A key employee who called the Titan unsafe will testify before the Coast Guard
A key employee who labeled an experimental submersible unsafe prior to its last, fatal voyage was set to testify Tuesday before U.S.Coast Guard investigators.David Lochridge is one of the most anticipated witnesses to appear before a commission trying to determine what caused the Titan to implode en route to the wreckage of the Titanic last year, killing all five on board.Lochridge is former operations director for OceanGate, the company that owned the Titan and brought it on several dives to the Titanic going back to 2021.
His testimony will come a day after other witnesses painted a picture of a troubled company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water.The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.Among those killed was Stockton Rush, co-founder of OceanGate.
The company, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion.OceanGate's former engineering director, Tony Nissen, kicked off Monday's testimony, telling investigators that he felt pressured to get the vessel ready to dive and refused to pilot it for a journey several years before Titan's last trip.“‘I’m not getting in it,’” Nissen said he told Rush.When asked if there was pressure to get Titan into the water, Nissen responded, “100%.” But asked if he felt that the pressure compromised safety decisions and testing, Nissen paused, then replied, “No.And that’s a difficult question to answer, because given infinite time and infinite budget, you could do infinite testing.”OceanGate's former finance and human resources director, Bonnie Carl, testified Monday that Lochridge had characterized the Titan as “unsafe.” Lochridge is expected to provide more perspective on what caused the implosion.Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice.
That and Titan's unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in ...