Titan submersible maker OceanGate faced safety lawsuit in 2018: "Potential danger to passengers"

The maker of the missing Titanic submersible, OceanGate, was the target of complaints in 2018 made by a former employee over the safety of the vessel's hull. 

According to court documents reviewed by CBS MoneyWatch, OceanGate fired employee David Lochridge in 2018 after he expressed concern about the submersible's safety. The company sued him that same year, claiming Lochridge had breached his employment contract by disclosing confidential information with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration when he filed a whistleblower complaint with the agency. 

In a response to OceanGate's lawsuit, Lochridge alleged in a 2018 court filing that he had been wrongfully terminated and that his actions were aimed at ensuring the safety of passengers on the submersible, called the Titan. The Titan is now the focus of a massive search in the North Atlantic after it went missing during a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic with five passengers on board.

In his complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Lochridge alleged he had raised concerns about the safety of the Titan with OceanGate and advised the company to conduct more testing of the the vessel's hull. Lochridge said he had disagreed with his employer about the best way to test the safety of the sub and that he objected to OceanGate's decision to perform dives without "non-destructive testing to prove its integrity." 

Non-destructive testing is a type of analysis used on materials to determine their integrity and reliability. 

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"The paying passengers would not be aware, and would not be informed, of this experimental design, the lack of non-destructive testing of the hull, or that hazardous flammable materials were being used within the submersible," Lochridge's legal filing stated.

The document added that Lochridge believed the company could "subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible."

Separately, a trade group sent a letter to OceanGate in 2018 expressing reservations about the sub's safety. CBS New obtained the letter, from the Manned Underwater Vehicles committee of the Marine Technology Society, which said the group was concerned that OceanGate's "experimental" approach could have potentially "catastrophic" outcomes that could impact their industry.

OceanGate didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement to CBS News, Lochridge's attorney said he had no comment regarding his allegations. "We pray for everyone's safe return," the attorney said.

Safety checks

Lochridge, a submarine pilot and underwater inspector, said in a legal filing that he was "trained to recognize flaw and points of failure in subsea equipment." His job at OceanGate involved "ensuring the safety of all crew and clients during submersible and surface operations," according to the filing.

The Titan relied on carbon fiber for a hull that would carry passengers as deep as 4,000 meters, a depth that Lochridge claimed in the court filing had never been reached in a carbon fiber-constructed sub. According to his claim, he learned the vessel was built to withstand a certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate planned to take passengers to 4,000 meters. 

Lochridge also expressed concern that the company planned for the sub to rely on an acoustic monitoring system to detect if the hull was breaking down or about to fail. That wouldn't provide much help in an emergency, Lochridge claimed in the filing, because the acoustic analysis would only alert people about imminent problems, "often milliseconds before an implosion."

Lochridge claimed the submersible needed additional types of tests to ensure its hull could withstand the rigors of deep-sea exploration. "Non-destructive testing was critical to detect such potentially existing flaws in order to ensure a solid and safe product for the safety of the passengers and crew," his legal filing claims. 

Rather than address those concerns, OceanGate "immediately fired" Lochridge, the court document claim. The company allegedly gave him "approximately 10 minutes to immediately clear out his desk and exit the premises."

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• RMS Titanic