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OceanGates ex-finance director quit after CEO asked her to control Titan sub

A view of a boat with OceanGate branding within the boatyard near the company headquarters at the Port of Everett complex in Everett, Washington, U.S., June 22, 2023. REUTERS/Matt Mills McKnight
The unnamed woman said she was unable to trust the company’s CEO Stockton Rush (Picture: Reuters)

The former finance director of OceanGate has claimed she quit her job after CEO Stockton Rush asked her to take over the controls of the Titan submersible.

The unnamed woman said she was unable to trust Mr Rush, after the former chief pilot David Lochridge was fired for raining safety concerns in 2018.

OceanGate’s Titan submersible imploded last month while on a voyage to the undersea wreckage of the Titanic off the coast of Canada.

All five people on board were killed, including Mr Rush.

She told the New Yorker: ‘It freaked me out that he would want me to be head pilot, since my background is in accounting.

‘I could not work for Stockton. I did not trust him.’

She said as soon as she was able to secure a new job she quit the company, which sends sends submersibles down to the wreckage of the Titanic for paying passengers to look at.

She also claimed several of the engineers were in their late teens and early 20s – and at one point were only being paid $15 an hour.

Undated handout photo issued by American Photo Archive of the OceanGate Expeditions submersible vessel named Titan used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic. Rescue teams are continuing the search for the submersible tourist vessel which went missing during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck with British billionaire Hamish Harding among the five people aboard. Issue date: Tuesday June 20, 2023. PA Photo. The five-person OceanGate Expeditions vessel reported overdue on Sunday evening about 435 miles south of St John's, Newfoundland. See PA story SEA Titanic. Photo credit should read: American Photo Archive/Alamy/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
The woman, who has a background in accounting, claims she was asked to take over the controls of the doomed submersible (Picture: PA)

Lochridge, who is a former Royal Navy marine engineer an ship’s diver, was fired after he demanded more safety checks, including ‘testing to improve its integrity’.

But the company argued it would take years and be ‘anathema to rapid innovation’.

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

Stockton Rush is Chief Executive Officer and Founder (2009) of OceanGate Inc. World-renowned explorer Hamish Harding is among the five people who went missing aboard a tourist submarine visiting the shipwreck of the Titanic Monday morning, his family has confirmed. Harding?s family said the 58-year-old British millionaire was aboard the missing OceanGate Expeditions submarine on Monday, a day after he shared his excitement about the trip
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was one of five men killed when the Titan sub imploded (Picture: OceanGate)

Classification involved an independent organisation being called in to ensure vessels meet industry-wide technical standards.

OceanGate also claimed Lochridge ‘desired to be fired’ and had shared out confidential information and wiped a company hard drive.

He had moved from the UK to Washington to work on the development of the doomed Titan submersible.

Debris from the Titan submersible, recovered from the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic, is unloaded from the ship Horizon Arctic at the Canadian Coast Guard pier in St. John's, Newfoundland, Wednesday, June 28, 2023. (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press via AP)
Debris from the Titan submersible was recovered after the fatal implosion (Picture: AP)

OceanGate has since said it has ‘suspended all exploration and commercial operations’.

All five people on board were killed, including UK citizens Hamish Harding and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood.

CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, Stockton Rush, and the submersible’s pilot, French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet also died in the incident.

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