Late OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush said in a previously-recorded video interview that the ill-fated Titan submersible was struck by lightning in 2018, after which the sub was "severely damaged".
Rush and four other crew members died last month in a catastrophic implosion of the Titan.
"Fortunately, it was not a direct strike. A direct strike to the carbon fiber probably would have taken us totally out," Rush said in the interview with an undersea technology company named Teledyne Marine.
According to the OceanGate, the vessel had "sustained lightning damage that affected over 70% of its internal systems" after lighting in the Bahamas in 2018.
The interview is now deleted.
"Fortunately, we are using commercial off-the-shelf and line-replaceable items. So in a matter of a couple of days, we were able to replace all those components," he said.
Days after Rush's death, several emails and experts came out in the open and said that they had previously warned the OceanGate chief about Titan and how he was flouting rules.
Despite the warning, Rush boasted that going to the depths of the Atlantic in the Titan was "safer than crossing the street."
In 2018, the chair of the Marine Technology Society-led Underwater Vehicles Committee tried to warn Rush about the potentially "catastrophic" consequences of OceanGate's approach. Dozens of experts had signed the letter.