Following the disappearance of the Titan submersible during a 2023 expedition to the Titanic wreckage, David Lochridge, a former employee, held onto hope for the rescue of the five individuals on board, including his previous superior.
“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 BBC.
Lochridge, a whistleblower, was terminated by Oceangate, the company responsible for the submersible, after raising safety concerns in 2018.
In June 2023, the Titan imploded, resulting in the death of all five occupants, including Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush.
A report released Tuesday by the US Coast Guard (USCG) determined that the primary cause of the disaster was Oceangate’s negligence regarding safety, testing, and maintenance procedures.
“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 BBC.
He firmly believes that U.S. authorities could, and should, have taken more decisive action to prevent Oceangate’s operations.
Lochridge joined Oceangate seven years prior, assuming the role of Director of Marine Operations. He relocated his family from Scotland to the United States, enthusiastic about the company’s ambitious endeavors.
Oceangate was in the process of constructing a novel submersible designed to transport paying customers to the world’s most renowned shipwreck, the Titanic.
He was slated to be involved in the project from its inception, collaborating with the team responsible for designing the submersible.
With over 25 years of maritime experience, the Glaswegian had served in the Royal Navy and as a submersible pilot. His experience includes leading submarine rescue missions, responding to distress calls from individuals trapped underwater, making him acutely aware of the inherent risks associated with deep-sea exploration.
His responsibilities encompassed dive planning, and as chief pilot, he was to pilot the submersible and its passengers 3,800 meters beneath the ocean’s surface to witness the Titanic. Safety was paramount to 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, later named Titan, was being developed in partnership with the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). The plan was to construct the hull, where passengers would be seated, from carbon fiber.
No deep-diving submersible had previously been constructed using this material; most hulls are made from titanium or steel. However, Lochridge expressed confidence in the APL team.
He stated that Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush assured him that the vessel would undergo a safety assessment by an independent marine organization, a process known as certification.
Lochridge emphasized that this third-party oversight was critical, especially given that the Titan was being constructed using experimental materials.
By the summer of 2016, his confidence in the project began to wane.
Oceangate ceased its collaboration with APL and opted to handle the design and construction of the Titan internally.
Lochridge expressed concerns, as he lacked confidence in Oceangate’s engineers. He told the BBC that he believed they lacked the necessary experience to construct submersibles capable of withstanding the immense pressures 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 said.
As the components for the Titan arrived and the vessel began to take shape, Lochridge reported identifying a series of problems.
“When the carbon hull came in, it was an absolute mess,” he said.
He noticed visible gaps in the material and areas where the carbon fiber layers were separating, a phenomenon known as delamination.
He also identified issues with other critical components.
The carbon fiber hull was fitted with titanium domes at each end, but he stated that the metal had been improperly machined. He also expressed concerns about the viewport’s design, which he believed was not suitable for extreme depths.
Most concerning, he learned that the Titan would not undergo independent safety certification.
He told the BBC that he had consistently voiced his concerns regarding safety issues and would not remain silent.
“I brought up all the issues that I was seeing… but I was just met with resistance all the way,” he said.
In January 2018, he reiterated his concerns to Stockton Rush. Rush then requested that he conduct an inspection of the vessel.
The Titan was at a crucial stage of its development. Passengers had already paid deposits for dives to the Titanic planned for later that year. Test dives were scheduled to commence in the Bahamas before these expeditions.
Lochridge urged Oceangate to postpone 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 of the two-hour meeting, during which the itemized report was discussed in detail, reveals a heated exchange between Lochridge and Rush.
Near the end of the meeting, in response to Lochridge’s safety concerns, Rush stated: “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.”
Immediately following this meeting, Lochridge was terminated, to his surprise.
However, his concerns about the Titan were so significant that he contacted the U.S. government’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
OSHA informed him that his case was urgent due to its implications for public safety and that he would be protected under the whistleblower protection scheme, which safeguards employees from retaliation by employers for reporting workplace safety concerns.
As part of this process, OSHA forwarded Lochridge’s concerns about the Titan to the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) in February 2018.
Lochridge stated that everything changed after OSHA notified Oceangate that it was initiating an investigation.
In March, Oceangate requested that Lochridge withdraw the OSHA complaint and demanded that he pay $10,000 for legal expenses. Lochridge refused.
Then in July 2018, Oceangate sued Lochridge and his wife, Carole, for breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, fraud, and theft, among other allegations. The following month, Lochridge countersued for unfair dismissal.
Lochridge asserts that OSHA was slow throughout the process and failed to protect him from the ongoing retaliation he faced from Oceangate.
“I provided all the documentation to OSHA, I was on the phone to OSHA every few weeks.” he said. “OSHA did nothing.”
In December 2018, facing increasing pressure from Oceangate’s lawyers, Lochridge and his wife decided to drop the case.
This resulted in the settlement of the legal proceedings, and as part of the agreement, Lochridge withdrew his complaint with OSHA. OSHA terminated its investigation and also informed the U.S. 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 its plans to reach the Titanic at full speed.
In 2018 and 2019, the prototype submersible underwent its first test dives in the Bahamas, including one piloted by Stockton Rush that reached a depth of 3,939 meters.
A crack was subsequently discovered in the submersible’s carbon fiber hull, and in 2020, the damaged hull was replaced with a new one, becoming the second version of the Titan.
In 2021, the company began transporting passengers to the Titanic, completing 13 dives to the famous wreckage over the following two summers.
However, in June 2023, the submersible went missing with five individuals on board, including Stockton Rush. After days of anxious anticipation, the submersible’s wreckage was found scattered across the ocean floor.
During the U.S. Coast Guard’s public hearings held last year, Lochridge criticized OSHA for its inaction. “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 stated that its whistleblower protection program is limited to protecting individuals from employer retaliation. They clarified that their investigation “followed the normal process and timeline for a retaliation case.”
OSHA stated that it does not investigate whistleblowers’ underlying allegations about public safety, but instead refers those to the appropriate agency, in this case, the U.S. Coast Guard.
The spokesperson said: “The Coast Guard, not OSHA, had jurisdiction to investigate Mr. Lochridge’s allegations regarding the safe design and construction of marine vessels.”
However, the U.S. Coast Guard’s report on the disaster concurred with Lochridge, stating that OSHA’s slow handling of the investigation represented a missed opportunity for early government intervention.
The report also highlighted a lack of effective communication and coordination between OSHA and the USCG.
The investigation revealed that the email from OSHA to the Coast Guard regarding Mr. Lochridge’s complaint was not received. It had been sent to a staff member responsible for monitoring OSHA cases, but that employee had moved on to a new position within the agency.
Jason Neubauer, 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 stated that in the wake of the accident, it had permanently ceased operations and was directing its resources towards cooperating with the inquiry.
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