Key employee testifies Titan tragedy could have been prevented
A key employee who labelled a doomed experimental submersible unsafe prior to its last, fatal voyage testified Tuesday the tragedy could have been prevented if a federal safety agency had investigated his complaint.
David Lochridge, OceanGate’s former operations director, said he felt let down by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s decision not to follow through on the complaint.
“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,” he said while speaking 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 on board. “As a seafarer, I feel deeply disappointed by the system that is meant to protect not only seafarers but the general public, as well.”
Lochridge said during testimony that, eight months after he filed an OSHA complaint, a caseworker told him the agency had not begun investigating it yet and there were 11 cases ahead of his. By then, OceanGate was suing Lochridge and he had filed a countersuit.
About 10 months after he filed the complaint, he decided to walk away. The case was closed and both lawsuits were dropped.
“I gave them nothing, they gave me nothing,” he said of OceanGate.
Earlier in the day, Lochridge said he frequently clashed with the company’s co-founder and felt the company was committed only to making money.
Lochridge was one of the most anticipated witnesses to appear before a commission. His testimony echoed that of other former employees Monday, one of whom described OceanGate head Stockton Rush as volatile and difficult to work with.
“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge said. “There was very little in the way of science.”
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.
Lochridge’s testimony began 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.