4 key takeaways from the OceanGate Titan submersible hearing
A hearing into the implosion of OceanGate's Titan submersible is continuing for a second day as Coast Guard officials investigate what led to the disaster that killed all five passengers on board.
Giving evidence at today's session in South Carolina, David Lochridge, the former OceanGate director of marine operations, told how CEO Stockton Rush, one of those who died in the incident, once threw a "PlayStation controller" at his head during a heated dispute under the sea after crashing a test submersible into a wreck.
Passengers paid around £197,00 ($250,000) each to embark on the Titan sub in June 2023 to visit the wreck of the Titanic and never returned. Communication with the submersible was lost one hour and 45 minutes after its descent. It was later discovered that it had imploded after entering the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
OceanGate told Yahoo News it had no comment to add directly following the claims made below. Their full statement can be seen at the bottom of this article.
'OceanGate CEO threw PlayStation controller at my head'
David Lochridge told the hearing that, during a journey in OceanGate's Cyclops 1 submersible in the summer of June 2016, he "embarrassed" Stockton Rush by telling him he shouldn't pilot the vessel.
He said Rush refused and later went on to "smash" into a wreck while Lochridge and three paying customers were on board.
"It was an absolute mess," Lochridge added, who said Rush turned the submersible by 180 degrees and drove "full speed into the port side of the bow".
Lochridge said he tried to get the PlayStation controller from Rush, who still refused to comply until a customer shouted at him, at which point, the CEO threw the controller at the right side of Rush's head.
Titan was an 'abomination'
Lochridge described the Titan as an "abomination of a sub" as he highlighted a number of concerns about the vessel's design and the materials that were used for it.
Recalling how he compiled a report after inspecting the sub's first hull in 2018, he said: "For me, this was my opportunity, being asked to do it prior to the sub being handed over, an abomination of a sub, this was my opportunity to raise everything that I had seen during the build and the final build of Titan."
Lochridge said he was told the viewport and dome ceilings were not in line with usual industry standards and said he was "denied" access to records showing completed pressure test results.
The whistleblower, who in a 2018 counterclaim lawsuit said he was dismissed by OceanGate for raising safety and design concerns, told the hearing he was "appalled" by the Titan's O-ring – a type of seal – the manufacture of which he said he had no involvement in.
"They reused these domes, they reused these ceiling faces, they reused the acrylic, they reused the interior. Everything was reused - it was all cost," he claimed. "I wasn't there for that but I know first-hand, everything was reused, and I'm sure that will all come up as part of the investigation."
Lochridge then moved on to the sub's carbon hull, which he said was originally going to be seven to 10 inches thick when he was involved, but said this was overruled, with designers going to five inches instead.
He described it as "disgusting" and being like "porous paper", adding: "There was so many laminations, so many voids. The imperfections were incredible. There was glue runs everywhere. And that's a red flag."
Remarking on a technical unit used to regulate atmospheric pressure known as an oxygen and scrubber system, Lochridge said: "I will say it, Stockton liked to do things on the cheap."
He said this was "Stockton's idea" of a scrubber unit, adding that the CEO opted not to use a well known manufacturer such as James Fisher Defence, who are known for "properly built" scrubbers.
Lochridge said he wasn't sure if this unit was used during the Titan's voyage but that it was "Stockton's intent" to do so when he was at the company.
Responding to safety concerns in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Söhnlei told Times Radio: "There are completely different opinions and views about how to do things, how to design submersibles, how to engineer them, build them, how to operate in the dives. But one thing that’s true of me and the other experts, is none of us were involved in the design, engineering, building, testing or even diving of the subs. So it’s impossible for anyone to really speculate from the outside.
"I was involved in the early phases of the overall development program during our predecessor subs to Titan, and I know from first-hand experience that we were extremely committed to safety, and risk mitigation was a key part of the company culture."
Whilstleblower received 'threats' after he was fired
Lochridge told the hearing that within weeks of being fired on 19 January 2018, he went to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to raise safety concerns.
"I was obviously not just concerned for myself and my family - I didn't want anyone to go into that submersible, it was dangerous, the build quality was atrocious."
He said OSHA acknowledged his concerns and decided they were "serious enough" for him to be placed under the whistleblower protection scheme.
Lochridge said he was placed under the scheme for 10 months and gave OSHA "as much information as I possibly could".
The whistleblower said he and his wife were served a settlement and release agreement by OceanGate's lawyers, saying: "They were basically threatening us."
He said OceanGate wanted him to "walk away" from his claim with OSHA and to pay the company back for legal costs, threatening to contact officials including US immigration control if he did not comply.
OceanGate's 'huge red flag' moment
Lochridge also told the hearing of an occasion when he was working offshore in the North Sea and sent OceanGate his CV in 2015, thinking the company would be a "good fit".
However, when the company told him its plan "from the outset" that its plan was to reach the Titanic and that it "wanted to be able to qualify a pilot in a day", Lochridge said: "That is a huge red flag."
Lochridge, who was made OceanGate marine operations director in January 2016, was responsible for training pilots and ensuring the safety of those on board its vehicles. He said he was the "only qualified submersible pilot" to pilot the company's vessels and the "only one with experience in new-build submersibles".
"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," Lochridge said.
"That is a huge red flag. That is a no-no. You don't do that. It is a long process."
OceanGate shared this statement when contacted by Yahoo News: "OceanGate expresses our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those who died in the tragic implosion of the Titan. There are no words to ease the loss endured by the families impacted by this devastating incident, but we hope that this hearing will help shed light on the cause of the tragedy.
"OceanGate, which is no longer an operating company, having ceased all business activity shortly after the tragedy, and which has no full-time employees, is a party in interest in the Coast Guard proceeding. The Company has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began, including at the ongoing public hearing convened by the Coast Guard. OceanGate is represented at the hearing by Jane Shvets and Adrianna Finger of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. "
