TitanicLovers and Deep-Sea Divers React toTitanImplosion Revelations with Alarm: 'Worse Than I Thought' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Asnew details and revelationscontinue to emerge from the U.S. Coast Guard’s ongoing hearing into last year’sTitantragedy, experts within the deep-sea diving community are reacting with concern — and even outrage — at what they are learning about the submersible.

“It’s worse than I thought,” retired Navy Capt. Alfred Scott McLaren, a former submarine commander, tells PEOPLE.

“There’s all kinds of things here that would alarm the hell out of you. Anybody that was an experienced submersible pilot or submariner like myself … I don’t even know where to start," adds the 92-year-old president emeritus ofThe Explorers Club, which lost two members —Hamish HardingandPaul-Henri Nargeolet— as a result of the implosion during theTitan’s final dive.

The five people killed in the 2023 Titan submersible implosion.JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images; Alamy; HANDOUT/OceanGate Expeditions/AFP via Getty Images; HANDOUT/DAWOOD HERCULES CORPORATION/AFP via Getty Images (2)

JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images; Alamy; HANDOUT/OceanGate Expeditions/AFP via Getty Images; HANDOUT/DAWOOD HERCULES CORPORATION/AFP via Getty Images (2)

McLaren chastised Rush for, in his words, cutting corners and for the way Rush responded to “people that disagree[d]” with him or called the company’s submersibles “unsafe” in light of questions about whether its design choices conformed to industry standards.

At the same time, McLaren says there are areas where he feels the Coast Guard investigation can go deeper.

He says he’d like to see officials seek testimony from more recent OceanGate employees and ask questions of the Navy about the timeline for when they realized theTitanhad imploded but didn’t recover the wreckage for days.

When David Lochridge, who worked at OceanGate until 2018, testified at the hearing on Sept. 17, he did not hesitate when it came to sharing his views on Rush or OceanGate — saying that “the whole idea behind the company was to make money,” though others who worked with Rush have pushed back on that in their own testimony.

Lochridge, a former operations director, also claimed during the hearing that Rushfell into “panic” due to a lack of experienceduring a voyage in 2016, which resulted in the CEO crashing into a shipwreck.

He was fired from OceanGate after expressing his concerns about the company’s approach to diving, particularly its development of theTitansub, accordingtoThe New York Times.

Debris of the Titan submersible after its 2023 implosion.HANDOUT/US Coast Guard / Pelagic Research Services/AFP via Getty

HANDOUT/US Coast Guard / Pelagic Research Services/AFP via Getty

G. Michael Harris, an explorer who has led dives to theTitanic17 times, suggested to PEOPLE that the hearing has been “so damn disturbing” because it underlines how so many members of the community told Rush the his company’s plan for diving — described as cutting-edge but, since the implosion, intensely scrutinized — “made no sense."

“I told Stockton, ‘You want to kill yourself, knock yourself out, but don’t take anybody with you.’ His answer to me was, ‘Well, Mike, I’ve been down to theTitanictwice already.’ And I said, ‘Well, great. A broken clock is right twice a day as well,’ ” says Harris, 60, the founder and former CEO ofRMS Titanic Inc., which has led numerous research and recovery expeditions to the shipwreck.

“He called me an old gray-haired man. He had young, young guys. I said, ‘You know what you call an old gray-haired man with 35 years experience? Experienced,’ " Harris adds, noting that the conversation ended when Rush hung up on him.

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Meanwhile Matt Shaffer, a lawyer at the firm representing the Nargeolet’s estate in theirwrongful death lawsuitagainst OceanGate, tells PEOPLE they are monitoring the hearing to “see what information we can utilize in our litigation.”

OceanGate has also cooperated with investigators. They have not commented on the Nargeolet estate lawsuit.

The Titan submersible.HANDOUT/OceanGate Expeditions/AFP via Getty

HANDOUT/OceanGate Expeditions/AFP via Getty

As for whether the experts who spoke with PEOPLE hope the tragedy will lead to change in the industry, they all share the same opinion.

“Obviously, no one ever likes a lot of government involvement,” says Harris, “but at the same time, we can’t allow something like this to happen again.”

“Everything that’s coming out is putting more and more proof out there that this was a bad concept. And the problem is, for us in the industry, is it’s given us a bad name,” he adds. “That somehow deep diving submersibles are dangerous — 35 years we’ve been diving, never once have we had an accident ever. The subs have worked flawlessly, but their designs have been tested and retested.”

McLaren echoes the fact that although this “is the first time anything like this has happened” within the deep-sea diving industry, it’s important not to leave a window of “opportunity” open “for somebody that wants to make money in a hurry.”

“At the end of the day, it just breaks my heart. It should have never happened," says Harris. “It just should have never happened.”

source: people.com