Coast Guard officials continue to investigate what caused the Titan submarine to implode as the second day of the long-awaited hearing gets underway.
The experimental submarine Titan imploded as it sailed toward the ruins of the Titanic, killing all five aboard, including OceanGate founder Stockton Rush, in June 2023.
Ten former OceanGate employees will testify at the hearing in North Charleston, South Carolina, investigating whether criminal activity led to the tragedy.
Witnesses due to testify on Monday include David Lochridge, an employee who had labelled the submarine “unsafe” before its final voyage.
The former chief operating officer will testify a day after witnesses painted a picture of a struggling company impatient to get its unconventionally designed vessel into the water. The accident has sparked a global debate about the future of private undersea exploration.
Later in the hearing, OceanGate founder Guillermo Sohnlein and former chief scientific officer Steven Ross will appear.
Follow the live broadcast of day two on DailyMail.com below.
OceanGate wanted to ‘qualify a pilot in one day,’ says former director
Earlier in the hearing, Lochridge said it had been made clear from the outset that the company’s aim was to go to the Titanic wreck.
He said he was also told the company wanted to be able to “train a pilot in a day, someone who had never been in a submarine before.”
Lochridge described this as a “huge red flag”, adding that there was no training for pilots and no one was even qualified to crew a submarine.
‘Arrogant’ OceanGate CEO and CTO threw Titan ship science team to do it themselves
CEO Stockton Rush and Tony Nissen, former OceanGate engineering director, removed the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Lab (APL) from the project to design the Titan ship themselves.
Lochridge said: ‘Stockton decided to do all the project engineering in-house. He said he had lost confidence in APL. I think it was mainly a matter of time.
“He suggested Tony Nissen and brought him in to build the Titan. They had already put it online that the ship was going to be the Titanic.”
According to Lochridge, Nissen took over and everyone left the project, including the University of Washington team.
He said: ‘I told Stockton I wasn’t happy that we were winding down APL. It got to the point where Tony and Stockton told me I was never to speak to Dave Dyer again.’
Dyer is the lead engineer on the APL team.
Lochridge said that neither Nissen nor Stockton were satisfied with APL and would not allow them to participate in the design and construction of Titan.
He said the decision to pull the team from construction was based on “arrogance”, adding: “They thought they could do this themselves without proper technical support.”
According to Lochridge, Nissen also had no experience in building submarines. He also expressed his concerns about this, but they were dismissed by him.
Director testifies company spent ‘very little’ on science
Lochrige told the hearing that OceanGate’s goal was to make money.
He said: “There was very little scientific material,” adding that they had a strong media team that could sell the seats on board the submarines.
The company’s former director said there were no scientists on board, but “people with money.”
According to Lochridge, people will pay up to $35,000 to dive on the Alcatraz ship.
OceanGate CEO attacks employee with controller after submarine crash
Lochridge described an incident on the Andrea Doria, in which he was to take four paying customers to the wreck of the ocean liner that sank in 1956.
He said he had to spread out over several days and keep his distance from the deteriorating wreckage while aboard one of the OceanGate submarines.
Lochridge said: ‘Unfortunately the CEO [Stockton Rush] decided he wanted to remove it, I protested. He told me to stay away, I protested again.
‘I was a little bit restrained at that point, “remember I’m the CEO, you’re just an employee,” he said. Eventually I convinced him to let me dive with him.’
According to Lochridge, Rush took the helm of the submarine, which was controlled by a Playstation controller.
Although the plan was to stretch the landing over several days, Lochridge said Rush said, “Don’t tell me what to do” and headed straight for the wreckage.
Lochridge added: ‘It hit the ground with great force, straight down – visibility was completely gone.
“We could see metal plates, we could clearly see the starboard side of the bow of the Andrea Doria. It was an absolute mess.”
According to Lochridge, Rush continued to argue with him in the submarine, despite Rush offering to help him get out – with two paying clients on board.
The CEO then went full speed into the port side of the ship, causing it to tear, sending him into a panic, Lochridge said.
After one of the customers yelled at the CEO to hand over the controls, Rush threw the controller at the side of Lochridge’s head, breaking it.
Lochridge managed to get the submarine away from the wreck and back to the surface within 15 minutes.
According to Lochridge, this incident was the reason the CEO became embarrassed and was gradually phased out of OceanGate’s programs.
OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush is seen here on May 27, 2023
Lochridge begins testifying
At the beginning of the hearing, Lochridge explained his work history. He told authorities that he had been a diver in the Navy before earning his qualifications in underwater marine inspection and as a commercial diver.
Lochridge told the hearing that he became involved in submarine rescue operations in 2001 and that his wife saw an advertisement for OceanGate in 2015.
He said he and the company “seemed like a good match” after spending two weeks with the company in May that year and being told about the plan to visit the Titanic wreck.
Good morning and welcome to our live broadcast
DailyMail.com will today provide live updates on the progress of the second day of the hearing into the OceanGate Titan submarine.
The key witness, David Lochridge, is due to testify for the Coast Guard. Lochridge had previously called the imploding submarine “unsafe.”
In a 2018 report, he wrote that the vessel needed more testing and that passengers could be at risk if it reached “extreme depths.”
Follow our coverage and stay up to date with the latest news about the South Carolina hearing.
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