A friend said he warned Stockton Rush about possible defects on the Titan in 2019 after hearing 'cracking' noises
Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
- A friend of Stockton Rush told NewsNation he heard "cracking" sounds after a Titan trip in 2019.
- Karl Stanley emailed Rush to say that the noises "sounded like a flaw/defect," CNN reported.
- Rush told him to be prepared for the sounds, caused by the sub's carbon fiber, before his dive.
A submersible expert and friend of OceanGate's founder Stockton Rush said he tried to warn him that Titan was flawed years ago.
Karl Stanley told NewsNation he heard "cracking" sounds when he went on the Titan sub in April 2019.
The submersible tour operator said Rush told him to be prepared for cracking sounds that he heard on the Titan's first dive, which he said were produced by the vessel's carbon fiber material.
Stanley said he heard the "sound of the cracking getting louder" after he was allowed to take the sub deeper on the Titan's second dive in the Bahamas.
The next day he emailed Rush about possible defects. "What we heard, in my opinion … sounded like a flaw/defect in one area being acted on by the tremendous pressures and being crushed/damaged," Stanley told Rush in emails seen by CNN.
"From the intensity of the sounds, the fact that they never totally stopped at depth, and the fact that there were sounds at about 300 feet that indicated a relaxing of stored energy/would indicate that there is an area of the hull that is breaking down/ getting spongy," he wrote.
Stanley asked Rush if he was considering taking passengers on it to see the Titanic before he knew what was causing the sounds, per CNN, but that he didn't get a response.
Stanley said he first met the OceanGate cofounder about a decade ago and "liked him as a friend."
A former OceanGate employee also warned the company about inadequate "quality control and safety" protocols in a lawsuit filed in August 2018.
David Lochridge, the former director of marine operations, said he was asked by Rush to carry out a quality inspection of the sub and found there was a lack of testing carried out on the hull.
He made the claims in a counter lawsuit against OceanGate after it accused him of breach of contract. The case was settled out of court in November 2018.
Lochridge said he raised his concerns with OceanGate's management and that he was fired after the meeting.
OceanGate did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, sent outside regular business hours.
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