OceanGate CEO, killed in Titan submersible dive, had claimed it was ‘safest thing ever’

The CEO and co-founder of OceanGate, who died on the doomed Titan submersible in June last year, had insisted on going on the test dives himself in case "anything happens" and had claimed that it was "one of the safest things I will ever do", court documents have revealed.

The documents released by the US Coast Guard during an ongoing inquiry into the 2023 disaster has revealed CEO Stockton Rush's conversations with his employees before the fatal dive, many of whom had flagged problems with the submersible.

The submersible, which was headed to the Titanic shipwreck in the North Atlantic sea, imploded during its journey. All five passengers, including Rush, were killed.

(Also read: Ex-Titan passenger says voyage was aborted after sub started malfunctioning underwater, ‘All it could do was spin…’)

"I don't want to risk anybody"

The co-founder of OceanGate has revealed that years before the doomed voyage, Rush had insisted on piloting the submersible just in case something happened.

Guillermo Sohnlein said Rush told him he didn't "want anybody else on that sub."

"If anything happens, I want it to only impact me. It's my design. I believe in it. I trust it, but I don't want to risk anybody else and I'm gonna go by myself," he said.

Sohnlein, who left the company in 2013, said that Rush insisted on doing the 4,000-metre first dive by himself.

"No one is dying under my watch"

While the Oceangate co-founder presented Rush as a brave, positive leader, the company's former operation director David Lochridge painted a completely different picture of the CEO.

Insisting that Rush was only interested in making money, he said that the CEO had panicked during a previous dive due to a lack of experience. Even after Lochridge flagged issues with the body of the submersible, he said Rush ignored his warnings and insisted on piloting it.

Lochridge said Rush was confident that his design was not flawed.

"I'm not dying. No one is dying under my watch - period. I've got a nice granddaughter. I am going to be around. I understand this kind of risk, and I'm going into it with eyes open and I think this is one of the safest things I will ever do," he quoted Rush as telling him.

(Also read: Titan tragedy: Chilling deep-sea footage offers close look at sunken sub|Watch)

Lochridge said he was fired after the meeting with Rush and even raised his concerns with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration but OceanGate's lawyers pressured him into dropping his case.

Lochridge insisted that if the company was properly investigated, the Titan tragedy could have been averted.

The hearing over the submersible's last dive is expected to end this week. The US Coast Guard is collecting and reviewing testimony from technical experts and crew members to assess why the mission failed.