Latest news with #MarineOperations
Daily Record
3 days ago
- General
- Daily Record
Netflix documentary about Titan sub disaster reveals moment CEO fired pilot for raising security concerns
Titan: The OceanGate Disaster focuses heavily on what eventually led the Titan sub to implode, killing the five people inside. A new Netflix documentary about the Titan Sub disaster has uncovered a recording that reveals the moment late OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush fired a member of staff for raising security concerns. Titan: The OceanGate Disaster focuses heavily on what eventually led the Titan sub to implode, killing the five people inside. Stockton Rush was among the five to die in the sub that took paying passengers down to see the wreckage of the Titanic in June 2023. The Netflix documentary includes a recording of the moment that Rush fired his former Director of Marine Operations, David Lochridge. Lochridge, an experienced diver and submersible pilot, says Rush told him at the very last minute that he wanted to be the one to pilot the sub for the dive. When Lochridge pushed back he was overruled, but convinced the late CEO to allow him to join the expedition. Footage from inside the sub shows how Rush, a comparably inexperienced pilot, almost crashes the sub into a debris field, forcing Lochridge to have to step in. In the documentary, he claimed that he was then 'frozen out' of meetings and senior decisions by the CEO. Lochridge said: '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 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 also described how the sub was made from carbon fibre, suggesting it was an unsuitable material to make a submersible from. Lochridge went on to claim he was the 'only person' to stand up to Rush over security and engineering The late CEO had decided he did not see the need to classify the Titan sub, and said he was happy for Lochridge to do an inspection of it. The former OceanGate Director of Marine Operations described how he sent an email with his inspection notes, including his concerns around the submersible. The next day Lochridge was brought into a meeting, the recording of which is shared for the first time in the Netflix doc. Rush seems noticeably agitated in the recording, suggesting that anyone who said carbon fibre couldn't work for a deep sea submersible was 'full of s**t'. He goes on to say: 'I don't want anyone in this company who is uncomfortable with what we're doing.' 'It was about the decision-making that led to their deaths,' director Mark Monroe says of Titan documentary, which traces the events and key decisions that culminated in the disaster. Official investigations into the Titan disaster began shortly after the incident, with inquiries launched by both the United States Coast Guard and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada as the vessel was operated by a US company and launched from a Canadian ship. The US Department of Justice is examining OceanGate's financial practices. But the Coast Guard's Marine Board of Investigation has yet to release its final report. But according to the director, the investigations are now in a "holding pattern". The Titan submersible imploded due to structural failure during its descent to the Titanic wreck. The documentary shows how the novel use of carbon fibre in the hull of the craft, coupled with other questionable engineering decisions, raised alarms for many OceanGate employees. In particular, the film highlights the inadequacies of OceanGate's acoustic monitoring system, designed to identify weak points in Titan's hull in real time. The documentary includes portions of Karl Stanley's September 2024 testimony before the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation. In April 2019, Stanley, a deep-sea diving expert, went on one of OceanGate's first crewed dives of a prototype submersible in the Bahamas, and reported hearing cracking sounds in the hull. In the film, Keith Fawcett, a Coast Guard technical adviser, asks Stanley if he partook in 'any meeting where the results of the real-time monitoring acoustic sensors were examined by the group and tried to isolate where the sound occurred?' 'That information was not shared with me,' Stanley replies. Monroe believes the Coast Guard thinks OceanGate 'didn't even look at the data. OceanGate has this thing they're promoting as this state-of-the-art unparalleled safety mechanism.' Taking note of the acoustic monitoring system picking up additional fibres breaking across the dives leading up to Titan's 88th and final voyage, lead Coast Guard investigator Captain Jason Neubauer notes in the documentary, 'That should've been a warning. In the end [OceanGate] discounted the one system that was going to be vital to their operation. It is really in my mind like the smoking gun of what eventually caused this.' 16 minutes after communications from the Titan ceased, an unexpected sound reached an underwater recording device 900 miles from the Titanic wreck. 'Science tells us that when an implosion of that scale happens in the ocean, it makes a humongous noise,' Monroe says. 'The Navy has acoustic monitoring throughout the oceans. We know how sound travels in water, and we know that if a thing is 900 miles away, it's going to be about 16 minutes for that noise to reach the recording device. My belief was that's most likely the sound, and so to include it felt like resolution, definitive, some feeling of, 'that's what happened.' ' Titan: The OceanGate Disaster is available to watch on Netflix now. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
'Every shipwreck has its own story': Wreck of the Western Reserve found in Lake Superior
SAULT STE. MARIE — The shipwreck of the Western Reserve, lost in 1892, has been found. After 132 years, the final resting place of the 300-foot steel steamer has been discovered roughly 60 miles northwest of Whitefish Point in Lake Superior. According to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, the shipwreck was discovered by Director of Marine Operations Darryl Ertel and his brother and First Mate, Dan Ertel, who have been looking for the Western Reserve for over two years. The brothers were piloting the David Boyd, a research vessel, during the search. Using marine sonic technology within the Boyd, the duo made the initial discovery of the shipwreck during the summer of 2024. Subsequent trips with remotely operated vehicles revealed a ship broken in two with the bow section resting on top of the stern in approximately 600 feet of water. 'We side-scan looking out a half mile per side and we caught an image on our port side. It was very small looking out that far, but I measured the shadow, and it came up about 40 feet,' said Darryl Ertel. 'So we went back over the top of the ship and saw that it had cargo hatches, and it looked like it was broken in two, one half on top of the other and each half measured with the side scan 150 feet long and then we measured the width. It was right on so we knew that we'd found the Western Reserve.' The Western Reserve was a well-known ship in its time, and was one of the first vessels on the Great Lakes made entirely of steel. The ship was built to break record speeds of cargo ships on the lakes, it was even referred to as "the inland greyhound" because of its speed. Owned by millionaire and shipping magnate Captain Peter G. Minch, the ship was considered one of the safest in the water at the time. That was part of the reason why Minch took a large portion of his family on board the ship, under the command of Captain Albert Myer, for a late summer cruise through Lake Huron in August of 1892. They were on their way to the port of Two Harbors, Minnesota. According to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, after the ship passed through Whitefish Bay, the previously calm weather turned rough, leading to the crew dropping anchor to wait out the storm. Soon after, they picked up the anchor to make their way into Lake Superior and the ship was overtaken by a strong wind. At 9 p.m. on Aug. 30, 1892, the Western Reserve began to break apart and sink. 'Knowing how the 300-foot Western Reserve was caught in a storm this far from shore made an uneasy feeling in the back of my neck. A squall can come up unexpectedly … anywhere, and anytime,' said Darryl. The crew and passengers tried to make their way to safety in two lifeboats. One lifeboat overturned quickly, and only two crewmen from that lifeboat were able to be recovered by the second lifeboat. The Western Reserve sank within 10 minutes. The remaining crew and members of the Minch family floated in their lifeboat for around 10 hours before they passed by a steamship. Unfortunately, they were unable to attract the attention of the ship by shouting and they had no flares. Subscribe: Get unlimited access to our coverage By the next morning, the lifeboat had made it within one mile of the shoreline near the Deer Park Life-Saving Station, but the lifeboat overturned. Only one survivor, Wheelsman Harry W. Stewart of Algonac, Michigan, lived to tell the tale. In total, 27 people were killed in the tragedy. 'Every shipwreck has its own story, but some are just that much more tragic,' said Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society Executive Director Bruce Lynn. 'It is hard to imagine that Peter Minch would have foreseen any trouble when he invited his wife, two young children and sister-in-law with her daughter aboard the Western Reserve for a summer cruise up the lakes. It just reinforces how dangerous the Great Lakes can be any time of year.' — Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@ This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society finds Western Reserve wreck
CBS News
10-03-2025
- General
- CBS News
Wreckage of 300-foot ship missing for 132 years found in Lake Superior
The remains of the steamer Western Reserve have been confirmed to be located in Lake Superior. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society recently made that report, citing an initial discovery in summer 2024 by a Marine Sonic Technology device aboard its research vessel, the David Boyd. The Western Reserve, a 300-foot steel steamer, broke in two as it wrecked in 1892 about 60 miles northwest of Whitefish Point in Lake Superior. When the wreckage was found, the bow section had rested on top of the stern in nearly 600 feet of water. "Every shipwreck has its own story, but some are just that much more tragic," GLSHS Executive Director Bruce Lynn said about the accident. Only one person survived the ordeal. The accident The Western Reserve was one of the first all-steel vessels on the Great Lakes and considered one of the safest and fastest ships working in the region. At the time of this route, Captain Peter G. Minch, the ship's owner, brought his family along on a cruise through Lake Huron with plans to go to Two Harbors, Minnesota. The ship was under the command of Captain Albert Myer for this voyage. The weather was cooperative until they reached Whitefish Bay, then the crew dropped anchor to wait out poor weather conditions. After they weighed anchor and steamed into Lake Superior, a gale brewed up. About 9 p.m. Aug. 30, the Western Reserve began to break up and sink. The Minch family and the ship's crew boarded and launched the two lifeboats; but almost immediately one of the lifeboats overturned, with many of those aboard lost. The remaining lifeboat, with the Minch family and surviving crew, rode out the gale and night darkness for about 10 hours when a steamship passed by. Those survivors screamed but were not seen in the night. About 7:30 a.m. the next morning, they were about a mile offshore the Deer Park Life-Saving Station on the Lake Superior shoreline when the lone lifeboat overturned in the breakers. The only survivor was wheelsman Harry W. Stewart of Algonac, Michigan. Finding the shipwreck It took decades, and technology advances, in order to find the ship's last location. Director of Marine Operations, Darryl Ertel and his brother and First Mate, Dan Ertel, looked amid Lake Superior for the Western Reserve for over 2 years: "We side-scan looking out a half mile per side and we caught an image on our port side. It was very small looking out that far, but I measured the shadow, and it came up about 40 feet," Darryl Ertel explained, "So we went back over the top of the ship and saw that it had cargo hatches, and it looked like it was broken in two, one half on top of the other and each half measured with the side scan 150 feet long and then we measured the width and it was right on so we knew that we'd found the Western Reserve."
