Titan sub hearing live: Whistleblower says a submersible incident was ‘inevitable’

Hearings will resume on Thursday at 8.30am.

Our blog will be paused until then.

“The way this company was going about this project, bypassing all the standardized rules and regulations that are set in place by people with experience…they bypassed it all,” Lochridge said.

It was inevitable something was going to happen. It was just a [question of] when,” he continued.

Lochridge told the panel that there was a “push” to launch the Titan.

“They were very push push push to get this out the door as fast as possible so they could start making profit,” he said on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Lochridge said he “had no confidence whatsoever” with how the Titan was being built. “There was a big push to get this done and a lot of steps along the way were missed,” including safety concerns.

The day prior, Tony Nissen, the director of engineering, also remarked on the force felt to get the vessel to set sail.

When asked if there was “pressure” to start operations, Nissen told the panel: “100 percent.”

When he submitted the inspection report to senior management, Lochridge said he received a message about a meeting in the board room.

“That meeting turned out to be a two-hour discussion about my termination and how my disagreements with the organization with regards to safety didn’t matter,” he told the panel.

“It doesn’t just implode. It screams like a mother before it implodes,” Rush said about carbon fiber, according to Lochridge.

The witness said the company exhibited a “total disregard for safety.”

“I had no confidence whatsoever” with how the Titan was being built, he said.

“There was a big push to get this done and a lot of steps along the way were missed,” including safety concerns, Lochridge said.

“Stockton had no experience building submersibles. No one did,” he said.

Speaking about OceanGate’s social media that boasted photos of its previous missions, Lochridge said: “It was all smoke and mirrors.”

He reiterated that no one should be launching a submersible without proper safety precautions — or with “faulty, deficient equipment.”

Lochridge also revealed his note attached to his January 2018 inspection report to the directors. He wrote: “It is my opinion that until suitable corrective actions are in place and closed out, Cyclops 2 (Titan) should not be manned during any of the upcoming trials.”

He said he Stockton Rush “pretty much stopped talking to me rationally” after the Andrea Doria incident.

At the end of the summer 2016, Rush and others told him OceanGate was “no longer willing to pay” for his wife and daughter’s permanent residence. Lochridge believed it was because he “embarrassed him in front of clients,” referring to the Andrea Doria crash, which was a “turning point” in his and Rush’s relationship.

The following day, Rush presented him with a new contract that he sign a new contract that stipulated he would have to reimburse the company if he left within the next 12 months. Rush instructed him not to tell his immigration attorney about the new arrangement.

David Lochridge said he was hired by OceanGate in 2015 as a contractor. He later became the director of marine operations.

“They were selling me as part of this project,” he said, adding that he was “responsible” for the training.

“They wanted to be able to qualify a pilot in a day,” Lochridge said of OceanGate. “It was a huge red flag,” since it is usually a “long process.”

“I don’t like being bullied into anything. I don’t tolerate liars. If I see something that’s a risk, I will put my hand up,” he said.

Lochridge also mentioned a dive on the Cyclops I to the Andrea Doria wreckage site that went awry. The test submersible “smashed” into the wreck, but Rush refused to hand over the “Playstation controller” to Lochridge. A “paying client” insisted he hand over control.

That’s when Rush threw the controller at Lochridge’s head, he said.