OceanGate CEO was warned about his sub’s safety several times before the vessel imploded killing five passengers on board.
Stockton Rush, the founder and CEO of OceanGate, reportedly dismissed warnings and calls for safety checks made by deep sea exploration experts including Rob McCallum of EYOS Expeditions.
According to an e-mail exchange between Rush and McCallum, the latter urged the self-proclaimed inventor to have his sub classed through independent inspection – a standard in the industry.
In the 2018 exchange shared by BBC, McCallum is seen urging Rush not to put passengers in danger and to delay expeditions to Titanic until more tests and trials were completed.
In response, Rush said he had heard “the baseless cries of ‘you are going to kill someone’ way too often” while insisting he took the calls for ensuring safety as a “serious personal insult.”
“I think you are potentially placing yourself and your clients in a dangerous dynamic. In your race to Titanic you are mirroring that famous catch cry: ‘She is unsinkable,’” McCallum began in his e-mail to Rush.
The latter responded: “We have heard the baseless cries of ‘you are going to kill someone’ way too often. I take this as a serious personal insult.”
McCallum continued: “Until a sub is classed, tested and proven it should not be used for commercial deep dive operations.
“I implore you to take every care in your testing and sea trials and to be very, very conservative. As much as I appreciate entrepreneurship and innovation, you are potentially putting an entire industry at risk.”
Doubling down on his previous stance, Rush hit back saying: “I am well qualified to understand the risks and issues associated with subsea exploration in a new vehicle.”
Concluding the heated exchange, McCallum suggested there was “a lot more riding on this than Titan and the Titanic.”
“It will be sea trials that determine whether the vehicle can handle what you intend to do with it so again; take care and keep safe,” he said.
Speaking to BBC, McCallum explained why not only he but several other experts in the industry were so worried about Rush’s decision to go through with Titan’s expeditions.
“The industry has been trying for several years to get Stockton Rush to halt his program for two reasons,” he elaborated.
“One is that carbon fiber is not an acceptable material. The other is that this was the only submersible in the world doing commercial work that was unclassed. It was not certified by an independent agency.”
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