Titan implosion could have been prevented, says OceanGate ex-director
Al Jazeera
David Lochridge references a 2018 report in which he raised safety issues about OceanGate’s operations.
A key employee who labelled the experimental Titan submersible unsafe before its last, fatal voyage has said the tragedy could have been prevented if a federal safety agency of the United States had investigated his complaint.
David Lochridge, OceanGate’s former operations director, said he felt let down by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s decision not to follow up on his complaint.
“I believe that if OSHA had attempted to investigate the seriousness of the concerns I raised on multiple occasions, this tragedy may have been prevented,” he said on Tuesday while speaking before a commission trying to determine what caused the Titan to implode as it made its way to the wreckage of the Titanic last year, killing all five on board.
“As a seafarer, I feel deeply disappointed by the system that is meant to protect not only seafarers but the general public as well,” he added.
Lochridge said during testimony that eight months after he filed the OSHA complaint, a caseworker told him the agency had not begun an investigation and there were 11 cases ahead of his. By then, OceanGate was suing Lochridge and he had filed a countersuit.
