OceanGate’s CFO reveals she quit when CEO asked her to take control of doomed submarine

The former OceanGate CFO reveals she resigned after CEO Stockton Rush asked her to take over the helm of the doomed Titan submarine.

The unnamed staffer said that after chief pilot David Lochridge was fired in 2018 for raising safety concerns, she couldn’t trust the late CEO Stockton Rush.

She told the New Yorker: ‘I was shocked that he would want me to be chief pilot, as I have an accounting background I couldn’t work for Stockton.

“I didn’t trust him,” she said. As soon as she could find a new job, she quit.

She added that several engineers were in their late teens and early twenties and were paid $15 an hour at one point.

OceanGate bosses fired David Lochridge, pictured here, who was director of marine operations for the Titan project

The five men on board had all perished after the Titan submarine, pictured here, imploded during its expedition

Lochridge was fired in 2018 after OceanGate disagreed with his demand for stricter safety checks on the submarine, including “testing to prove its integrity.”

OceanGate, which charged up to $250,000 for a seat on the submarine, suggested the search for classification could take years and would be “a horror of rapid innovation.”

In 2019, OceanGate said seeking classification for Titan would not “ensure operators adhere to proper operating procedures and decision-making processes – two areas that are much more important for mitigating risk at sea.”

Classification involves recruiting an independent organization to ensure that vessels such as ships and submarines meet industry-wide technical standards. It is a crucial way to ensure that a ship is operational.

In a court document filed in 2018, lawyers for the company said Lochridge’s employment was terminated because he “could not accept” their research and plans, including safety protocols.

OceanGate also alleged that Lochridge “desperated to be fired” and had shared confidential information with others and erased a company’s hard drive.

The company said it “refused to accept the glut of information” about safety from Titan’s chief engineer.

Lochridge had moved from the UK to Washington to work on the development of the Titan – formerly known as Cyclops 2.

French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet (left) sat on the submarine with Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate Expedition

There were five people on board, including British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding (left) and Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who was just 19.

A former Royal Navy marine engineer and marine diver, he was described by OceanGate as an ‘expert in subsea operations and rescue operations’.

Lochridge stated that he could not accept OceanGate’s research and development plans.

Based on Lochridge’s position, OceanGate has terminated his employment, the legal documents show.

Rush died aboard the submarine, which imploded last month while descending to see the wreckage of the Titanic.

On board was one of Pakistan’s richest men, Shahzada Dawood, along with his son Suleman, British billionaire Hamish Harding and French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet.

Huge chunks of metal are unloaded from the Horizon Arctic vessel at the Canadian Coast Guard pier in St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada

The submarine lost communication with its operator, OceanGate Expeditions, less than two hours after its dive to the famous shipwreck last month, with five people on board.

A large-scale rescue operation involving aircraft and a fleet of vessels had scrambled to the area 400 miles southeast of Newfoundland, Canada, as oxygen supplies in the submarine dwindled.

It was then announced that the five men on board died instantly after the submarine suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’.

Last week, the submarine’s debris was towed ashore in St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.