College interns designed the electrical system of the Titan submarine that imploded last month, killing all five passengers, according to a report.
OceanGate hired Washington State University Everett students to work on critical systems of the submersible, the New Yorker reported.
“The whole electrical system — that was our design, we implemented it, and it works,” former intern Mark Walsh told the school paper. “We are on the precipice of making history and all of our systems are going down to the Titanic. It is an awesome feeling!” he added.
Walsh was treasurer of WSU Everett’s Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Club when OceanGate’s director of engineering, Tony Nissen, offered him an internship.
Walsh opened the door for fellow classmates to intern with OceanGate, and he landed a full-time position after graduating in 2017 as electrical engineering lead at OceanGate.
“I like that we have a close relationship with WSU Everett because the interns have been so great,” Walsh said. “They’ve been taught right at WSU Everett, so this summer we’re going to be hiring more.”
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“OceanGate also used interns from Everett Community College’s Ocean Research College Academy, but the school stopped offering internships with the company in 2019, according to the Herald,” the New York Post reported.
The summer following the publication of the article in the school’s paper, Ocean Gate’s former director of marine operations, David Lochridge, called the submersible a “lemon.”
Lochridge was fired in January 2018 after raising “critical safety concerns regarding OceanGate’s experimental and untested design of the Titan,” Breitbart reported.
Deep-sea exploration specialist Rob McCallum contacted Lochridge after he was terminated.
“I’d be keen to pick your brain if you have a few moments,” McCallum wrote in an email, according to the New Yorker. “I’m keen to get a handle on exactly how bad things are. I do get reports, but I don’t know if they are accurate.”
Lochridge feared publicly decrying Rush due to his “influence” and “money.”
“I think you are going to [be] even more taken aback when I tell you what’s happening,” Lochridge wrote. “That sub is Not safe to dive.”
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