OceanGate CEO 'dangerously ignored his peers' and 'never did proper tests' on doomed sub, insider claims
OceanGate never properly tested vital parts used in the doomed Titan sub despite warnings, while the industry feared the company's CEO was acting dangerously ahead of the disaster, an insider told LBC News.
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Five people died after a catastrophic failure on the Titan submersible, which fatally imploded 90 minutes into a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic in June 2023.
Speaking to LBC News, William Kohnen said the firm's CEO Stockton Rush "ignored the wisdom of his peers" which ultimately contributed to the "worst case scenario" of the submersible imploding at sea.
Mr Kohnen, who supplied parts of the ship to OceanGate, explained: "Most of the submersibles today that go that deep do not have that big of a living room to hold people in it.
"Because at depth, the amount of space you have in a submarine is very expensive.
"In terms of withholding pressure, the concept wasn't particularly new. Of the general architecture they used, using the different material was an issue.
"We did have engineering protocols to test these new types of technologies, specifically the composite carbon. The US Navy has done a lot of testing on it. They gave up on it.
"You can ignore that and say, I'll do it different, but then what you do not get past is doing the proper testing."
He added that the "testing requirement probably would have required them to spend two years testing" due to the size.
"They had the schedule. They wanted to save some money that they needed to save some time... they thought they were doing wonders. It's meaningless," the expert added.
Mr Kohnen's said the CEO ignoring warnings was almost by definition in the "worst case scenario" which "ends up tragic and sad at the end".
Mr Kohnen, who is also chairman of the Manned Underwater Vehicles Committee, said he had spent a lot of time with OceanGate's CEO, describing him as "charismatic" with "lots of ideas" and "very active".
But he added: "Over time, 10 years later, it was pretty apparent that he was ignoring the wisdom of his peers. And it's not personal, but, there are people from around the world in this industry that were having serious, serious concerns and saying: 'what do we do?
"How do we convince Stockton this is really dangerous."
It comes as a report today revealed a "disturbing pattern of misrepresentation and reckless disregard for safety" within Mr Stockton's company.
The damning US Coast Guard investigation has concluded that Stockton Rush would have faced criminal action - had he not died.
The report criticised OceanGate's design and testing processes and the continued use of the Titan submersible despite "a series of incidents that compromised the integrity of the hull and other critical components".
"The MBI concluded that Mr. Rush, in his dual role as CEO and as the acting Master or Pilot of the TITAN submersible, exhibited negligence that contributed to the deaths of four individuals," the report reads.
As well as Mr Rush, French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and British adventurer Hamish Harding were also killed in the incident.