Experts now agree: The “Titan” imploded, probably as a result of material weakness. One of them, David Lochridge, had pointed out serious material and construction defects in the submersible five years ago. The operators of the “Titan” fired him.
In July 2017, David Lochridge had just been hired by “Titan” operator OceanGate, the Scot gave an interview to the British broadcaster BBC. He sounds enthusiastic about it – after all, what the US company was up to was almost as exciting as the space plans of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos: company owner Stockton Rush wanted to make submersible trips to the wreck of the “Titanic” possible for wealthy adventurers. The idea was as romantic as the price of a ticket: Expedition members were to pay exactly $105,129, the sum corresponding to the inflation-adjusted price of a first-class ticket on the Titanic’s tragic maiden voyage in 1912. That was the plan.