- A submersible carrying passengers to explore the Titanic has gone missing during a dive. The incident sheds light on concerns raised by a former employee about the submersible’s hull safety.
- Prior to its disappearance, a former OceanGate employee warned that the submersible’s hull monitoring system would only detect hull issues “milliseconds” before a disaster.
- This former executive was fired in 2018 after expressing his concerns about the safety of the submersible’s hull.
In 2018, a submarine pilot assigned to evaluate the now-missing Titanic submersible issued a warning about the limitations of its hull monitoring system. According to David Lochridge, a former pilot and inspector from Scotland, the system would only detect a failure “often milliseconds before an implosion” – a concern he raised before being fired by OceanGate, the company operating the tours.
Lochridge, who served as the director of marine operations for OceanGate from 2015, alleged that his termination was a result of blowing the whistle on the submersible’s safety. He was accused of violating a nondisclosure agreement, but he countersued the company.
The submersible’s inspection in 2018 raised alarming safety concerns, including issues with the viewport design. However, Lochridge’s primary worry was the lack of testing on the hull, as the company relied solely on an “acoustic monitoring system” that could only detect impending failure moments before an implosion. He emphasized the need for non-destructive testing to identify existing flaws and ensure passenger safety.
Lochridge’s inspection report prompted OceanGate to dismiss him, giving him only a short time to gather his belongings and leave the premises. OceanGate declined to comment on Lochridge’s lawsuit.
The outcome of Lochridge’s concerns and recommended tests remains uncertain. In November 2018, the case was settled out of court. However, three years later, the missing submersible, named Titan, experienced communication loss during an expedition to the Titanic. The fate of the five individuals onboard generates fears of breached hulls at such depths, which would result in deadly consequences.
If the Titan’s hull is intact, the passengers have oxygen that will last until Thursday afternoon, Eastern Time, according to the US Coast Guard.
Lochridge was not the only one raising concerns about the Titan’s safety. In 2018, The New York Times published a letter from the Marine Technology Society expressing unanimous concerns about OceanGate’s experimental approach with the submersible.
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