Experts previously expressed safety concerns about the Titanic submersible, which went missing on Sunday. Photo courtesy of OceanGate
June 21 (UPI) -- OceanGate, the company that made the missing Titanic submersible, faced warnings about the safety of the vessel before it went missing this week, sparking an ongoing search.
Former employee David Lochridge was fired in 2018 after he expressed concerns about the safety of the vessel's hull, CBS News reported. OceanGate sued him, claiming that he had breached his employment contract by disclosing confidential information with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
OceanGate also faced concerns from more than three dozen experts, who warned in a 2018 letter to CEO Stockton Rush, that the company's "experimental" approach and its decision to forgo a traditional assessment could lead to potentially "catastrophic" problems with the Titanic mission, the New York Times reported.
Rush is one of five people onboard the vessel, which went missing Sunday on a trip to explore the wreckage of the infamous Titanic passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912.
The U.S. Coast Guard was first notified about the missing submersible at 5:40 p.m. EDT Sunday, nearly three hours after the vessel was to resurface following its dive to the Titanic wreckage some 900 nautical miles east of Cape Cod, Mass.
Communication with Titan was lost about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.
U.S. Coast Guard officials on Tuesday said the vessel had less than 40 hours of oxygen remaining.
Lochridge had urged the company to have the vessel inspected and certified, but he said OceanGate was not willing to pay for it. Lochridge said the craft was only certified to work in depths of around 4,000 feet, far less than the 13,000 feet necessary to see the Titanic's wreckage.
