Could the tragedy have been avoided? The question arises as oxygen supplies on board run low, four days after the tourist submarine Titan and its five passengers went missing near the wreck of the Titanic. The American press indeed reports several warnings ignored by OceanGate Expeditions, the underwater exploration company which had chartered the submersible. In 2018, the former director of marine operations was fired after expressing “serious concerns” about passenger safety, according to court documents revealed by Insider and New Republic and consulted by Le Figaro.
Hired by OceanGate in 2015 as an independent contractor, David Lochridge was eventually promoted to Director of Marine Operations. The company later accuses him of leaking confidential information and sues him for “breach of contract”, “fraud” and “disclosure of trade secrets”. The Scottish submarine pilot counter-attacks and also initiates legal proceedings. In his complaint, David Lochridge explains that he was fired after warning that safety on board could be compromised, due to the lack of “quality and safety control” of which “customers on board would not be informed”.
In 2018, OceanGate boss Stockton Rush – who is one of five people on board the Titan – asks David Lochridge for an inspection of the submersible. At the time, it was not yet taking tourists on the high seas. Faced with “hostility” and “denial of access to the necessary documentation”, Lochridge nevertheless made its report to the management and alert on “significant security problems”. The porthole located at the front of the submersible was, according to him, designed for 1300 meters deep, while OceanGate intends to dive the Titan up to 4000 meters. But his main concern is the total lack of pressure tests carried out on the hull to test its resistance. However, the hull of the Titan is made of carbon fiber, a material much less dense than titanium or steel, which are the materials generally used for the design of submarines.
According to Lochridge, OceanGate management considers the Titan’s hull to be thick enough and are “unwilling to pay” for such an assessment. It relies solely on an “acoustic monitoring system”, supposed to detect hull damage in real time. Sensors that would have generated an alert only “a few milliseconds before an implosion”, says Lochridge. He therefore recommends that OceanGate have Titan inspected and certified by a specialized company, such as the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) or the Lloyd’s Register. “The tests (…) were essential to detect potential flaws and guarantee a solid and safe submarine for the safety of passengers and crew”, details the submariner in his complaint. But after raising his concerns and presenting his report, Lochridge was reportedly fired. “OceanGate gave Lochridge approximately 10 minutes to immediately vacate his office and vacate the premises,” according to the complaint.
The caveats don’t stop there. Two months later, the members of the Marine Technology Society group, which brings together industrialists, deep-sea explorers, oceanographers and various marine technology specialists, sent a letter to Stockton Rush expressing their “unanimous concern regarding the development of Titan and the projected expedition to the wreck of the Titanic”. The authors of the letter argue that a “third-party validation process is an essential element to ensure the protection of all occupants of the submersible”.
On its site, OceanGate justifies itself and claims that “the classification is not sufficient to ensure security”. The company argues that certifications “do not guarantee” compliance with “proper decision-making processes”, when most accidents are the result of “operator error”, not “mechanical failure”. The operator also claims that the innovations of its submersible – such as the carbon fiber hull – make it incompatible with the certification criteria and that the Titan “is outside the system”. Neither OceanGate nor David Lochridge wished to react. Expeditions to the wreckage of the Titanic began three years after these warnings. The Titan disappeared last Sunday, shortly after the start of its third voyage.