A former OceanGate Expeditions employee emailed a former colleague years ago expressing his fears and concerns about the safety of the Titan submarine, while also warning about the CEO and his options, according to The New Yorker.

“I don’t want to be seen as a Tattle tale, but I am so concerned that he is killing himself and others in an effort to boost his ego,” David Lochridge wrote of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush who was killed in the deep Atlantic Ocean.

Lohridge worked as an independent contractor for OceanGate in 2015 and then as an employee from 2016 to 2018, CNN reported. He soon became embroiled in litigation with OceanGate, claiming he was unfairly fired for voicing his concerns about Titan’s safety and testing.

“I would call myself pretty brave when it comes to dangerous things, but this submarine is an accident that hasn’t happened yet,” Lochridge wrote in an email to Rob McCallum, according to a report in The New Yorker.

“There’s no way, even if you paid me, I wouldn’t be diving,” Lochridge continued.

The OceanGate vessel was about 1 hour 45 minutes into a planned dive to reach the wreckage of the Titanic when it lost contact with its mother ship on June 18. Several days later, officials confirmed that the Titan had suffered a “catastrophic explosion”.

The five men aboard the Titan have been identified.