Former employee: CEO of OceanGate steered a submersible into a shipwreck in 2016 and threw the controls at the crew

Former OceanGate operations manager David Lochridge, who described the experimental submersible Titan as unsafe before its final, fatal voyage, told U.S. Coast Guard investigators on Tuesday about an earlier mission that involved a collision with CEO Stockton Rush that ended badly.

Lochridge, who was responsible for the safety of the entire crew and training of the pilots, said he was the only qualified submersible pilot at OceanGate. Despite this, he recalled, Rush insisted on piloting a voyage on the Cyclops 1 vessel to the site of the Andrea Doria shipwreck in 2016.

He said there were many system errors on Cyclops 1 and he was “retired” after embarrassing Rush by telling him not to pilot a submarine.

Lochridge said that despite his warning, Rush took three people in a submersible to the wreck site of the Andrea Doria and destroyed the ship before Lochridge tried to take the controls from him. Lochridge said Rush refused to give up the controls until a customer on board shouted at him. He said Rush then threw the controller, described as a PlayStation controller, at his head.

Crew of the submersible Titan said in last messages shortly before the ship imploded: “Everything is fine here”

Later in the hearing, Lochridge discussed his concerns about the submersible Titan, in which Rush and four passengers died when the vessel imploded en route to the Titanic wreck.

He referred to a 2018 report in which he had raised security concerns about OceanGate's operations. He said that given all the security concerns he had seen, “there is no way I would consider signing this.”

When asked if he had confidence in the way the Titan was being built, he said: “No confidence at all.”

“Clearly, I would never get in that thing,” Lochridge told a Coast Guard commission trying to determine what caused the implosion of the Titan en route to the wreck of the Titanic last year, killing all five people on board.

Lochridge refused to authorize manned tests of the submersible for safety reasons. He was sued by the Washington-based company for disclosing confidential information.

Lochridge then filed a counterclaim, claiming that OceanGate fired him because he raised concerns about the ship.

LEGAL EXPERT: FAMILIES OF DIVING BOAT VICTIMS HAVE NO REASON TO SUE OCEANGATE

Lochridge outlined his concerns about the submersible Titan, in which Rush and four passengers died when the vessel imploded on a trip to the Titanic wreck. (US Coast Guard YouTube)

In his counterclaim, Lochridge alleges that he used an inspection report that identified numerous problems that “raised serious safety concerns and offered corrective actions and recommendations for each problem.”

Bonnie Carl, OceanGate's former chief financial officer and human resources officer, testified Monday that Lochridge had described the Titan as “unsafe.”

OCEANGATE, THE COMPANY BEHIND THE MISSING TOURIST SUBMARINE TITANIC, WAS ONCE THE SUBJECT OF A LAWSUIT OVER SAFETY COMPLAINTS

“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge said of OceanGate, adding that the paying passengers “were people who had money.”

“There was very little science,” he said.

Lochridge joined the company in the mid-2010s as an experienced engineer and submersible pilot, and told the hearing he quickly felt he was being used as a “showpiece pony” to give the company scientific credibility. He said he felt the company was selling him as part of the project “so people would come and pay money,” and he didn't like that.

Lochridge's testimony began a day after other witnesses painted a picture of a struggling company that couldn't wait to launch its unconventionally designed boat. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)

OceanGate, based in Washington state, ceased operations after going bankrupt last year. The company currently has no full-time employees but will be represented by an attorney during the hearing, the company said in a statement to the Associated Press. The company said it has been cooperating fully with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began.

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Lochridge's testimony began a day after other witnesses painted a picture of a struggling company eager to launch its unconventionally designed vessel. The accident sparked a global debate about the future of private underwater exploration.

Rush's widow, Wendy Rush, is not expected to testify at the hearing. Asked by the Associated Press about her absence, Coast Guard spokeswoman Melissa Leake said the Coast Guard does not comment on the reasons why certain people are not called to a particular hearing during an ongoing investigation. She said it is common for a Marine Board of Investigation “to hold multiple hearings or take additional testimony in complex cases.”

Greg Wehner, Bradford Betz, Michael Ruiz of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.