An OceanGate employee was fired after raising safety concerns about the company’s deep-water excursions to view wreckage from the Titanic years before the submersible went missing, The New Republic reports.
David Lochridge, an OceanGate pilot, voiced concerns about the sub’s safety in 2018, warning in particular that the vessel wasn’t capable of descending to such extreme depths.
OceanGate promised to take visitors 13,000 feet below the ocean’s surface southeast of Newfoundland, Canada, where the iconic ship’s wreckage sits.
The vessel was called Cyclops 2 at the time but has since been renamed Titan.
The Titan went missing on Sunday with five people aboard. It still hadn't been found by Tuesday.
OceanGate sued Lochridge for disclosing confidential information about the submersible and Lochridge counter-sued, alleging he was wrongfully terminated for being a whistleblower.
Lochridge said his termination was part of the company’s effort to silence him.
“At the meeting, Lochridge discovered why he had been denied access to the viewport information from the Engineering department — the viewport at the forward of the submersible was only built to a certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate intended to take passengers down to depths of 4,000 meters,” the complaint says.
“Lochridge learned that the viewport manufacturer would only certify to a depth of 1,300 meters due to experimental design of the viewport supplied by OceanGate, which was out of the Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy (“PVHO”) standards. OceanGate refused to pay for the manufacturer to build a viewport that would meet the required depth of 4,000 meters.”
Passengers wouldn’t be made aware of the Lockridge’s concerns, or “that hazardous flammable materials were being used within the submersible,” according to the complaint.
Lochridge expressed concerns about the Titan again. But OceanGate didn’t address them and Lockridge was subsequently fired.
Lochridge and OceanGate settled the case a few months after it was filed.
