OceanGate CEO crashed a submersible years before Titan implosion, whistleblower says

The CEO of a deep-sea exploration company who piloted the Titan submersible that imploded last year - killing him and four passengers - had previously crashed a different submersible into a shipwreck, a company whistleblower testified Tuesday.

In 2016, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush steered paying customers in the Cyclops I, a Titan predecessor, to the wreckage of the Andrea Doria, a ship that sank in 1956 off Massachusetts, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said during a hearing about the Titan’s implosion.

Lochridge was the only witness to testify Tuesday, the second day of the U.S. Coast Guard’s probe into the Titan, an experimental submersible that disappeared during a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic in June 2023. The days-long search for the vessel drew global attention and shone a light on the unregulated industry of deep-sea tourism.

The hearing by the Marine Board of Investigation, the Coast Guard’s highest level of investigation, is expected to last two weeks and could result in anything from new regulations on deep-sea diving to criminal charges. During the first day of testimony on Monday, OceanGate’s former director of engineering testified that he refused Rush’s request to pilot Titan missions to the Titanic wreckage because he didn’t trust Rush or the vessel’s operations crew.

And the company’s former director of finance and human resources testified that Lochridge told another person in the company that the Titan was “unsafe.”

Lochridge elaborated on Tuesday, testifying about a culture in which his safety concerns were shrugged off to feed Rush’s ego - by accomplishing feats no other reputable deep-sea exploration company had tried because they were dangerous.

“It was disgusting,” Lochridge said, adding that Rush dismissed his concerns about safety, calling him “anti-project,” eventually icing him out and then firing him because he “embarrassed the CEO” during the 2016 dive to the Andrea Doria.

“It’s total disregard for safety, not just for himself, but everybody else,” Lochridge said. “He didn’t care.”

In 2016, Rush wanted to take four paying customers to the Andrea Doria, ostensibly to create 3D images of the wreckage with sonar to help divers more safely navigate it. Lochridge said he implored Rush not to go. He failed to persuade Rush to cancel the trip but did get Rush to let him accompany the group.

“Sometimes he could do things to please himself,” Lochridge said, adding that Rush responded to his objections by telling him, “Remember, I’m the CEO. You’re just an employee.”

The journey to the Andrea Doria got off to an inauspicious start. The weather was bad, and the wreckage was “falling to bits,” presenting hazards to the submersible. Rush incorrectly separated the Cyclops from its host, badly bending the drive skids on the bottom of the submersible, Lochridge said. That forced them to wait until a diver gave them the all clear to continue.

Once they did, Lochridge implored Rush to keep his distance from the wreck, but his boss repeatedly responded by scolding him, “Don’t tell me what to do,” Lochridge said. Rush dove the submersible straight into the ocean floor, getting the skids stuck under a metal panel, Lochridge added.

Rush then lifted the Cyclops and spun it 180 degrees while it was traveling at full speed, all without looking around, Lochridge said. He rammed the craft into the port side of the wreckage, jamming it underneath.

Rush panicked, telling everyone they were stuck while asking Lochridge whether they had enough life support on board and how quickly a dive team could rescue them. Lochridge said he responded that there was no need. If Rush gave him the PlayStation controller that piloted the submersible, Lochridge could take them out of the wreckage and back to the surface.

But every time Lochridge reached for the controller, he testified, Rush pulled it away. Finally, one of the passengers swore and shouted at Rush, demanding that he let Lochridge take over. Rush allegedly threw the controller at the right side of Lochridge’s head, causing it to drop to the ground. Lochridge picked it up, pushed in a button that had popped out and wriggled them out of their jam over the next 10 to 15 minutes.

Once they were back aboard the Titan’s support ship, Rush told Lochridge that he owed him one, Lochridge testified. But he added that when others cheered Lochridge for saving them, his relationship with Rush quickly soured.

Lochridge said he kept expressing his concerns about the safety of the Cyclops and then the Titan, which were increasingly ignored. Eventually, he added, Rush fired him in January 2018.

Lochridge then approached the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to become a whistleblower about safety concerns at the company. OSHA said it would investigate.

For his part, Rush did an interview with Ocean News & Technology in 2016 about the Andrea Doria trip without mentioning how he crashed into the wreckage. Instead, he said the technology “worked beautifully” and said the voyage heralded a new age of deep-sea exploration.

“We’re going to take mankind to the bottom of the ocean,” Rush told the outlet, “and discover things that no one can even imagine.”

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Annabelle Timsit, Victoria Bisset, Ben Brasch and Tamia Fowlkes contributed to this report.