Whistleblower Who Flagged Safety Issues in Missing Titanic Submersible Was Fired

A whistleblower from the company whose submersible vessel went missing this week during an undersea expedition to the Titanic had raised safety concerns ahead of the craft’s maiden voyage and was later fired.
David Lochridge once served as the director of marine operations at OceanGate, the firm whose “Titan” submersible went missing on June 18 during a deep dive to the wreckage of the Titanic.
Lochridge was fired in January 2018 after flagging concerns about the craft’s carbon fiber hull and other systems, according to a lawsuit brought by Lochridge against OceanGate after his dismissal (pdf).
During a meeting in Washington to discuss the handover of the Titan from OceanGate’s engineering department to Lochridge’s operations unit, issues of quality control were raised with the submersible as there were “evident flaws throughout the build process,” per the complaint….