Titanic sub firm faced lawsuit over ‘dangerous flaws’ before Titan vanished with hours of air left amid frantic search
BOSSES of a missing submarine were embroiled in a lawsuit over the vessel’s potentially dangerous flaws after a safety manager spoke out about his concerns.
Rescue teams are in a race against the clock to find the lost vessel - which has five people on board.
And now it's been revealed that Oceangate - the company which runs the expeditions to the Titanic wreck - was involved in a huge lawsuit over fears about the sub’s safety.
Ex-employee David Lochridge claims he was fired after he raised his concerns and demanded more rigorous safety checks.
Court documents, seen by The Sun, said he complained that the vessel was not capable of descending to the extreme depths necessary to view the Titanic wreckage.
The Legal files show Oceangate sued Lochridge, who was “responsible for the safety of all crew and clients”, for disclosing confidential information about the Titan.
More on missing Titanic sub
However, Lochridge then filed a counterclaim - alleging that he had been wrongfully fired from his role over being a whistleblower about the quality and safety of the vessel.
The documents state: "Lochridge learned that the viewport manufacturer would only certify to a depth of 1,300 meters due to the experimental design of the viewport supplied by OceanGate, which was out of the Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy ('PVHO') standards.
"OceanGate refused to pay for the manufacturer to build a viewport that would meet the required depth of 4,000 meters.
"The paying passengers would not be aware, and would not be informed, of this experimental design, the lack of non-destructive testing of the hull, or that hazardous flammable materials were being used within the submersible."
In November 2018 the case settled out of court.
Last night, Department of Homeland Security emails revealed searchers heard banging underwater during their frantic hunt.
Records obtained by read: "RCC Halifax launched a P8, Poseidon, which has underwater detection capabilities from the air.
“The PH deployed sonobuoys, which reported a contact in a position close to the distress position.
"The P8 heard banging sounds in the area every 30 minutes. Four hours later additional sonar was deployed and banging was still heard."
SAFETY FEARS
It comes as ex-passengers have also told tales of radio failures, flickering lights while on board the Titan.
Mike Reiss, who works on the classic US TV animated show The Simpsons, made the trip last year on the sub Titan and said communication failures were common.
He said: “I have taken three different dives with this company, one at the Titanic and two others and you almost always lost communication — and you are at the mercy of weather.”
Renata Rojas, a banker who visited the wreckage last July, described what happened when sonar failed during her trip.
She said: “You have to find a way to communicate and navigate in the bottom of the ocean.
“Sometimes you don’t have communications, you have maybe just one system instead of all three.
“Some of the lights may flicker... The battery might be low and you need to go to the surface.”
Contact was lost with the £200,000-a-head voyage on Sunday as it headed to the wreckage of the Titanic - with only 96 hours of life support.
Yesterday it was revealed that rescuers are set to send a deep-sea robot into the water in a desperate bid to find it.
France's oceanographic institute is currently sending its vessel Atalante to the scene - carrying their underwater robot Victor 6000.
The ship should arrive at the Titan's last known location at 6pm on Wednesday.
The robot has the ability to search at 20,000ft. The Titanic is around 12,500ft below sea level.
It comes as the US Coast Guard's Capt Jamie Frederick this evening gave an update on the search.
He says his teams estimate the sub crew have between 40 and 41 hours of oxygen left on board.
He said: "It's 900 miles east of Cape Cod and 400 miles south of St John's. Logistically speaking it takes time and coordination and we're dealing with surface search and subsurface search.
"We are out there, we are searching. If the sub is located, the experts will look at the best course of action for recovering the sub."
What we know:
- Frantic rescue mission to find the missing Titan submarine which vanished while exploring the Titanic
- US Coast Guard fear sub only has oxygen to last until 12pm on Thursday
- Five people on board the submarine have all been named - including Brit billionaire Hamish Harding
- OceanGate boss Stockton Rush, French sub-pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet, businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman have been named
- Ships and planes combing the area around the wreck using sonar to find the sub
- US and Canada leading rescue mission with UK teams on standby
- Fears the tourist submarine could be "tangled" in wreck of the Titanic
- Pal of Hamish reveals his final text message talking about bad weather ahead of the mission
- Timeline reveals the last movements of the Titan before she went dark
He was asked: "Even with that amount of time left, if you were to find the submersible at this moment, would that give you enough time to save those five people on board?"
Frederick replied: "I don't know the answer to that question… all I know is we will do everything within our power to effect a rescue."
Brit billionaire Hamish Harding has been confirmed as one of the crew members on the missing sub, while it is widely reported French diving expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet and submarine boss Stockton Rush are also on board.
British-based Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son Suleman - who live in a gated home in leafy Surrey - are on the lost sub too.
The final message sent from the vessel, named Titan, placed it directly above the Titanic - which lies at a depth of 12,500ft around 600km off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
But those on board will face gruelling conditions and could even freeze to death if the vessel has suffered a catastrophic power outage as temperatures will plunge and they will be left in the dark.
"It's like a visit to another planet, it's not what people think it is. It is a sunless, cold environment and high pressure."
The vessel sends texts to communicate with their team on transport vessel the Polar Prince, which remains above water.
Titan is understood to have lost contact with the Polar Prince just one hour and 45 minutes into the expedition.
Every 15 minutes, Titan also sends 'pings' to the Polar Prince.
The final of these pings is understood to have been sent at around 11.30am local time (3pm UK time) on Sunday, directly above the Titanic.
After that, no contact was had with the vessel at all - but the Canada's Coast Guard wasn't alerted until after 9pm.
It has sparked fears that Titan could be trapped in the wreckage of the Titanic, too deep for rescuers to ac
The family of UK-based millionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman - who recently graduated from International School Cobham - have asked for people to "pray for their safety".
They said: "We are very grateful for the concern being shown by our colleagues and friends and would like to request everyone to pray for their safety."
Mr Darwood is vice chairman of Dawood Hercules Corporation, part of the Dawood Group, which has been a family business for more than a century, according to Seti Institute's website.
He and his family live in a gated home in Surrey, and a neighbour told The Sun that the house was currently being renovated and that they had been away for some time.
He described them as a humble couple who threw garden parties for their neighbours having been at the private home for the past eight or nine years.
Another of the missing passengers has been named as aviator and businessman Hamish Harding.
The 58-year-old is known as one of the leaders of the record-breaking mission to orbit the Earth via both poles in 2019.
His stepson confirmed that he was one of the crew on board the sub.
Mr Harding posted on Facebook about poor weather conditions before the trip began.
He said: "Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023.
"There are no switches and things to bump into, we have one button to turn it on.
"Everything else is done with touch screens and computers, and so you really become part of the vehicle and everybody gets to know everyone pretty well."
The wreckage of the Titanic has sat 12,500ft beneath sea level in dark and icy waters in the North Atlantic Ocean for 111 years.
OceanGate, one of few companies offering trips to see the ruins, confirmed a major search mission has been launched to ";bring the crew back safely".
Tickets for tourists to see the wreckage cost up to £195,000.
OceanGate bills the trip as a "chance to step outside of everyday life and discover something truly extraordinary".
The vessel weighs over 10,000kg and is powered by electric thrusters, generating a stop speed of three knots.
Unusually, it is steered by a reinforced Xbox-style controller, though there is no GPS system, with crew instead relying on texts from a team above the water.
The company previously revealed it uses Elon Musk's Starlink to communicate with the vessel, however, it's not clear what has gone wrong with the network.
A spokesman for OceanGate said: "We are exploring and mobilising all options to bring the crew back safely.
"Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families.
"We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible.
"We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers."
The deepest successful underwater rescue in history was in 1973, when British engineers Roger Mallinson and Roger Chapman were saved after their submersible became trapped on the seabed at 1,575ft.
This operation would be 11,000ft deeper.
DOOMED VOYAGE
The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage to New York in April 1912, after hitting an iceberg.
More than 1,500 of the 2,200 passengers and crew onboard were killed, and many died within minutes of being thrown into the -2C waters.
The decaying wreck of the 822ft liner was first discovered in 1985 but due to its depth and strong currents even the best underwater cameras have only offered a small snapshot into its colossal remains.
Its bow and the stern that broke apart during the sinking lie more than 2,600ft apart and are surrounded by an unending field of exposed debris.
But last month, the ship's haunting wreck was revealed as never before in stunningly detailed 3D scans on the ocean floor.
Scientists hope the high-resolution digital images - the clearest view ever of the world's most famous shipwreck - could shed new light on the disaster.
The British luxury passenger liner took under three years to construct, costing around £1.5million - equating to about £170million today.
Thousands of workers were involved in the project, with some 14,000 men employed during the peak of construction.
The frame was fully formed in just over a year, with the shell plating finished shortly afterwards.
The steamship was released from its dry dock in 1911 and work on the interior began.
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Just eight days before its maiden voyage, it was declared seaworthy.
Titanic OceanGate Submarine News
Everything you need to know about the missing submarine, which vanished near the Titanic on June 18, 2023.
- What happened to the OceanGate Submarine?
- When did it go missing?
- Who is Hamish Harding?
- How deep is the Titanic in the ocean?
- Can the passengers escape the submarine alive?
- Do submarines like this dissapear often and has this happened before?
- Who is taking part in the rescue effort?
- Who is Paul-Henry Nargeolet and what is he known for?
- Who else is missing on the stricken vessel?
- When did the Titanic sink and have people explored the wreckage before?