OceanGate wanted Titan sub pilots to dive to Titanic after just one days training, whistleblower reveals
17 September 2024, 14:38 | Updated: 17 September 2024, 15:28
The company behind the doomed Titan sub wanted to train pilots to dive to the Titanic in just one day, an inquiry has heard.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
David Lochridge, OceanGate’s former operations director, is one of the most anticipated witnesses to appear before a commission trying to determine what caused the Titan to implode en route to the wreckage of the Titanic last year, killing all five people on board.
His testimony echoed that of other former employees from Monday, one of whom described OceanGate head Stockton Rush as volatile and difficult to work with.
Read More: Haunting last words from doomed Titan sub revealed as inquiry into OceanGate tragedy begins
Mr Lochridge said how how he reached out to OceanGate in 2015 after his wife saw an advert for a job.
He was working offshore in the North Sea at the time and sent OceanGate his resume.Lochridge says it "seemed like a good fit," and after a phone call he went to see them in May 2015.
He says "from the outset", OceanGate told him the company's plan was to go to the Titanic. OceanGate "wanted to be able to qualify a pilot in a day, somebody that had never sat in a submersible,"
Mr Lochridge told the US Coast Guard hearing into the disaster: "That is a huge red flag."
The inquiry was told Mr Lochridge was made OceanGate marine operations director in January 2016 and was responsible for ensuring the safety of all crew and clients and training pilots, though none became qualified, he said.
He said: "I was the only qualified submersible pilot to fly the assets that we had. I was the only one with experience in new-build submersibles."
He said he would meet with those paying to use the sub and felt like a "show pony" who was made to do talks. "It was difficult. I had to go up and do presentations all about my experience," he said.
"In my eyes, even at the time, they were selling me as part of this project."
The hearing then turned to a document titled "pilot training manual" for a manned submersible called 'Cyclops 1'. Mr Lochridge said senior management reined him in when he wanted to put more detailed information in the manual. "The intention for OceanGate, unbeknownst to me when I came across, they wanted to qualify a pilot in a day. Somebody who had never sat in a submersible," he said, adding this included taking other passengers in the sub.
"That is a huge red flag. That is a no-no. You don't do that. It is a long process."
“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Mr Lochridge said. “There was very little in the way of science.”
Mr Rush was among the five people who died in the implosion. OceanGate owned the Titan and brought it on several dives to the Titanic going back to 2021.
Mr Lochridge began giving evidence a day after other witnesses painted a picture of a troubled company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.
OceanGate’s former engineering director, Tony Nissen, began Monday’s evidence, telling investigators that he felt pressured to get the vessel ready to dive and refused to pilot it for a journey several years before Titan’s last trip.“‘I’m not getting in it,’” Mr Nissen said he told Rush.When asked if there was pressure to get Titan into the water, Mr Nissen responded, “100%.”
But asked if he felt that the pressure compromised safety decisions and testing, Mr Nissen paused, then replied, “No. And that’s a difficult question to answer because given infinite time and infinite budget, you could do infinite testing.”
Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.
During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about the Titan’s depth and weight as it descended.
The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.
One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual re-creation presented earlier in the hearing.
When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometres) south of St John’s, Newfoundland.
Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said.
Scheduled to appear later in the hearing are OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein and former scientific director, Steven Ross, according to a list compiled by the Coast Guard.
