CNN –
A former OceanGate Expeditions employee years ago emailed another former employee of the company, raising concerns about the potential shortcomings of its submersible Titan, as well as an ominous warning about its CEO, who was killed along with four others last month when the Ship imploded in water dive in North Atlantic, according to The New Yorker.
“I don’t want to be seen as a Tattle fairy tale, but I am very concerned that he kills himself and others to boost his ego,” wrote David Lochridge of Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate. The company ran tourist trips to see the 111-year-old remains of the Titanic for $250,000 per ticket.
Lochridge worked for OceanGate as an independent contractor in 2015 and then as an employee between 2016 and 2018, CNN reported. He soon became involved in a legal battle with OceanGate, claiming he was wrongly fired for raising concerns about Titan’s safety and testing.
02:55 – Source: CNN
James Cameron on the ‘fundamental flaw’ in Titan submersible design
“I would consider myself quite cocky when it comes to doing dangerous things, but this sub is an accident just waiting to happen,” Lochridge wrote in the email to Rob McCallum, a Project worker who distanced himself over concerns about not classifying the vehicle According to a report by the New Yorker, it is a marine certification body.
“There’s no way you could have paid me to dive that thing,” Lochridge continued.
McCallum, a divemaster who has led expeditions to Titanic, warned Rush about the safety of the Titan submersible in 2018, telling the CEO he was putting himself and his customers at risk, CNN previously reported.
David Hiscock/Portal
Salvaged parts of OceanGate Expeditions’ Titan submersible arrive in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador on Wednesday with the Horizon Arctic ship.
The OceanGate ship was approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes into a planned dive to reach the remains of Titanic when it lost contact with its mother ship on June 18. A few days later, officials confirmed the Titan — a 23,000-pound carbon fiber and titanium ship about the size of a minivan — had suffered a “catastrophic implosion.”
The five men on board were identified as Rush; British businessman Hamish Harding; French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet; Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood; and Dawood’s 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood.