Latest news with #Lochridge
Time of India
4 days ago
- General
- Time of India
‘People were sold a lie': Oceangate whistleblower warned of Titan risks before 2023 implosion; was aware ‘there would be an incident'
AP file photo David Lochridge, a former employee of Oceangate, has reiterated longstanding safety concerns following the release of a US Coast Guard report that identifies significant failures by the company as the primary cause of the 2023 Titan submersible disaster. "I always hoped that what happened wouldn't happen. But I just knew if they kept carrying on the way they were going and with that deficient equipment, then there would be an incident," Lochridge was quoted as saying by the BBC. "There is so much that could have been done differently. From the initial design, to the build, to the operations - people were sold a lie," he said. OceanGate was developing a new submersible designed to take paying passengers to the site of the Titanic wreck. However, in June 2023, the vessel tragically imploded during a dive, killing all five people on board, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush. The whistleblower was dismissed by OceanGate in 2018 after raising concerns about safety issues related to the submersible. He had joined the company seven years prior as its director of Marine Operations. "As the director of marine operations, I'm the one responsible for everybody," he said, reported the BBC. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Remember Him? Sit Down Before You See What He Looks Like Now 33 Bridges Undo "I was responsible for the safety of all Oceangate personnel and all of the passengers that were going to be coming in the sub." As chief pilot, his duties involved planning dives and personally operating the submersible, taking passengers 3,800 meters below the surface to view the Titanic. Ensuring safety was a central part of his role. The submersible that would later be named Titan was initially developed in collaboration with the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), with plans to construct its passenger hull with carbon fibre, a material that is not used for deep-diving subs, which typically rely on titanium or steel. Despite initially trusting the expertise of the APL team, Lochridge's confidence began to wane by mid-2016 as OceanGate ended its partnership with APL and moved the design and construction of Titan in-house. "At that point, I started asking questions… and I felt I had a duty of care to keep asking them," said Lochridge. "When the carbon hull came in, it was an absolute mess,' he added, noting visible flaws in the material. Lochridge was called to a meeting with Rush and other Oceangate employees after he submitted a report listing out the issues he was seeing. "I have no desire to die. I've got a nice granddaughter. I'm going to be around. I understand this kind of risk, and I'm going into it with eyes open, and I think this is one of the safest things I will ever do,' Rush said in the meeting in response to Lochridge raising safety concerns, reports the BBC. Lochridge contacted the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which deemed his case urgent due to public safety risks and placed him under its whistleblower protection program. OSHA forwarded concerns to the US Coast Guard in February 2018. By July 2018, OceanGate sued Lochridge and his wife, alleging breach of contract and other claims. He responded with a countersuit for unfair dismissal. But by December 2018, they decided to drop the case. OceanGate pressed ahead with its plans to reach the Titanic at full speed.
Daily Record
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Titan sub Scot branded 'hero' for trying to halt dive before being fired for raising concerns
Glaswegian David Lochridge, who was the former Director of Marine Operations, warned OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush about the dangers of the Titan sub before he was sacked for speaking up A Scot who tried to halt the journey of the fatal Titan submersible has been "unsung hero". Glaswegian David Lochridge attempted to stop the sub ahead of its doomed journey to the wreckage, which led to the death of five people on board. David has been praised by viewers for his admirable efforts amid the release of a Netflix documentary on the disaster. The streaming platform released TITAN: The OceanGate Disaster last week, which explores the events leading up to the tragedy on June 18, 2023. The submersible had been making a trip to the Titanic ruins in the north Atlantic when it imploded, killing everyone in an instant. Among the dead were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61, French Pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, British businessman and explorer Hamish Harding, 58, Shahzada Dawood, 48, a Pakistani/British/Maltese businessman, and his teenage son Suleman Dawood, 19, who was a student at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. The documentary shows the shocking footage of the moment American born Rush fires his Director of Marine Operations, Lochridge, for expressing his expertise concerns about the safety of the Titan vessel. In one incident shown in the film, Rush told Lochridge at the last minute that he wanted to pilot the sub for a test dive to the Andrea Doria shipwreck despite the Scot's vast experience. Lochridge managed to persuade Rush that he should at least let him join him and the other four paying passengers onboard. Luckily, he did, because at one point Rush crashes the sub onto the wreck and it is Lochridge who herocially guides them out of the danger. After the incident, Lochridge explained how Rush told him "I owe you one" but then went on to leave him out of important meetings. He said Rush "never really spoke to me the rest of the trip," adding the "dynamic changed" between them. He added that he was "cut out by senior management from the Titan project," and "was dropped from all email communications, verbal communications," leaving him "totally out of the loop". After asking Lochridge to carry out an inspection on the sub, Rush fired him that day after receiving his notes which detailed faults. In a recording of the moment Lochridge was let go by Rush, viewers can hear him telling him he was "full of s**t" as he says, "I don't want anyone in this company who is uncomfortable with what we're doing". After Rush fired Lochridge, he then said he felt a duty to report his concerns to the Occupational Safety and Health Administrations, revealing that the sub was made from carbon fibre and that the OceanGate CEO has chosen not to classify the Titan vessel. Lochridge, who repeatedly made his feelings clear about the doomed vessel, is hailed as an "unsung hero" by submersible consultant Rob McCallum who was also against the Titan being used. Lochridge, who had previously piloted OceanGate expeditions, was advised that he would be protected after filing the complaint. However, OceanGate discovered his responsibility and filed a lawsuit against him for breach of contract and fraud. CEO Rush is heard saying in the documentary that he has no issue in "ruining a life" and Lochridge was forced to withdraw his complaint due to the financial impact it was having on his family and the slow pace which the case was moving at as OSHA investigator Paul McDevitt explained they had a number of other pressing cases to deal with first. Lochridge described OceanGate's lawsuit as an attempt to "keep [him] quiet so they could proceed with the project". He added that he could not believe Stockton and other staff members "were willing to play Russian roulette". Speaking about the potential dangers of the Titan in 2017, he said: "The worst things that can happen take place at shallow depths - that's where you see the biggest pressure changes. "The biggest hurdle, especially with the Atlantic, is that the weather conditions are at the beck and call of Mother Nature. We have a mobile subsea launch and recovery system, which we can deploy from once the sub is down at depth, so we should be out of the way of all the topside weather conditions."
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
OceanGate's former chief pilot says he was 'cut out' from the Titan project after telling CEO Stockton Rush the sub wasn't safe
'Titan: The OceanGate Disaster' examines the 2023 submarine accident that killed five people. OceanGate's former chief pilot said Stockton Rush crashed into a shipwreck in 2016. David Lochridge said he was cut from the project for voicing his concerns. The former chief pilot of OceanGate said the company's CEO ignored his warnings that the Titan submersible — which was destroyed in a deadly implosion — was unsafe. David Lochridge made the claim in Netflix's new documentary, "Titan: The OceanGate Disaster." It examines what went wrong in the run-up to the Titan's visit to the wreck of the Titanic, which ended in the CEO of OceanGate, Stockton Rush, and four others dying onboard. Lochridge recalled just how determined Rush was to achieve his goal of making deep-sea tourism a reality. The documentary features archival footage of Rush and his team building submersibles, including the Titan. In one clip taken from an interview with CBS, Rush says: "By the time we're done testing it, I believe it's pretty much invulnerable." Lochridge was OceanGate's director of marine operations and the company's chief pilot from 2015 to 2018. He recalled how in 2016, Rush chartered a dive with the Titan's predecessor, the Cyclops 1 submarine, to see the SS Andrea Doria wreck off the coast of Massachusetts. The ship sank in 1956 after colliding with the SS Stockholm due to heavy fog. Lochridge said he had to persuade Stockton to let him accompany him on the voyage, which included paying passengers, after he decided to pilot it himself. Footage from inside the Cyclops during the dive, featured in the documentary, shows Rush piloting the submarine into a debris field underneath the bow of the Andrea Doria. The craft gets stuck, and Lochridge takes over the controls to pilot it to safety. "He had us jammed good and proper. I said to him, 'Please don't do anything. Just give me the controller.' He didn't have a lot of experience in piloting subs," Lochridge said. "At that point, I got us clear, I motored us 50 meters away, turned us round and I said 'That is what we were supposed to have fucking done on the dive,'" he added. Lochridge said that after the crew resurfaced, Rush's attitude toward him changed. "The passengers were hugging, but with Stockton, it was a complete turnaround for me. He never really spoke to me the rest of the trip. The dynamic changed. After the Andrea Doria, I started getting cut out by senior management from the Titan project. I was dropped from all email communications, verbal communications. I was totally out of the loop," he said. Lochridge said he was fired two years later in 2018 after he discussed his safety concerns with Rush in a meeting about the Andrea Doria incident. In 2023, OceanGate threatened to sue Lochridge if he didn't withdraw his allegations to the US Department of Labor that he was fired in retaliation for raising these concerns. In the documentary, Lochridge said that he was worried about the stability of Titan's carbon fiber hull and the caliber of the design team working on the project. He said: "I was seeing every single piece, and pretty much every single piece had an issue. The engineering director, Tony Nissen, we used to argue on a regular basis. He brought in people with very little experience from the manned submersible industry. A lot of them were fresh out of college." "At the time, I had no experience with carbon fiber, but for the untrained eye, it was like Swiss cheese. You could actually see the porosity, you could see the delaminations, you could see all the voids," he continued, referring to the separation of layers. Nissen also appears in the documentary and said he was pressured by Rush to "make sure nobody spoke up." Footage from 2018 also shows Rush arguing with Lochridge as he believed that the submarine could handle pressure at the extreme depths. "What you do is you set a testing program where you do it incrementally. It's not just going to go to 3100 [metres] and be perfect, and at 3200 [metres] it all goes anyway. That ain't going to happen, and I will put my life on the line to say that ain't going to happen," he said. OceanGate ceased operations in July 2023 and could not be reached for comment. "Titan: The OceanGate Disaster" is streaming on Netflix. Read the original article on Business Insider
Scottish Sun
12-06-2025
- Business
- Scottish Sun
Chilling audio of doomed Titan sub boss ‘sacking engineer who questioned mission's safety' before imposion tragedy
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) CHILLING new audio reveals the moment OceanGate's founder fired the company's operations director who voiced safety concerns about the ill-fated Titan sub. The audio clip was obtained by Netflix and has been used in its documentary Titan: The OceanGate Disaster. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 9 The vessel imploded during a June 2023 expedition that initially prompted a major rescue operation Credit: BBC 9 Stockton Rush would go on to be one of the victims of the Titan disaster Credit: BBC 9 Lochridge had branded the Titan submersible as being 'unsafe' Credit: Netflix 9 Lochridge would go on to inform the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of Titan's safety issues after he was fired Credit: AP 9 American businessman Stockton Rush, who would go on to be one of the victims of the Titan disaster, can be heard David Lochridge in the clip. Lochridge had raised concerns around the safety of the submersible ahead of its doomed voyage. Rush tells him: "I don't want anybody in this company who is uncomfortable with what we are doing. "We're doing weird s*** here. I'm definitely out of the mold, I am doing things that are completely non-standard. read more in world news LAST SELFIE Haunting final pic shows couple & 3 children before takeoff on Air India jet "I'm sure the industry thinks I'm a f****** idiot. "That's fine, they've been doing that for years. And I'm going to continue on the way I am doing." A woman can be heard saying: "We need David on this crew, in my opinion we need him here." Lochridge says Rush's remarks left him "a tad let down" and "pretty gutted". "This is the first time on paper I've ever put any health and safety concerns," he adds. "You know every expedition we have had, we've had issues." 'What's that bang?' Chilling moment sound of doomed Titan sub imploding heard from support ship Rush concedes the point, and Lochridge asks him: "Do you now want to let me go?" But Rush bluntly replies: "I don't see we have a choice." Rush would later die on board the Titan alongside Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood, Suleman Dawood and Paul-Henri Nargeolet. The vessel imploded during a June 2023 expedition that initially prompted a major rescue operation. But the discovery of a piece debris in the North Atlantic dashed any hopes of a successful rescue mission. 9 9 Despite warnings from experts and former OceanGate staff, Titan continued to make dives Credit: BBC 9 Remains of the Titan submersible Credit: AP 9 Stockton Rush wearing life jacket and hard hat Credit: BBC Speaking to filmmakers, Lochridge said: "To me it was just sheer arrogance. "I didn't know what to say, but I was blown away that at this point they were willing to play Russian roulette." Lochridge was fired back in 2018 after he had worked at the firm for three years. In one email to an associate, he expressed fears that Rush would be killed, the MailOnline has reported. "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 said. "I would consider myself pretty ballsy when it comes to doing things that are dangerous, but that sub is an accident waiting to happen." Lochridge would go on to inform the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of Titan's safety issues after he was fired. He reportedly got a settlement and release agreement from OceanGate's lawyers after flagging these concerns with OSHA.
The Irish Sun
12-06-2025
- General
- The Irish Sun
Chilling audio of doomed Titan sub boss ‘sacking engineer who questioned mission's safety' before imposion tragedy
CHILLING new audio reveals the moment OceanGate's founder fired the company's operations director who voiced safety concerns about the ill-fated Titan sub. The audio clip was obtained by Netflix and has been used in its documentary Titan: The OceanGate Disaster. Advertisement 9 The vessel imploded during a June 2023 expedition that initially prompted a major rescue operation Credit: BBC 9 Stockton Rush would go on to be one of the victims of the Titan disaster Credit: BBC 9 Lochridge had branded the Titan submersible as being 'unsafe' Credit: Netflix 9 Lochridge would go on to inform the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of Titan's safety issues after he was fired Credit: AP 9 American businessman Stockton Rush, who would go on to be one of the victims of the Titan disaster, can be heard David Lochridge in the clip. Lochridge had raised "We're doing weird s*** here. I'm definitely out of the mold, I am doing things that are completely non-standard. Advertisement read more in world news "I'm sure the industry thinks I'm a f****** idiot. "That's fine, A woman can be heard saying: "We need David on this crew, in my opinion we need him here." Lochridge says Rush's remarks left him "a tad let down" and "pretty gutted". Advertisement Most read in The US Sun Latest "This is the first time on paper I've ever put any health and safety concerns," he adds. "You know every expedition we have had, we've had issues." 'What's that bang?' Chilling moment sound of doomed Titan sub imploding heard from support ship Rush concedes the point, and Lochridge asks him: "Do you now want to let me go?" But Rush bluntly replies: "I don't see we have a choice." Advertisement Rush would later die on board the Titan alongside Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood, Suleman Dawood and Paul-Henri Nargeolet. The vessel imploded during a June 2023 expedition that initially prompted a major rescue operation. 9 9 Despite warnings from experts and former OceanGate staff, Titan continued to make dives Credit: BBC Advertisement 9 Remains of the Titan submersible Credit: AP 9 Stockton Rush wearing life jacket and hard hat Credit: BBC Speaking to filmmakers, Lochridge said: "To me it was just sheer arrogance. "I didn't know what to say, but I was blown away that at this point they were willing to play Russian roulette." Advertisement Lochridge was fired back in 2018 after he had worked at the firm for three years. In one email to an associate, he expressed fears that Rush would be killed, the MailOnline has reported. "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 said. "I would consider myself pretty ballsy when it comes to doing things that are dangerous, but that sub is an accident waiting to happen." Advertisement Lochridge would go on to inform the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of Titan's safety issues after he was fired. He reportedly got a settlement and release agreement from OceanGate's lawyers after flagging these concerns with OSHA. How the Titan tragedy unfolded By Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital) FIVE men plunged beneath the surface of the North Atlantic in a homemade sub in a bid to explore the Titanic wreckage. Four passengers paid £195,000 each to go on the sub, with the fifth member of the trip being a crew member. But what was supposed to be a short trip spiralled into days of agony as the doomed Titan vanished without a trace on June 18, 2023. The daring mission had been months in the making - and almost didn't happen at the hands of harsh weather conditions in Newfoundland, Canada. In a now chilling Facebook post, passenger Hamish Harding wrote: "Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023. "A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow." It would be his final Facebook post. The following morning, he and four others - led by Stockton Rush - began the 12,5000ft descent towards the bottom of the Atlantic. But as it made its way down into the depths, the vessel lost all contact with its mother ship on the surface, the Polar Prince. It sparked a frantic four-day search for signs of life, with the hunt gripping the entire world. There was hope that by some miracle, the crew was alive and desperately waiting to be saved. But that sparked fears rescue teams faced a race against time as the passengers only had a 96-hour oxygen supply when they set out, which would be quickly dwindling. Then, when audio of banging sounds was detected under the water, it inspired hope that the victims were trapped and signalling to be rescued. It heartbreakingly turned out that the banging noises were likely either ocean noises or from other search ships, the US Navy determined. Countries around the world deployed their resources to aid the search, and within days the Odysseus remote-operated vehicle (ROV) was sent down to where the ghostly wreck of the Titanic sits. The plan was for the ROV to hook onto the sub and bring it up 10,000ft, where it would meet another ROV before heading to the surface. But any hopes of a phenomenal rescue were dashed when Odysseus came across a piece of debris from the sub around 1,600ft from the Titanic. The rescue mission tragically turned into a salvage task, and the heartbroken families of those on board were told the devastating news. It was confirmed by the US Coast Guard that the sub had suffered a "catastrophic implosion".
