David Lochridge, former Director of Marine Operations at OceanGate, testified at a hearing investigating the fatal implosion of the Titan submersible, which occurred in June 2023.
Story Summary:
- David Lochridge, former OceanGate employee, testified that the 2023 Titan submersible implosion was avoidable.
- The Titan submersible imploded during a dive to the Titanic, killing five people, including OceanGate’s CEO, Stockton Rush.
- Lochridge raised concerns in 2018 about safety issues, particularly the lack of testing on the submersible’s hull and viewport.
- His warnings were dismissed, and he was terminated after highlighting these concerns.
David Lochridge testifies at OceanGate Hearing
Lochridge explained that the catastrophe was avoidable, had warnings about the submersible’s design and construction been heeded.
His testimony came after the release of photos showing the wreckage of the Titan, including a broken tail cone lying on the ocean floor.
All five people aboard the submersible, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood, were killed during an expedition to explore the Titanic wreck.
The Titan lost contact with its mother ship just six seconds after sending a final message about dropping ballast weights.
This loss of communication marked the beginning of a multi-day international search and rescue effort that ultimately led to the discovery of the wreckage several hundred yards from the Titanic.
During the hearing, Lochridge testified that concerns he raised during his time with OceanGate were ignored, leading him to believe that the implosion could have been prevented if proper actions had been taken.
The Marine Board of Investigation, chaired by Jason Neubauer, is reviewing various aspects of the incident, including crew member qualifications, mechanical systems, and emergency procedures.
Neubauer stated that the board’s task is to uncover the facts behind the incident and determine whether there was any misconduct or negligence.
The Alarm bells Lochridge sounded off about Titan in 2018
In 2018, David Lochridge raised multiple concerns about the Titan submersible’s design and construction, documented in a formal report known as the “OceanGate Cyclops 2 Quality Control Inspection Report“.
One of Lochridge’s main concerns was the carbon fibre hull, which OceanGate used instead of traditional metallic materials.
He noted that the hull had not undergone critical non-destructive testing, which would have revealed potential defects such as delaminations or voids in the structure.
According to Lochridge, OceanGate chose to rely solely on an acoustic monitoring system to detect potential failures.
This system would only alert the crew of imminent failure moments before an implosion, leaving no time to address any structural weaknesses.
Lochridge also expressed concerns about the viewport, which he stated was certified to withstand pressures only at a depth of 1,300 metres, while the Titan was intended to dive as deep as 4,000 metres.
OceanGate, according to Lochridge, refused to invest in a viewport capable of withstanding greater depths.
Furthermore, Lochridge said that passengers were not informed about the experimental nature of the submersible’s design, which he believed presented significant risks.
After submitting his report and raising these issues in meetings, Lochridge was terminated from his position.
He stated that OceanGate management rejected his recommendations to conduct non-destructive testing on the submersible and to involve independent certification agencies such as the American Bureau of Shipping.
He maintained that this refusal to address safety concerns was a direct cause of his dismissal.