A crucial employee, David Lochridge, testified on Tuesday regarding his concerns about the safety of an experimental submersible, known as the Titan, prior to its disastrous voyage to the Titanic wreckage where it imploded, resulting in the loss of all five people on board. Lochridge, OceanGate’s former operations director, indicated that the company’s primary focus was profit, with little emphasis on scientific endeavors.
Lochridge’s testimony aligned with that of other previous employees, who described the company’s co-founder, Stockton Rush, as confrontational and solely driven by financial gains. Rush was among those who perished in the Titan implosion, as OceanGate owned and operated the submersible during its dives to the Titanic wreckage since 2021.
The insights provided by Lochridge came following a series of testimonies painting a troubling image of OceanGate as an organization eager to deploy its unique craft into the depths of the ocean. The fatal accident sparked global discussions about the future of private undersea exploration, leading the Washington-based company to halt its operations.
Former engineering director, Tony Nissen, also shared his experiences during Monday’s hearing, highlighting the pressure felt to ready the Titan for dives and his reluctance to pilot the vessel years before its fatal voyage. Despite acknowledging external pressure, Nissen stated that safety decisions and testing were not compromised, albeit underlined the constraints of time and budget.
Bonnie Carl, OceanGate’s former finance and human resources director, echoed Lochridge’s concerns about the Titan’s safety. Coast Guard officials highlighted the absence of independent reviews of the submersible, a standard procedure, pointing to its unconventional design that piqued interest within the undersea exploration community.
The final dive of the Titan, on June 18, 2023, ended in tragedy when contact was lost with the crew during the descent after discussions about the submersible’s depth and weight. Search efforts led to the discovery of the Titan’s wreckage near the Titanic, prompting a detailed examination of the events leading to the implosion.
The ongoing Marine Board of Investigation, managed by the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board, aims to uncover the circumstances surrounding the Titan disaster. OceanGate, currently devoid of full-time staff, is cooperating fully with the investigations, with the final recommendations expected to be presented to the Coast Guard’s commandant upon the hearing’s conclusion.
