Expert Pilot Fired By OceanGate Warned CEO Would Kill Himself, Others ‘To Boost His Ego‘: Report

Just after I left a previous employer, there was very public fatality in which an epoxy adhesive failed. The company I worked for manufactured epoxy adhesives among other things.

A customer purchased a large quantity of adhesives and wasn’t truthful about the application. The adhesive they purchased wasn’t the proper choice for the application. They then re-labeled the product with their house brand.

When it failed, a person was killed. Guess who had to pay out millions in claims? Yep. The adhesive manufacturer even though the installer had been the fraudulent party.

Is Lockridge white, and 50-something? Obviously, he wasn’t qualified to be working for OceanGate. I mean, c’mon man!

Yes, we all know that Drag Queens and trannies are so much more qualified than knuckle-dragging racist white men. (sarcasm)

A submersible operator that went for deep dive in the Titan near the Bahamas in 2019. He said the hull made popping sounds like a pistol being fired all the way down and back up. He told Rush it wasn’t marketable and it was dangerous.

That would have to be the sound made by delamination.

OceanGate rebuilt the CF cylinder sometime after that..

You would think that the noises they reportedly heard that sounded like small arms fire (fibers breaking?) would have been a clue that failure was imminent.

That was the thing that jumped out at me.

Delamination.

Kiss of death for carbon fibre composites. Sure death at nearly any significant depth, not even 4,000 meters.

I only know from what I have read regarding use in airliners like the Boeing 787, and being at 40,000 feet altitude is child’s play from a stress perspective from being at 4,000 meters.

Sad. I don’t feel sadness for the men who went down in it, because they made their own calculations and should have known better. That 19 year old guy was different. And his calculations were more emotional than rational.

It isn’t just that, from what I have heard. Steel is used in submarines because, contrary to its feel and appearance, there is surprising “flexibility”, and its behaviors under load are pretty well understood.

At least that is what I have read. My degree, long unused, is in Chemistry not Metallurgy, but I do have an appreciation of properties.

Seems it was well known that it wasn’t up to the task.

An event like this must make the 1.3 million American lawyers very happy.

I wonder if anyone would have insured them without doing due diligence of a deep dive into their standard work, design and processes first? I also think the disclaimers and waivers signed before trips belied the existence of any meaningful insurance coverage.

No kidding.

Sigh.

I know people probably said the same ungenerous things about men trying to figure out powered flight at the dawn of the 20th century who were killed in the process of trying to advance it.

But they were largely ignorant of the lethality of certain key issues. I think the OceanGate team was aware of the problems, but were more interested in money and fame than safety in the face of known issues.

Well. I guess the same could be said of many pioneers.

Everybody in the submersible field knew it and urged Rush to have it certified..

Oh, Ok.

So, just curious:

Which governing body did he take his concerns immediately after he was fired to in order to preserve life?

Unfortunately I believe they did know something was wrong. They texted to the support ship that they had a problem and were coming up, they also dumped ballast (an emergency method to surface). Their last moments were probably not pleasant, but mercifully the end came in 2 nanoseconds.

Supposedly this is the text conversation;
https://twitter.com/DGrootkarzijn/status/1675569914436788224?t=p5XKnoZeYKu8Wah-2ULhaQ&s=19

I saw this on YT a few days back. It is likely fake since no major media outlet has confirmed it.

Good afternoon.

Between you and me I have done many risky things in my life, and I’m not a million billion dollars kinda guy. Although I did stay at a Holliday Inn one time.

But if I’m flying in a plane, driving a car, going to space or riding a rollercoaster I would want a bunch of people (out of my expertise to say, this action is reasonably safe).

Oh well, maybe it’s because I’m getting old.

5.56mm

Well put. After I crossed my halfway point I’ve given a lot more consideration to personal risk. :^)