In July 2017, David Lochridge had just been hired by “Titan” operator OceanGate, the Scot gave an interview to the British broadcaster BBC. He sounds enthusiastic about it – after all, what the US company was up to was almost as exciting as the space plans of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos: company owner Stockton Rush wanted to make submersible trips to the wreck of the “Titanic” possible for wealthy adventurers. The idea was as romantic as the price of a ticket: Expedition members were to pay exactly $105,129, the sum corresponding to the inflation-adjusted price of a first-class ticket on the Titanic’s tragic maiden voyage in 1912. That was the plan.

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