Suburban Man Survived Earlier Voyage Of Imploded Titanic Submersible

LAKE FOREST, IL — Nineteen months before a submersible imploded in the Atlantic Ocean during an expedition to the shipwreck of the Titanic, it was on display at the Gorton Community Center in Lake Forest.

David Waud, a filmmaker and Lake Forest resident, took part in an earlier voyage of the Titan, the sub designed and operated by OceanGate Expeditions, to visit the wreckage of the Titanic in the summer of 2021.

Waud was joined at the November 2021 event in Lake Forest by OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who is among the most experienced Titanic divers.

Rush and Nargeolet are among the five people who died when the Titan imploded near the famed shipwreck, which lies about 12,800 feet below the surface.

According to promotional materials, a fee of $250,000 was required to join the voyage as a passenger — or "mission specialist" — although Waud said he did not have to pay as much because he had signed up earlier.

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At the Gorton Center event, Rush said the Titan was equipped with multiple backup systems in case something went wrong.

“Even if everyone is incapacitated, we can get it to the surface,” Rush said.

And Waud said he never felt claustrophobic in the submarine — or suffered from any cramping, Classic Chicago magazine reported.

“I felt like we were in a sophisticated submarine rather than a tube," Waud said. "But I wouldn’t want to put one more person in there I don’t think.”

Waud, a past board member of the Gorton Center, founded the underwater photography company Underwauder Productions, which makes interactive film presentations that have been shown in more than a thousand schools.

"I was going to make a movie, which I have not done and now think would be in poor taste, about my trip down to see the Titanic," Waud said, telling the Independent he was surprised to read about the Titan's lack of safety certification.

Waud said Rush, a fellow Princeton alumnus, was an "incredible man" and very professional during the voyage.

"I wouldn't have had them here and try to get friends of mine to go on the trip the next summer, if I hadn't thought that it was completely safe and something that everybody would remember for the rest of their lives," Waud said.

The Lake Forest resident told WLS his voyage had some minor issues, such a delay due to the failure to charge a large battery.

"There were little things that went wrong that could've been big things too," he said. "But they usually knew about them and they took care of them in time."

But another member of a previous voyage said he had been "naive" to take part in the dive, the Associated Press reported.

Arthur Loibl, a German businessman, said the expedition was "a bit dubious" and compared it to a "kamikaze operation."

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Even before the Titan's first expedition, industry experts and an employee who alleged he was fired for raising safety concerns warned of potential disaster.

In a 2018 letter to Rush, the Marine Technology Society industry group asked Rush to undergo third-party testing and adhere to safety guidelines accepted by other companies in the field.

"Our apprehension is that the current experimental approach adopted by OceanGate could result in negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic) that would have serious consequences for everyone in the industry," it said.

The letter noted that Rush's company was marketing the Titan as meeting established safety standards, but it appeared to have no intention of following rules.

"Your representation is, at minimum, misleading to the public and breaches and industry-wide professional code of conduct we all endeavor to uphold," it said.

Also in 2018, David Lochridge, the former Director of Marine Operations at OceanGate, sued his former employer for wrongful termination, alleging that his concerns over safety were ignored, and that he was fired for encouraging corrective action.

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Lochridge stressed the potential danger to passengers and brought up the lack of non-destructive testing on the hull, including scans of the hull to check for issues.

"Lochridge was told that no form of equipment existed to perform such a test, and OceanGate instead would rely solely on their acoustic monitoring system that they were going to install in the submersible to detect the start of hull break down when the submersible was about to fail," his attorney alleged in a court filing.

"Lochridge again expressed concern that this was problematic because this type of acoustic analysis would only show when a component is about to fail—often milliseconds before an implosion—and would not detect any existing flaws prior to putting pressure onto the hull."

According to his suit, Lochridge learned that the manufacturer of the viewport had only certified it to handle pressure at a depth of about 4,200 feet, even though Rush planned to take people nearly 13,000 feet underwater.

"The paying passengers would not be aware, and would not be informed, of this experimental design, the lack of non-destructive testing of the hull, or that hazardous flammable materials were being used within the submersible," the former marine operations director's suit alleged.

"Rather than address his concerns or undergo corrective action to rectify and ensure the safety of the experimental Titan, or utilize a standard classification agency to inspect the Titan, OceanGate did the exact opposite—they immediately fired Lochridge," it said.

"OceanGate gave Lochridge approximately 10 minutes to immediately clear out his desk and exit the premises."