The CEO and captain of the doomed Titan sub insisted ‘no one is dying under my watch’ in an argument over safety concerns.
A transcript from a key OceanGate meeting revealed Stockton Rush got into a heated exchange with former director of marine operations David Lochridge.
Mr Lochridge raised safety concerns with Mr Rush, to which he replied: ‘I have no desire to die… I think this is one of the safest things I will ever do.’
The transcript was released by the US Coast Guard as part of their inquiry into the implosion in June 2023 while the sub journeyed to the Titanic shipwreck, BBC reports.
Five people, including Mr Rush, were killed. British adventurer Hamish Harding and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood died alongside French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
OceanGate suspended all operations following the deaths, which led to questions about the submersible’s safety and design.
Mr Lochridge, who gave evidence the inquiry last week, said he was called to the meeting in Juanuary after he compiled a ‘quality inspection report’.
He said he found serious problems with the vessel’s design and the way it was tested.
The meeting recorded him saying: ‘I am addressing what I view as safety concerns, concerns I have mentioned verbally… which have been dismissed by everybody.’
Mr Rush then replied: ‘I’ve got a nice granddaughter. I am going to be around. I understand this kind of risk, and I’m going into it with eyes open and I think this is one of the safest things I will ever do.
‘I can come up with 50 reasons why we have to call it off and we fail as a company. I’m not dying. No one is dying under my watch – period.’
Mr Lochridge was fired shortly after the meeting but he took his concerns to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
But he said the agency was slow and failed act, and he was pressured into dropping the case by OceanGate’s lawyers.
Coast guard officials told the inquiry the Titan hull was never subject to third-party checks.
It was also heard how the sub was left exposed to weather and elements while in storage for seven months in 2022 and 2023.
Bonnie Carl, an employee at OceanGate, said there were ‘a couple of things that gave me pause’ when asked about if she had any safety concerns.
She said an engineering director would not let her see paperwork for the sub’s acrylic dome, and described the O ring groove as ‘looking odd’ as a scuba diver.
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