure chamber was not something previously used in any other deep ocean sub, meaning it hadn’t been heavily tested.
In his lawsuit, Lochridge stated that he believed the sub needed to be subjected to more testing. “Verbal communication of the key items I have addressed in my attached document have been dismissed on several occasions, so I feel now I must make this report so there is an official record in place,” he reportedly wrote, adding that he had refused to sign off on the submersible.
“Until suitable corrective actions are in place and closed out, Cyclops 2 [Titan] should not be manned during any of the upcoming trials,” he continued.
This reportedly infuriated Rush, who swiftly fired Lochridge.
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