Stockton Rush, CEO of Titan subsidiary said: ‘No one dies’
A transcript from a key meeting at a subsidiary of the ill-fated Titan submersible revealed that the CEO said in 2018: “No one dies in my time.”
It captures heated discussions between OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and his former director of marine operations, David Lochridge, and three other employees.
The log shows Mr Lochridge raised safety concerns, to which Rush replied: “I have no wish to die… I think this is one of the safest things I’ll ever do.”
The document was released by the US Coast Guard as part of their investigation into the June 2023 disaster when the submarine exploded while en route to the Titanic dock. All five passengers died, including Rush.
OceanGate suspended all commercial and exploration activities following the incident, leading to questions about the submersible’s safety and design.
In the two weeks of the trial, the investigators want to reveal what led to this tragedy, and to make recommendations to avoid repeating the incidents.
The transcript was posted on the investigation’s website on Friday, but parts of the document have been redacted.
The US Coast Guard has now confirmed to the BBC who spoke in this important exchange during the two-hour meeting.
Mr Lochridge – who gave evidence at a public inquiry last week as an OceanGate employee – was called to a meeting on 19 January 2018.
He had put together a “quality inspection report”, which raised serious problems with the sub’s design.
These include concerns about the poor quality of the sub’s hull, which is made of carbon fiber, and problems with the way the Titan was built and tested.
He told the inquiry last week: “That meeting turned out to be a conversation that lasted two hours and 10 minutes… about my withdrawal and that my disagreements with the organization, about security, didn’t matter.”
The 2018 meeting was recorded, and the transcript captures Mr Lochridge saying: “I look at what I see as a security concern, a concern that I have verbally raised… that has been dismissed by everyone.”
Stockton Rush was recorded as replying: “I listened to them, and I gave them my answer, and you think my answer was not enough.”
Rush continued: “Everything I’ve done in this job people have told me it won’t work – you can’t do it.
After telling the audience that he had no death wish and believed his sub was safe, Rush continued: “I have a beautiful grandson. I’ll be there. I understand this kind of risk, and I’m going into it with my eyes open and I think this is one of the safest things I’ll ever do.”
He added: “I can come up with 50 reasons why we should stop it and fail as a company. I don’t die. No one dies under my watch. “
Mr Lochridge was fired after the meeting and took his concerns to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha).
But he said the US government movement was slow and failed to act. After mounting pressure from OceanGate’s lawyers, he dropped the lawsuit and signed a non-disclosure agreement.
At the end of his testimony at the Titan inquiry last week, he said that if the authorities had properly investigated OceanGate, this tragedy would have been avoided.
In other developments related to this case, the US Coast Guard also released a photo of the Titan showing how its dome collapsed as the submersible was pulled from the sea following the 2021 dive.
A paying passenger who was on that Titan plane described the incident during his testimony on Friday.
Fred Hagen said: “The force of the stage hit the ship… And the titanium dome fell.”
This is one of the 118 technical incidents listed by the US Coast Guard and Titan dive to the Titanic that occurred before the 2023 disaster.
Public hearings continue this week.
Monday’s testimony came from OceanGate founder Guillermo Sohnlein, former director of engineering Phil Brooks and Roy Thomas from the American Bureau of Shipping.
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