OceanGate CEO put profits over safety ahead of Titan's fatal voyage, ex-employee says
In a desire to get a working submersible to the Titanic wreck site as fast as possible, the Titan was built at a risk to safety, with cost-cutting measures and poor engineering permitted by CEO Stockton Rush, a former employee said.
In a desire to get a working submersible to the Titanic wreck site as fast as possible, the Titan was built at a risk to safety, with cost-cutting measures and poor engineering permitted by CEO Stockton Rush, a former employee said in scathing remarks Tuesday at a U.S. Coast Guard investigatory hearing.
"There was a big push to get this done. A lot of steps along the way were missed," testified David Lochridge, former marine operations director of OceanGate, the Washington state company that operated the Titan deep-water vessel.
"The whole idea behind the company was to make money," said Lochridge, who was fired from his role after about two years. "There was very little in the way of science."
David Lochridge, OceanGate's former director of marine operations, during his testimony Tuesday.Andrew J. Whitaker / Pool via APRush was piloting the Titan with four others on board, some paying passengers, when it imploded in June 2023 during a diving tour of the Titanic at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. All five were killed, including a renowned Titanic explorer and a father and his 19-year-old son.
Fifteen months after the fatal voyage, the Coast Guard's Marine Board of Investigation is holding a two-week hearing in South Carolina to determine what led to the catastrophe and what safety recommendations can be made to federal and international regulatory agencies. Potential criminality could also be referred to the Justice Department.
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