MISSING TITANIC SUB ONCE FACED MASSIVE LAWSUIT OVER DEPTHS IT COULD SAFELY TRAVEL TO:
After Lochridge issued his inspection report, OceanGate officials convened a meeting on January 19, 2018, with the CEO, human resources director, engineering director, Lochridge, and the operations director. Per the complaint:
At the meeting Lochridge discovered why he had been denied access to the viewport information from the Engineering department—the viewport at the forward of the submersible was only built to a certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate intended to take passengers down to depths of 4,000 meters. Lochridge learned that the viewport manufacturer would only certify to a depth of 1,300 meters due to 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.
For reference, the Titanic is estimated to sit on the ocean floor at a depth of nearly 13,000 feet.
Titan’s release form is something else: When This Word Appears Three Times in the Titanic Submersible Waiver, Maybe You Shouldn’t Go.
Spoiler Alert: That word is “death.”