In the last hours, an informant named David Lochridge, who had been fired after denouncing security problems in the unit, spoke for the BBC.
The famous Titan submarinethat implused and caused the death of five people When he headed to the Titanic remains in 2023, he continues to talk about. In the last hours, a former employee spoke, called David Lochridgewho had been fired After denouncing security problems in the unit.
“I always had the hope that what happened did not happen. But I knew that if they continued on the same path and with that poor team, an incident would occur”, Lochridge told the BBC. The informant had already warned security problems in 2018 And finally years later, in 2023, the accident occurred. A report of the American Coast Guard (USCG) He concluded that the main causes of the disaster were the failures of the oceangate in terms of safety, tests and maintenance.
The former employee also said that “There were many things that could have done in another way“And that from the initial design to the construction and operations of the submarine, to the people”a lie was sold”
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Who is David Lochridge: the employee who had warned the failures
David Lochridge had joined the company seven years before as Marine Operations Director of the company. In this way, he transferred his family from Scotland to the United States And he was excited about the proposal and ambitions of the company: Oceangate was building a new submersible to take paid passengers to the Titanic.
The native in Glasgow, had experience of more than 25 years working at seaa time in the Real Marina And then like Submarine pilot. On the other hand, directed rescue operations where he responded to relief calls of people trapped under water. It is for this reason that I was going to participate in the project from its beginning to work with the team that designed the submarine, due to His knowledge about the risks in the depths.
“I was responsible for the security of all Oceangate personnel and all passengers who were going to enter the submarine”, Declared and said that a while after joining the project, he began to have doubts, because I did not believe that engineers had experience in the construction of submarines able to withstand immense pressures.
David Lochridge
“When the carbon helmet arrived, It was an absolute disaster”, He recalled. He saw visible gaps in the material, areas in which the carbon fiber layers were separating, which is known as“ delamination ”. identified problems with several other key components. However, the most worrying thing was that he learned that Titan’s security was not going to be independently certified.
When the project was already in its final phase and the passengers had already paid the deposits, Lochridge He formulated a report and sent it to all the directors of the company. This fact led to A heated meeting where finally He was firedaccording to the former employee.
Source: Ambito
