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James Cameron reacts sub implosion: 'I'm struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself' (www.youtube.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by floofloof@lemmy.ca to c/news@beehaw.org

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Film director James Cameron has expertise in designing and testing these submersibles, and he has many criticisms of the design of the sub that imploded, and of the hubris of the CEO who ignored repeated safety warnings from the diving community. He also mentions that the sub seems to have been attempting to resurface when it imploded, suggesting that they were aware the hull was starting to fail.

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[–] Epilektoi_Hoplitai@lemmy.ca 54 points 1 year ago (20 children)

Hubris is the word.

The CEO Stockton Rush, just off the top of my head:

Fired his own director of marine operations for formally reporting “numerous issues that posed serious safety concerns". These included that the viewport was only rated to 1,300 meters, the carbon fiber hull had flaws which gave it the potential to fail, and that the hull integrity monitoring systems installed in response "might only provide 'milliseconds' of warning before a catastrophic implosion".
Refused to submit to an industry certification process for the sub, despite being warned in an open letter with dozens of signatories that failing to do so risked "negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic)".
Denounced the laws regulating submarine tourism as having "needlessly prioritized passenger safety over commercial innovation".

[–] RustledTeapot@kbin.social 25 points 1 year ago (5 children)

This trend of companies firing the person responsible for giving safety warnings is really troubling, and I'm concerned that our whole planet is going to go down like that someday.

[–] laird_dave@feddit.de 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't worry, the planet's gonna be fine.

Humanity on the other hand...

[–] blivet@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

"The planet," in terms of a rock orbiting the Sun, sure, but we are killing an awful lot of flora and fauna that would be doing fine if we weren't around to fuck things up.

[–] TheCalzoneMan@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Life always finds a way. At least until the moon has drifted so far from our orbit that our atmosphere is no longer sustainable and the oceans boil off the surface of the planet.

[–] blivet@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Life always finds a way.

Are you sure? Even if it's true, I like the life forms we've got right now an awful lot, and they don't deserve what we're doing to them.

[–] laird_dave@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

Yes and the 6th mass extinction event is well underway. Still, the planet's life forms bounced back before and will do so again, I guess.

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