Deceased Oceangate CEO, which operated Titan, put profits over safety: Ex-employee

The tragic incident of Oceangate, a submersible that fatally imploded on its way to explore the wreck of the Titanic in 2023, has again come to light as a former employee has claimed that its CEO Stockton Rush implemented cost-cutting measures and poor engineering practices in order to get a working submersible.

David Lochridge, former marine operations director of OceanGate, which operated the Titan deep-water vessel, said “There was a big push to get this done. A lot of steps along the way were missed.”

Lochride was ousted from the company after about two years and he claims, “The whole idea behind the company was to make money. There was very little in the way of science,” according to an NBC News report.

CEO Rush of Oceangate was leading the Titan with four others on board in June 2023 when it imploded during a diving tour of Titanic at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean and the tragic incident led to the death of all five people on board the submersible.

The Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation, after 15 months, is holding an investigation into what led to the implosion of the submersible catastrophe and what safety measures can be recommended hereafter in such expeditions.

Lochridge who was made operations director at Oceangate in January 2016 worked there until 2018 under the deceased CEO Rush. “Stockton liked to do things on the cheap,” claims Lochridge.

Detailing about the past expeditions of Oceangate, Lochridge said, “All the social media that you see about all these past expeditions, they always had issues with their expeditions.”

OceanGate is based in the US and OceanGate Expeditions, a related company that led the Titan’s dives to the Titanic, is registered in the Bahamas.

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