OceanGate CEO Called Safety 'A Waste,' Suit Claimed Titan Sub Was Not Tested Properly

JALOPNIK ^ | 6/21 | Collin Woodard

[Jonty30]

I am glad he’s the pilot. I was not aware of that.
I hope they can get rescued so he can go to prison.

[Brooklyn Attitude]

Mystery solved

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

I think they should be looking for a giant squid with a propane tank shaped bulge in its belly.

[nickcarraway]

[bigbob]

Welp, he proved his point..if he’d stayed in bed he’d still be drawing breath.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Stockton Rush, OceanGate’s CEO, said, “You know, there’s a limit. At some point safety just is pure waste. I mean if you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed. Don’t get in your car. Don’t do anything. At some point, you’re going to take some risk, and it really is a risk/reward question.

He's talking about diminishing returns when investing in safety for a trip to the bottom of the sea floor. He's not wrong - with 2023 technology, there's no way to make a trip to see the remains of the Titanic much safer. It's going to be dangerous no matter how much you spend. The adult men who went with him undoubtedly understood the risk, with the possible exception of the 19 year old who went with his father.

[nickcarraway]

#24

[nickcarraway]

You and me both. Assuming the passengers don’t take care of it first.

[cgbg]

The guy believed his own insane narrative.

Stupid is hurting big time.

[Jonty30]

You’re probably right 400x.

I just checked, it’s about 500 atmospheres.
https://www.ocregister.com/2023/06/20/how-deep-the-ocean-is-at-the-titanic-wreckage-might-surprise-you/

[nickcarraway]

I am not claustrophobic, per se, but I think I would be if I was down there in a tiny tube.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

I do hope they all get rescued, so he can face jailtime for his stupidity.

Unless the submersible released its ballast and is bouncing around on the surface of the ocean waiting to be found, there's not a hope in hell of rescuing them. The odds that the submersible will ever even be found are remote.

[proust]

“If you’re so rich, why aren’t you so smart?” -Nassim Taleb

[Spktyr]

There absolutely are ways to make a trip down safer than sticking people in an improperly engineered carbon fiber tube with (apparently) no metal liner; they used the wrong lay-up techniques for sure and there was no cross-lay - only simple spooling over a metal form. That thing wasn’t even as safe as a commercial diving gas cylinder.

[Jonty30]

At least in the submersible, you can practice being calm as your life is being taken. You still have a bit of freedom to move about. It’s still terrible.

There is only one worse way to die and that’s in a cave from spelunking and you get stuck so you can’t move at all. That terrifies me out of my mind.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/the-worst-death-imaginable-spelunker-22880796

[Spktyr]

Even if it was bobbing around on the surface, they’re screwed. It only had one access port bolted to the outside with seventeen bolts and no way to open it from the inside and no way to get more oxygen in.

[TexasGator]

“I just checked, it’s about 500 atmospheres.”

Per your link that is at 5000 meters. The Titanic is at 3800 meters.

[RckyRaCoCo]

Captain Nemo?

[Jonty30]

It does amaze me that they don’t have oxygen tubes that they can release to come to the surface in the event of an emergency. That should be standard equipment when the engines become inoperative.

At 500 atmospheres, the sub should be floating and not sinking. Releasing air into balloons would have allowed it to rise, at least to the point where somebody in an oxygen mask can swim the rest of the way.

[TexasGator]

“There absolutely are ways to make a trip down safer than sticking people in an improperly engineered carbon fiber tube “

The Titanic expert aboard had made 35 previous dives to the wreck starting in 1987.