OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush ignored red flags about the Titanic submarine in the years before it sank last month.
• Read more: Eruption of Titan: OceanGate halts all commercial operations
• Read more: Submersible Titan: The Startling Story of the Old 2021 Voyage
• Read more: Titan: 9 unanswered questions
Result: Five people died tragically.
AFP
However, before the trip, Mr. The New York Post reported that Rush dismissed or downplayed the concerns of passengers, staff and colleagues about Titan’s safety and construction.
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Here are all the signs that the exploded Titan submarine is doomed
David Lockridge, OceanGate’s former director of marine operations, said he “saw non-destructive tests being conducted on Titan’s hull,” and when he raised his concerns, he was fired in 2018, according to a lawsuit.
Following Mr Lockridge’s dismissal, the Marine Technology Society sent a letter to OceanGate, warning that failure to follow industry-accepted safety protocols could lead to “disastrous” results.
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Will Cohnen, the company’s president, told The New York Times that Mr. Rush later said he called him.
CBS Correspondent David Bock, during the 2022 broadcast, Mr. Many were also concerned that the Titan submersible had “MacGyver-esque DIY elements,” as Rush was told.
One element in particular caught the passengers’ attention, a PlayStation controller, which was used to steer the submarine.
The submarine’s buoyancy rested precariously on the side shelves of corroded construction pipes.
Adding to these various factors, 71-year-old multi-millionaire Chris Brown, who had signed up for the disastrous dive with his friend, billionaire Hamish Harding, withdrew from the trip.
AFP
This undated photo of OceanGate Expeditions shows Stockton Rush, their CEO and founder. Rescuers searching for OceanGate’s Titan submersible near the wreck of the Titanic have detected “underwater noise” in the search area, with five people, including Rush, estimated to be less than 24 hours away, the US Coast Guard said on June 21, 2023. leaving oxygen. (Photo Guide / OceanGate Expeditions / AFP) / Editorial Use Limited – Mandatory Credit “AFP Photo / OceanGate Expeditions” – No Marketing Advertising Campaigns – Distributed
“I emailed them that I could no longer participate in the project,” Chris Brown told The Sun, adding that he feared OceanGate was “taking too much risk”.
Mr. While Rush was offering marketing and logistics advice, deepsea expert Rob McCallum raised concerns about Titan’s Bluetooth-enabled system, he told The New Yorker.
“All submarines in the world have wire restraints for a specific reason: if the signal drops, you don’t get screwed,” he explained.
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This picture taken during the historic dive in 1986 shows the bow of the Titanic.
As the CEO refused to get the Titan certified by the maritime authorities, Mr. McCallum backed away from working with Rush.
Taking passengers to see the Titanic, Mr. When people started asking about Rush’s project, they “called me up and said, ‘We’ve always wanted to see Titanic. What do you think?’ And I was like, ‘I’d never get on an unrated submarine. I wouldn’t, and neither should you,'” he told The New Yorker.
Carl Stanley, a former passenger, noted worrisome signs of faulty construction on the submarine during a 2019 dive off the Bahamas.
During the two-hour descent to 12,000ft, Mr Stanley heard a cracking sound that sounded like it was ‘operating under enormous pressures in one area and was crushed or damaged’, he said. wrote in an email to Rush. Retrieved from The New York Times.
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A creaking sound means ‘part of the hull is collapsing’, he added, warning Mr Rush to cancel future trips and deal with the problem.
Meanwhile, after Titan’s hull was tested in 2020, its original carbon fiber hull showed signs of “cycle fatigue,” reducing its nominal depth to 3,000 meters, far below what was needed to reach the wreck. Titanic, TechCrunch reported.
Before the submarine exploded on June 18, OceanGate’s Titan encountered numerous technical problems.
During an earlier dive, Scott Griffith, then the Titan’s pilot, lost control of the submarine, footage from a 2022 BBC documentary revealed.
Mr Griffith warned the passengers that the submarine’s thrusters were not responding properly, telling them: ‘We’ve got a problem, we’ve got a problem… I’ve got a problem with my thrusters. I push and nothing happens.
YouTuber Jake Koehler, known as Talmid, told PEOPLE that his trip to the Titanic, scheduled just days before July’s fatal dive, was partially canceled due to bad weather and ghost nets surrounding the ship and breaking parts.
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