Titan Sub -founder Stockton Rush was a fraud, says colleague (exclusive)

David Lochridge Do not grind words when it comes to describing his time to work for stockton rush on Experimental diving company OceangateWhich eventually launched a doomed assignment down to Titanic 2023 – and five people died.

“I didn’t realize that they were so good at cutting corners until I actually came there,” Lochridge says people in a new interview and marked one of the fist -times he speaks publicly.

During the two years since Oceangates Titanic sub imploded -Killing Rush, the company’s co-founder and four passengers-a more complete picture is now emerging about what really happened before and during tragedy.

The US Coast Guard prepares to release a final report after a long investigation.

Some of them near the rush and victims, such as Lochridge, also speak out, including in Netflix’s new documentary Titana: Oceangate disasterwhich premieres Wednesday, June 11.

Lochridge too showed up on Today show on Friday June 6th.

A former diver in Britain’s Royal Navy, he worked as Oceangate’s operations director until the beginning of 2018 and says he was closely involved in the training and preparations for what the company promised to potential explorers (for a substantial fee): trips to wonderful sub -drive items as the wreck of the wreck of the wreckage of the wreck Titanic off the coast of Canada.

“The company needed a lot of I would say that my experience put it in to create this competent team, to actually go out and do this job they wanted me to do,” says Lochridge.

But “The emperor had no clothes when I arrived.”

“I will never forget this. It was day 1 (worked at Oceangate 2016). We landed … Stockton, I think he was at home or at (the lab), and he stated that the new underwater Titanic Would not have any underwater communication in it, ”recalls Lochridge.

“I honestly thought he was joking,” he says of Rush, “but he was deadly serious.”

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During the approximately two years that Lochridge was a top official at Oceangate, “I always met a lot of resistance,” he says. “But at the same time I had to look at what I did. I was the new boy in the company.”

He says security warnings included more than a first lack of concern about the underwater communication. Lochridge quotes the surveillance system for TitanicRoman carbon fiber hull – the same system that showed eerie cracking sound.

“If I had heard sound like that in a sub, I would never go on it again,” says Lochridge. “No one would ever go on it again.”

He also says that part of the glue used to put together components was applied only with spatulas.

“No one verified that there were no voids,” he says. “And it’s like someone puts glaze on a birthday cake.”

In the middle of the review and criticism from people like Lochridge, Rush and Oceangate, however, have defenders for the work they tried. (And another person who went on oceangate -dives Previously shot back on Lochridge.)

“I think it was a noble effort,” Fred Hagen, a developer who made two successful trips to Titanic on Titanictells people.

“The goal was to enable humanity to access the depth of the abyss and to promote our understanding and to promote a sense of connection to the bottom of the sea, which is integrated into the future of life on earth,” Hagen continues. “And Stockton took some risk and lived outside the box and paid for it with his life.”

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Lochridge’s own relationship with Rush and Oceangate collapsed in early 2018 and he was dismissed long before the last, deadly dive. He says he was trying to talk about the company for several years, behind closed doors, starting with the occupational safety and health administration.

“Even during my dismissal, he (Rush) said:” You know, this may fail, ” – which it did,” says Lochridge and adds, “unfortunately … people were in it.”

In a statement to people, Oceangate said: “We again offer our deepest condolences to the families to those who died on June 18, 2023 and to all those affected by the tragedy.”

In the wake of the implosion, the company said: “Oceangate permanently ended its operations and focused its resources on fully collaborating with the investigations that were conducted.”