Film director James Cameron has expertise in designing and testing these submersibles, and he has many criticisms of the design of the sub that imploded, and of the hubris of the CEO who ignored repeated safety warnings from the diving community. He also mentions that the sub seems to have been attempting to resurface when it imploded, suggesting that they were aware the hull was starting to fail.

  • Epilektoi_Hoplitai@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    1 year ago

    Hubris is the word.

    The CEO Stockton Rush, just off the top of my head:

    • Fired his own director of marine operations for formally reporting “numerous issues that posed serious safety concerns". These included that the viewport was only rated to 1,300 meters, the carbon fiber hull had flaws which gave it the potential to fail, and that the hull integrity monitoring systems installed in response “might only provide ‘milliseconds’ of warning before a catastrophic implosion”.
    • Refused to submit to an industry certification process for the sub, despite being warned in an open letter with dozens of signatories that failing to do so risked “negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic)”.
    • Denounced the laws regulating submarine tourism as having “needlessly prioritized passenger safety over commercial innovation”.
    • floofloof@lemmy.caOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      Denounced the laws regulating submarine tourism as having “needlessly prioritized passenger safety over commercial innovation”.

      He was a consistent Republican donor, apparently, so probably a devotee of the “regulations are holding back innovation” religion. In other words, “I want to cut costs and make more profit, so I’d rather risk people’s lives than spend money to protect them.”

    • CoderKat@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      needlessly prioritized passenger safety over commercial innovation

      Gosh, I can’t imagine something as minor as passenger safety being important… Seriously, is this guy real or is it three psychopaths in a trenchcoat?

    • RustledTeapot@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      This trend of companies firing the person responsible for giving safety warnings is really troubling, and I’m concerned that our whole planet is going to go down like that someday.

    • sensibilidades@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      "might only provide ‘milliseconds’

      “Don’t give me your mumbo-jumbo Mister Scientist - will the alarm go off or not?!”