A key worker who a doomed experimental submersible deemed unsafe before his final, fatal ride, testified Tuesday that the tragedy might have been prevented if a federal safety agency had investigated his criticism.
David Lochridge, OceanGate’s former operations manager, said he felt let down by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s decision not to research the criticism.
“I believe that if OSHA had attempted to investigate the seriousness of the concerns I have raised on numerous occasions, this tragedy may have been prevented,” he told a commission trying to find out what caused the Titan to implode because it was en path to the wreck of the Titanic last yr, killing all five aboard. “As a mariner, I am deeply disappointed in the system that is supposed to protect not only mariners but the public.”
Lochridge said during his testimony that eight months after he filed an OSHA criticism, a caseworker told him the agency had not yet begun its investigation and he still had 11 cases pending. By that point, OceanGate had already sued Lochridge and he had filed a countersuit.
About ten months after he filed the criticism, he decided to withdraw the case. The case was closed and each charges were dropped.
“I gave them nothing, they gave me nothing,” he said of OceanGate.
OSHA officials didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment Tuesday.
Lochridge had stated earlier that day that there had been frequent confrontations with the corporate’s co-founder and that he had the impression that the corporate was only focused on getting cash.
Lochridge was one in all the highly anticipated witnesses to seem before a commission. His testimony was much like that of other former employees on Monday, one in all whom described OceanGate boss Stockton Rush as unpredictable and difficult to take care of.
“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge said. “Science was barely involved.”
Rush was one in all five people killed within the implosion. OceanGate owned the Titan and has brought it to the Titanic on several dives since 2021.
Lochridge’s testimony began a day after other witnesses painted an image of a troubled company waiting impatiently to unconventionally designed craftsmanship into the water. The accident sparked a world debate in regards to the way forward for private underwater exploration.
Lochridge joined the corporate within the mid-2010s as an experienced engineer and submersible pilot and said he quickly felt he was getting used only to offer the corporate scientific credibility. He felt the corporate was selling him as a part of the project “so that people would come and pay money,” and he didn’t like that.
“I felt like a show pony,” he said. “The company forced me to stand there and give presentations. It was difficult. I had to go up there and give presentations. Everything.”
Lochridge referred to a 2018 report that raised security concerns about OceanGate’s operations. He said that given all the safety concerns he saw, “there’s no way I would consider signing that.”
When asked if he had confidence in the best way the Titan was being built, he said: “No confidence at all.”
Employee turnover was very high on the time, Lochridge said, and management ignored his concerns because they were more focused on “poor engineering decisions” and the will to get to the Titanic as quickly as possible and become profitable. He was eventually fired after raising the protection concerns, he said.
“I didn’t want to lose my job. I wanted to see the Titanic. But I wanted to dive for sure. That was also on my wish list,” he said.
OceanGate, based in Washington state, ceased operations after the implosion.
Former OceanGate engineering director Tony Nissen began his testimony Monday by telling investigators he felt pressured to get the ship able to dive and refused to pilot it for several years before Titan’s final voyage. Nissen worked on a hull prototype built before the Titanic expeditions.
“‘I’m not doing this,'” Nissen told Rush.
Bonnie Carl, OceanGate’s former chief financial officer and human resources officer, testified Monday that Lochridge had described the Titan as “unsafe.”
Coast Guard officials noted initially of the hearing that the submersible had not undergone the same old independent testing. This, and Titan’s unusual design, led to it being subjected to critical scrutiny within the underwater research community.
During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after exchanging text messages about Titan’s depth and weight through the descent. The escort vessel Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the vessel on its onboard display.
One of the Titan crew’s last messages to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded was “all is well here,” in keeping with a visible recreation presented earlier through the hearing.
When the submersible’s overdue condition was reported, rescue crews rushed ships, aircraft and other equipment to an area about 700 kilometers south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage from the Titan was later found on the ocean floor about 300 meters off the Titanic’s bow, Coast Guard officials said.
OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein and former science director Steven Ross are also expected to seem on the hearing later, in keeping with a Coast Guard list. Numerous guard officials, scientists, and government and industry representatives are also expected to testify. The U.S. Coast Guard has subpoenaed witnesses who will not be government employees, Coast Guard spokeswoman Melissa Leake said.
Also absent from the hearing’s witness list is Rush’s widow, Wendy Rush, the corporate’s communications director. Lochridge said Wendy Rush played an lively role in the corporate during his tenure.
When asked about Wendy Rush’s absence, Leake said the Coast Guard doesn’t comment on the the reason why certain people will not be called to a specific hearing during an ongoing investigation. She said it is not uncommon for a Marine Board of Investigation “to hold multiple hearings or take additional testimony in complex cases.”
OceanGate currently has no full-time employees but will likely be represented by counsel through the hearing, the corporate said in a press release. The company said it has been cooperating fully with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began.
The ongoing Marine Board of Investigation is the very best level of marine casualty investigation conducted by the Coast Guard. After the hearing is accomplished, recommendations are made to the Commandant of the Coast Guard. The National Transportation Safety Board also conducts an investigation.
