A former employee of OceanGate Expeditions, the company that sent out the now-missing submersible full of tourists to see the wreck of the R.M.S. Titanic, lodged major concerns about the vessel in a quality inspection report—but was met with “hostility and denial” from the company and fired, according to his allegations from a lawsuit in 2018.
David Lochridge, a Scottish submarine pilot, began working for OceanGate in Washington State in 2015, first as a contractor and then as director of marine operations, according to a 2018 claim he filed against the company, alleging that he was unfairly fired.
According to the claim, the company held a meeting in January 2018 about concerns over the quality control and safety of the Titan submersible, the 22-foot vessel now missing in the Atlantic Ocean after it dove Sunday morning with five people aboard.
Lochridge had alleged major safety issues: there had been almost no unmanned testing of the craft; the alarm system would only sound off “milliseconds” before an implosion; and the porthole was only certified to withstand pressure of 1,300 meters, even though OceanGate planned to take the submersible 4,000 meters underwater.
Throughout the inspection, Lochridge alleged he “was met with hostility and denial of access to necessary documentation that should have been freely available,” and was soon given “approximately ten minutes to immediately clear out his desk and exit the premises.”
According to the New York Times, OceanGate said it seemed like “Lochridge was trying to be fired” and he had refused some company data when he was conducting his research (the suit was later settled).
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