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‘You’re remembered for the rules you break’: OceanGate CEO who was piloting the Titan admitted in 2021 that the sub’s construction had ‘broken some rules’ (fortune.com)

submitted 1 year ago by floofloof@lemmy.ca to c/news@beehaw.org

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“I’d like to be remembered as an innovator,” he said, speaking from the interior of one of OceanGate’s submersibles. “I think it was [famous American General Douglas] MacArthur that said, ‘You’re remembered for the rules you break.’”

“I have broken some rules to make this,” he conceded. “I think I’ve broken them with logic and good engineering behind me. The carbon fiber and titanium—there is a rule that you don’t do that. Well, I did.”

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[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The Guardian has some more choice quotes from this guy:

OceanGate CEO dismissed warnings about sub's safety as 'baseless cries' - report Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate who was killed on board the Titan submersible, repeatedly dismissed warnings over the safety of the sub, emails between Rush and a deep sea exploration expert show.

In messages seen by the BBC, Rush described criticism of Titan’s safety measures as “baseless lies” from “industry players” who were trying to stop “new entrants from entering their small existing market”.

The emails between Rush and Rob McCallum, a leading deep sea exploration specialist, ended after OceanGate’s lawyers threatened legal action, McCallum said. In one email in March 2018, McCallum writes to Rush:

"I think you are potentially placing yourself and your clients in a dangerous dynamic. In your race to [the] Titanic you are mirroring that famous catch cry: ‘She is unsinkable’."

He told the BBC that he repeatedly urged OceanGate to seek certification for the Titan before using it for commercial tours. The vessel was not registered with international agencies, nor was it classified by a maritime industry group that sets basic engineering standards.

McCallum was among more than three dozen industry leaders in the submersible vessel field who signed a 2018 letter warning Rush of possible “catastrophic” problems with Titan’s development.

In one email, McCallum writes to Rush:

"I implore you to take every care in your testing and sea trials and to be very, very conservative."

But Rush expressed frustration, writing in one email:

"We have heard the baseless cries of ‘you are going to kill someone’ way too often. I take this as a serious personal insult."

The OceanGate co-founder defended his company’s '“engineering focused, innovative approach” which “flies in the face of the submersible orthodoxy”, and said he himself was “well qualified to understand the risks and issues associated with subsea exploration in a new vehicle”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/jun/23/titanic-sub-live-updates-us-navy-catastrophic-implosion-submarine-victims-titan-missing-submersible-latest-news

[–] vaguerant@kbin.social 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I know it's petty, but I find it extremely frustrating that he likely didn't have enough time to realize just how wrong he was about everything before he died. He went to his death saying "No, it's the children who are wrong."

[–] SweetSitty@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago

I read that it looks like they may have been making their ascent before imploding, which means he may have know about how bad it was before he died.

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/23/1183975136/james-cameron-titanic-titan-sub

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