Latest news with #Oceangate
Time of India
5 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.
BBC News
6 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Oceangate's Titan whistleblower: 'People were sold a lie'
When the Titan submersible went missing during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic in 2023, David Lochridge hoped the five people on board – including his former boss - could be rescued."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," he told the whistleblower had been sacked by the firm behind the sub, Oceangate, after warning about safety issues in June 2023 the sub imploded killing all five people on board – including Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush. A report from the US Coast Guard (USCG) published on Tuesday found that Oceangate's failures over safety, testing and maintenance were the main cause of the disaster."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," Lochridge told the he firmly believes the US authorities could - and should - have done more to stop Oceangate. Lochridge had joined Oceangate seven years earlier as the company's Director of Marine Operations. He moved his family from Scotland to the US, and was full of excitement about the company's was building a new submersible to take paying passengers down to the most famous wreck in the world - the he was going to be involved in the project from the very start, working alongside the team designing the straight-talking Glaswegian has worked at sea for more than 25 years, first with the Royal Navy and later as a submersible pilot. He also led submarine rescue operations, responding to distress calls from people trapped underwater. He knows about the risks involved in deep responsibilities included planning dives and, as chief pilot, he would be the one taking the sub and its passengers 3,800m beneath the waves to see the Titanic. Safety was at the heart of his role."As the director of marine operations, I'm the one responsible for everybody," he told BBC News. "I was responsible for the safety of all Oceangate personnel and all of the passengers that were going to be coming in the sub." A prototype for the new submersible, which would eventually be called Titan, was being developed with the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). The plan was to build its hull - the part where the passengers would sit - out of carbon deep diving sub had been made out of this material before - most have hulls constructed from titanium or steel. But Lochridge had confidence in the APL said he was told by Oceangate's CEO Stockton Rush that the craft would undergo a safety assessment by an independent marine organisation, known as was adamant that this third-party oversight was essential - especially because Titan was to be made of experimental by the summer of 2016 he was starting to have doubts about the stopped working with APL and decided to bring the design and construction of Titan was worried. He didn't have the same confidence in Oceangate's engineers. He told the BBC he didn't think they had experience of building subs able to withstand the immense pressures found at the depth of the Titanic."At that point, I started asking questions… and I felt I had a duty of care to keep asking them," he the parts for Titan began to arrive, and the craft started to take shape, Lochridge said he was spotting problem after problem."When the carbon hull came in, it was an absolute mess," he saw visible gaps in the material, areas where the layers of carbon fibre were coming apart - known as he identified issues with other key components. The carbon fibre hull had titanium domes fitted on each end, but he said the metal had been machined incorrectly. He was also worried that the sub's view port had not been designed to work at extreme concerning, he learnt that Titan was not going to be independently certified for told the BBC that he had always been outspoken on safety issues - so he wasn't going to stay silent."I brought up all the issues that I was seeing… but I was just met with resistance all the way," he January 2018, he outlined his concerns again to Stockton Rush. This time Rush asked him to complete an inspection of the was at a crucial point of its development. Passengers had already paid deposits for dives to the Titanic planned for later that year. Test dives were about to start in the Bahamas before those expeditions got wanted Oceangate to delay these plans."I formulated a report and I sent it out to all the directors in the company."The following day he was summoned to a meeting with Rush and several other Oceangate employees.A transcript from the two-hour-long meeting, where the itemised report was picked over, reveals a heated exchange between Lochridge and the end of the meeting, in response to Lochridge's safety concerns, Rush says: "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."To Lochridge's surprise, immediately after this meeting he was he was so concerned about Titan that he got in touch with the US government's Occupational Safety and Health Administration - told him his case was urgent because it involved public safety and that he would be placed under the whistleblower protection scheme, designed to protect employees from retaliation by employers if they've reported concerns about workplace part of this process, OSHA passed Lochridge's concerns about Titan to the US Coast Guard (USCG) in February Lochridge says after OSHA wrote to Oceangate to tell them it was starting an investigation, everything March, Oceangate asked Lochridge to drop the OSHA complaint - and demanded he pay $10,000 for legal costs. Lochridge in July 2018, Oceangate sued Lochridge - and his wife Carole - for breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, fraud and theft, amongst other allegations. The following month, Lochridge countersued for unfair maintains that throughout the process OSHA was slow and failed to protect him from the ongoing retaliation he was receiving from Oceangate."I provided all the documentation to OSHA, I was on the phone to OSHA every few weeks." he said. "OSHA did nothing." 'They beat us down' In December 2018, under increasing pressure from Oceangate's lawyers, Lochridge and his wife took the decision to drop the meant the legal proceedings were settled, and as part of this agreement Lochridge withdrew his complaint at OSHA. OSHA stopped its investigation and also notified the US Coast guard that the complaint had been suspended. Lochridge also signed a non-disclosure agreement."Carole and I did everything we physically could, we just got to the point that we were completely burned… We had nothing left to give to it. They beat us down."Oceangate continued at pace with its plans to reach the 2018 and 2019, the prototype sub made its first test dives in the Bahamas - including one, piloted by Stockton Rush, that reached a depth of 3,939m.A crack was later found in the sub's carbon fibre hull, and in 2020 that damaged hull was swapped out for a new one, in what became the second version of Titan. In 2021, the company started taking passengers to the Titanic, and over the next two summers made 13 dives to the famous in June 2023, the sub went missing with five people on board - including Stockton Rush. After days of anxious waiting, the sub's wreckage was found littered across the ocean the US Coast Guard's public hearings held last year, Lochridge criticised OSHA for its lack of action. "I believe that if OSHA had attempted to investigate the seriousness of the concerns I raised on multiple occasions, this tragedy may have been prevented.""It didn't need to happen. It didn't - and it should have been stopped."In response to Mr Lochridge, a spokesperson for OSHA said its whistleblower protection programme was limited to protecting individuals against employer retaliation. They said their investigation had "followed the normal process and timeline for a retaliation case".OSHA said it does not investigate whistleblowers' underlying allegations about public safety… but instead refers those to the appropriate agency - in this case, the US Coast spokesperson said: "The Coast Guard, not OSHA, had jurisdiction to investigate Mr. Lochridge's allegations regarding the safe design and construction of marine vessels."But the US Coast Guard's report into the disaster agrees with Lochridge and says that OSHA's slow handling of the investigation was a missed opportunity for early government report also criticises a lack of effective communication and coordination between OSHA and the USCG. It said action has now been taken to improve this following the disaster. Jason Neubauer, the chair of the USCG's Marine Board of Investigation, told the BBC that the coast guard could have done more. "The system did not work for the whistleblower in this case, and that's why we just need to get better - and we have."Oceangate said that in the wake of the accident, it had permanently wound down operations and directed its resources towards cooperating with the inquiry.
NBC News
6 days ago
- NBC News
Coast Guard report: Titan submersible disaster 'preventable'
The report on the June 2023 Titan Sub implosion that killed all five people on board points at several causal factors including a 'toxic workplace environment' at the company Oceangate. NBC News' Stephanie Gosk speaks to the investigation chair. Aug. 5, 2025
Time Magazine
6 days ago
- Time Magazine
Titan Submersible Implosion Caused By 'Inadequate Design'
The implosion of the Titan submersible was 'preventable' and caused by the owner's failure to follow established protocols for engineering, safety, testing, and maintenance, a final report on the incident released on Tuesday by the United States Coast Guard has found. The June 18, 2023 implosion of the Titan—a tourist submersible that brought viewers to the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean for the hefty price tag of up to $250,000—led to the instantaneous loss of five lives, including that of Oceangate's CEO, Stockton Rush. The report accused the company of harboring a 'toxic work place environment,' citing the firings of some staff members and the threat of firings against others to dissuade employees from 'expressing safety concerns.' The company also engaged in intimidation tactics to 'evade regulatory scrutiny,' according to the report. The USCG criticized OceanGate's use of the Titan despite numerous incidents that compromised the 'integrity of the hull,' which already had flawed design issues in terms of thickness, winding, and curing standards. It noted that the carbon fiber used to make the submersible is strong, but it is not reliable under pressure. The company's failure to investigate mishaps in the Titan during dives before the June 2023 incident led to the submersible's tragic implosion, which generated international interest. This is a developing story. More details to follow.
Daily Mirror
25-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mirror
New theory explores how one simple part may have doomed Titan submarine
Experts have revealed why using the wrong substance to help create the submarine could have contributed to the implosion of the Titanic Oceangate vessel last year A new theory exploring why the Titan submarine imploded during a deep sea tour has emerged and it could all be down to the glue used to stick the parts together, it has been revealed. British explorer Hamish Harding and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood were killed on board the Oceangate vessel in June last year, alongside French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet. Stockton Rush, who was the chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions – which ran the expedition, was also killed. The vessel was heading to see the Titanic wreckage around 435 miles south of St John's, Newfoundland, when it lost contact with the tour operator an hour and 45 minutes into the two-hour trip. Days later, wreckage was uncovered from the ocean floor close to the Titanic. Now, it has been revealed that the glue used to piece the disastrous vessel together was like "peanut butter" and wasn't certified to work in deep sea water. Henkel, the German adhesive and sealant company which manufactured the glue, said it had only ever advertised its goods to the aerospace sector. The company said that although glue can be used correctly "in other applications", it was "not specified for usage under water". A spokesperson said: "It is the end user's responsibility to test their design to ensure proper performance." It has been reported that the company were unaware that their glue was used on the deadly submarine. Now questions have formed on whether the choice of adhesive was part of the reason the vessel exploded on June 18, 2023. On June 17, the maintenance log for the vessel stated that there was an issue with "unsightly" sealant connecting the titanium to the carbon fibre. Expert Dr Christian Stone, who specialises in corrosion, said the glue would have transformed the submarine into a huge battery. He said he wouldn't have advised OceanGate to use the glue. The specialist, who is based at Loughborough University, told MailOnline: "If you put two metals together and they're connected electrically to a media which conducts electricity like seawater you make a battery. "One side of that battery will corrode and give up ions. The other side will actually be protected. At the corroding side, we call this the anode and that makes acid. The other side is the cathode in which case in our case that will be carbon fibre or titanium and that will make alkaline." He added: "I would have advised them to use a filler material that was inert and does not conduct electricity." The National Transportation Safety Board previously took a look at the wreckage which was recovered from the disaster. They found that: "Most of the adhesive originally used to bond the hull to the titanium segment had disbonded from the machined end of the hull piece, but there was an approximately 3.5-inch-long patch where some adhesive bits were still attached." Despite the glue failing to strongly hold the vessel together, investigators believe it is not the cause behind the tragedy. They suspect that the submarine had failed at the front.
