The Titan submersible in the water. OceanGate
According to the company that operated the Titan submersible, it stopped diving.
The Titan set sail on June 18th. Five passengers, including the company’s CEO, Stockton Rush, dove to the wreck of the Titanic and died in an accident.
Since then, the company has been criticized for ignoring security concerns.
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According to the company that operated the Titan submersible, it stopped diving. “Oceangate has ceased all scientific and commercial activities,” the company wrote on its website.
The Titan set sail on June 18th. Five passengers, including the company’s CEO, Stockton Rush, dove to the wreck of the Titanic. The submarine crashed and the five passengers have since been pronounced dead.
Even before the dive, the company and the Titan were criticized. The reason: CEO Rush ignored security concerns, according to his critics.
Much criticism of Titan
A former consultant to OceanGate, for example, claimed in one Interview with the New Yorker“that paying customers aboard the Titan submersible were not referred to as ‘passengers’ to avoid serious legal consequences should anyone die.
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A former OceanGate pilot said the Titan submersible was a “riveter” and not safe for diving, according to a report
“The word ‘passenger’ was never used.”
Rob McCallum told the magazine that the people on board were referred to as “mission specialists” instead. The New Yorker reports that nobody bought tickets, but instead the tourists donated a certain amount of money to “fund their own missions.”
Tourists reportedly paid $250,000 for a seat aboard the ship that took them to the Titanic wreck. But “there were no passengers — the word ‘passenger’ was never used,” McCallum said.
The tourists were – legally speaking – crew members
The former OceanGate consultant said in the interview with the New Yorker that it is illegal under US regulations to transport passengers in an “unclassified, experimental submersible,” but that killing crew members is illegal for the companies with a lesser legal risk is involved. “You get a little bit of trouble in the eyes of the law,” he told the magazine. “But if you kill a passenger, you’re in big trouble.”
The ship Titan imploded after leaving to tour the Titanic wreckage on June 18, killing all five people on board, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
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The Titan submarine’s electrical system was apparently designed by college-age interns
The company was warned about the expedition
McCallum, who founded tour operator Eyos Expeditions, previously warned Rush in emails in 2018 that passengers may be in danger because the submersible was not classified or certified by an independent agency.
According to the emails that were viewed by the BBCRush dismissed these concerns as a “serious personal insult” and an attempt to stifle innovation in the ocean expeditionary industry.
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Titan company Ocean Gate still advertises expeditions to the wreck of the Titanic on its website
In an interview with Business Insider published on July 2, McCallum railed against OceanGate’s approach to ocean engineering, calling it “ad hoc” and “ultimately inappropriate.” discredited, according to Business Insider’s Jyoti Mann.
OceanGate did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
LS / With material from the DPA.
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