A key employee who labeled a doomed experimental submersible unsafe prior to its last, fatal voyage on Tuesday testified that the tragedy could have been prevented if a US federal safety agency had investigated his complaint.
Former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he felt let down by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) decision not to follow through on the 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 while speaking 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.
Photo: Pelagic Research Services via AFP
“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 said.
During his testimony, Lochridge said that eight months after he filed an OSHA complaint, a caseworker told him the agency had not begun investigating it and there were 11 cases ahead of his.
By then, OceanGate was suing Lochridge and he had filed a countersuit.
About 10 months after he filed the complaint, he decided to walk away. The case was closed and both lawsuits were dropped.
“I gave them nothing, they gave me nothing,” he said of OceanGate.
OSHA officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Lochridge said he frequently clashed with the company’s cofounder and felt the company was committed only to making money.
Lochridge was one of the most anticipated witnesses to appear before a commission. His testimony echoed that of other former employees on Monday, one of whom described OceanGate chief executive officer Stockton Rush, who died on Titan, as volatile and difficult to work with.
“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge said. “There was very little in the way of science.”
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