The Titan Submersible Disaster Shocked the World. The Inside Story Is More Disturbing Than Anyone Imagined
The Titan Submersible Disaster Shocked the World. The Inside Story Is More Disturbing Than Anyone Imagined
Oh, so more than 1 billionaire? That’s just better.
Wait, three rich ppl were there as customers?
This thing is actually more efficient than I gave it credit.
I mean, the only thing that shocked me, honestly, was that millionaires were willing to get inside that thing.
I mean. It looked like a giant fleshlite.
In January 2018, Lochridge sent Rush a quality-control inspection report detailing 27 issues with the vehicle, from questionable O-ring seals on the domes and missing bolts to flammable materials and more concerns about its carbon-fiber hull. Rush fired him the next day. (Although Lochridge later made a whistleblower report to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration about Titan, Rush sued him for breach of contract. The settlement of that lawsuit resulted in Lochridge dropping his complaint, paying OceanGate nearly $10,000, and signing an NDA. Lochridge did not respond to WIRED.)
Ugh
You beat me to it, but HELL YES!
*hits the projected crush depth and doesn’t crush*
“HA I knew it was fine!”
*descends 12 more feet*
*implodes*
I like to imagine it sounded like this:
Virtually all marine vessels are certified by organizations such as the American Bureau of Shipping, DNV, or Lloyd’s Register, which ensure that they are built using approved materials and methods and carry appropriate safety gear. It has been widely reported that Rush was dismissive of such certification, but what has not been made public until now is that OceanGate pursued certification with DNV (then known as DNV GL) in 2017—until Rush saw the price. “[DNV] informed me that this was not an easy few thousand dollar project as [it] had presented, but would cost around $50,000,” he later wrote in an email to Rob McCallum, a deep-sea explorer who had also signed Kohnen’s letter.
I knew they were being cavalier about safety, but didn’t realize they were penny pinching to this degree.
Even when OceanGate decided to change the domes in the final design from carbon fiber to titanium, Rush didn’t commission models to test the interactions between the new materials; one former employee who was familiar with Rush’s decision says the CEO balked at the high price tag.
Bro, wtf. Then they also reused the same o rings from the first hull and ripped it off and moved it to the new hull. I’m surprised they didn’t die sooner. Thing was a death trap.
Behind the Bastards did Stockton Rush
<p>Robert is joined by Andrew Ti to discuss Oceangate CEO, Stockton Rush.</p> <p>(2 Part Series)</p><p>See <a href='https://omnystudio.com/listener'>omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>
This Wired article is an interesting read, well worth the time.
I wish we could see into the head of Stockton Rush a little bit more. The job of all entrepreneurs is to a large degree knowing who to listen to and who to ignore, as well as figuring out which rules you can break. Usually the lives of passengers and yourself is not on the line, though and that’s why so many of the highly competent engineers left his team.
A lot of his decision making seemed money driven. He got quotations for testing services but declined because of the cost. Salvaging the old titanium rings from the old busted hull to use on the new hull was a risky choice but new ones were surely very expensive. Perhaps a much larger budget would have led to a more committed team of experts and the resources to test things to a higher degree of confidence.
As this article points out, OceanGate just never came up with a design that was good enough for the job at hand.
But what can you say. The ocean floor is littered with countless dreams.