Titan submarine CEO Stockton Rush dismissed experts’ fears about the submarine for years before he died in a ‘catastrophic implosion’.
Izvor: YouTube/screenshot/OceanGate Expeditions/WTHR
Stockton Rush, the OceanGate CEO who lost his life aboard the Titan submarine, persistently ignored submarine safety warnings, emails exchanged between Rush and deep-water experts reveal. According to messages reviewed by the BBC, Rush described criticism of Titan’s security measures as “baseless lies by industry players” who “seeked to prevent new entrants from entering their small market”.
Email communications between Rush and Rob McCallum, a noted deep-water expert, ended after “OceanGate” lawyers threatened to sue, McCallum said. In one of the emails, which was sent in March 2018, McCallum warns Rush: “I get the impression that you are putting yourself and your clients in a dangerous situation. In your race to the Titanic, you repeat that famous saying: ‘She is unsinkable’.”
McCallum told the BBC that OceanGate had repeatedly called for the Titan to be certified before it could be used for commercial tours. The submarine is not registered with international agencies or classified by an industry group that sets basic engineering standards.
McCallum is among more than thirty industry leaders who signed a letter in 2018 warning Rush about possible “catastrophic” problems with Titan development. In one e-mail, McCallum writes to Rush: “Please use extreme caution when testing and examining a submarine at sea.” But Rush responded with frustration, writing in one email: “Too often we have heard baseless accusations of ‘someone is going to die’. I take that as a serious personal insult.”
The OceanGate co-founder defended his company’s “innovative approach”, which is “engineering-oriented” and which, he said, “goes against the normal rules of submarine life”. He noted that he himself is ‘well qualified’ to understand the risks and issues associated with underwater exploration of the new vessel.
(WORLD)