Stockton Rush Jerry-Rigged Repairs on Titan Sub: OceanGate Signalman

Former OceanGate COO David Lochridge, who has exposed safety concerns over the company’s operations, pointed to gaps and holes in the Titan’s carbon-fiber hull, which he says were fixed by spray-coating the hull with a truck bed liner.

The submarine imploded while descending towards the Titanic disaster site in June 2023, killing all five people on board, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.

Yesterday Lochridge described the conflicts he had with Rush over the security issues he mentioned.

He also showed off two photos of a five-inch section of carbon fiber used to build Titan — which he called “that abomination of a submarine,” showing “delaminations and voids”… including a cross-section through which you could actually see light.

The carbon fibre was part of the excess waste from the winding process that was given to customers and staff.

Photos of carbon fibre layers and visible defects provided by Lochridge.

He showed two images: one showing a section of the carbon fiber layers where the gaps and spaces are clearly visible, and the other showing light visible through the back of the panel.

“You can see the cuts, you can see the delamination, it was so obvious,” Lochbridge told the court. In a second photo, showing pinpoints of light, Lochbridge explained, “that’s me shining a flashlight through the back, through this one section, that’s a five-inch section of carbon fiber that’s part of the fuselage winding.”

Lochridge says he repeatedly pointed out the imperfections and was “constantly criticised for it”, while assuring her that the glue would solve the problem.

David Lochridge

He claims the method used to solve the problem was equally shocking.

“Once they smoothed out all those holes, they brought in this company from Everett, Washington. They took the hull out to the parking lot at the back of the marina, built a pop-up tent, and sprayed it with a cargo bed liner. That’s something I’ve never seen or heard of in any underwater application in my life.”