OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush crashed a submersible into a shipwreck and then threw the vessel’s rudimentary controls at a more experienced employee years before he piloted the doomed Titan voyage last summer.

A former OceanGate worker gave a warning to the CEO of the company before the Titan submersible disaster. It’s been just over a year since the Titan sub suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ on its mission to visit the wreck of the Titanic.

Lochridge. a submarine pilot and inspector, was so frustrated with operations and safety issues at OceanGate that he sounded the alarm, and was dismissed from the company for allegedly violating a nondisclosure agreement. He then sued the company arguing that he was dismissed for being a whistleblower.

David Lochridge, OceanGate’s former operations director testifies to Coast Guard investigators about wreck during mission to Andrea Doria site in 2016.

OceanGate’s former chief engineer says he didn’t trust co-founder Stockton Rush, and told him he wouldn’t get in the Titan himself. Tony Nissen is testifying on day one of the U.S. Coast Guard hearings into the loss of the sub and its five crew last year, which is taking place in Charleston, South Carolina and being streamed live on YouTube.