OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush College hired college interns to design the electrical systems for the sick Titan submersible that killed him and four others, according to an explosive new report.
Rush, who allegedly ignored safety warnings while charging wealthy tourists $250,000 for Titanic wreck dives, hired Washington State University students to work on critical systems. The New Yorker reported.
“The whole electrical system — that was our design, we implemented it, and it works,” a former intern told the university paper in February 2018, according to the magazine.
“We’re on the precipice of making history and it’s all systems go down on the Titanic. It’s an incredible feeling!” added.
Meanwhile, OceanGate’s former director of marine operations and chief pilot has said the Titan was a “lemon” and was not safe to dive in 2018, The New Yorker also reported in its extensive piece.
Alumnus Mark Walsh had been club treasurer at WSU’s Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers when OceanGate’s director of engineering, Tony Nissen, described some of the company’s challenges. according to the school document.
Walsh said he and his colleagues volunteered to provide solutions.
“Tony said, ‘OK, you’re hired,'” said Walsh, who graduated in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and then joined OceanGate full-time as the electrical engineering manager for the company
“If the electrons flow in it, I’m in charge of it,” he told the WSU newspaper with a laugh, adding that he led a team of five, including Nissen and two WSU interns.
Nissen recommended senior Doug Yamamoto for his experience in software engineering, the WSU report said.
“I like that we have a close relationship with WSU Everett because the interns have been really great,” Walsh said. “They’ve been taught at WSU Everett, so we’ll be hiring more this summer.”
On June 22, WSU told the local outlet the Everett Herald which “does not have an alliance with OceanGate.
“We are aware that some of our graduates have worked at OceanGate. As far as we know, a graduate is currently working there. We do not know what OceanGate projects WSU Everett alumni have been involved in or what roles they may have played outside of publicly available information,” he added.
OceanGate also used interns from Everett Community College’s Ocean Research College Academy, but the school stopped offering internships with the company in 2019, according to the Herald.
Ardi Kveven, founder and executive director of the academy, told the outlet that there was often a disconnect between the scientific community and explorers, who pushed the envelope.
The Post has reached out to OceanGate Expeditions for comment
Boeing and the University of Washington have it too both denied involvement with OceanGatewhich had repeatedly touted outside expertise in the development of its Titan.
Rush had also name-checked Boeing and the University of Washington in a now-viral interview with CBS News in which he showed off what his submersible looked like. run with a video game controller.
The New Yorker also reported on David Lochridge, who was fired as OceanGate’s head of marine operations after he raised concerns about the company’s testing methods.
In 2018, deepwater exploration specialist Rob McCallum contacted Lochridge following his expulsion.
“I’d like to pick your brain if you have a few moments,” McCallum emailed her, according to the magazine. “I’m eager to learn exactly how bad things are. I’m getting reports, but I don’t know if they’re accurate.”
He added: “Stockton must be removed. You were the star player … and the only one who gave me a bit of confidence.”
Lochridge replied: “I think you will [be] even more surprised when I tell you what’s going on,” adding that he would share his opinion of the Titan in private, but feared retaliation from Rush for his “influence and money.”
“This scuba is not safe for diving,” Lochridge wrote, according to The New Yorker.
“Do you think scuba diving could be made safe for diving, or is it a complete lemon?” McCallum replied. “You’re going to have a lot of support from people in the industry. Everyone is watching and waiting and quietly pissing their pants.”
Lochridge replied: “It’s a lemon.”
“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,” McCallum emailed, according to The New Yorker.
In 2018, Lochridge found “several critically flawed or untested aspects” of the Titan and wrote a detailed report outlining his concerns, including about the craft’s carbon fiber hull, which experts now believe could have caused the implosion.
“Until appropriate corrective actions are established and closed, Cyclops 2 (Titan) should not be directed during any of the upcoming trials,” he wrote.
Rush, who was “furious” with Lochridge’s report, called a meeting where OceanGate management insisted there was no need for helmet testing, according to the magazine.
Instead, an acoustic monitoring system should be used to detect torn fibers to alert the pilot of the possibility of a catastrophic failure “with sufficient time to stop the descent and return to the surface safely.”
But Lochridge’s attorney wrote in a court filing that “this type of acoustic analysis would only show when a component is about to fail, often milliseconds before an implosion, and would not detect any existing defects before pressure on the helmet”. Yorker reported.
OceanGate’s counsel wrote that “the parties reached an impasse, Mr. Lochridge did not, and specifically stated that he could not be comfortable with OceanGate’s evidence protocol, while Mr. Rush he was unwilling to change the company’s plan,” the magazine said. .
Lochridge was then fired.
Rush, 61, British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58, famed Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, prominent Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and their 19-year-old son Sulaiman Dawood die in the disaster of June 18.
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