Titan implosion hearing paints a picture of reckless greed and explorer passion
CTV
Witnesses testified that the company that operated an experimental deep-water submersible that imploded, killing five people, put profits over safety and ignored warning signs before the disaster. Several company officials, meanwhile, spoke of the explorer spirit and taking calculated risks to push humankind's boundaries.
Witnesses testified that the company that operated an experimental deep-water submersible that imploded, killing five people, put profits over safety and ignored warning signs before the disaster. Several company officials, meanwhile, spoke of the explorer spirit and taking calculated risks to push humankind's boundaries.
Those different viewpoints emerged as the Coast Guard panel on Friday wraps up two weeks of testimony on the Titan disaster last year. The panel is tasked with determining why the carbon-fibre submersible was lost 12,500 feet (3,810 metres) deep on the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic.
Testimony painted contrasting images of greed and hubris as OceanGate sought out well-heeled clients for its submersible made from carbon fibre -- a material that was untested at such depths -- versus modern-day explorers who carefully considered risks as they sought to open the deepest depths of the world's oceans to more people.
On Friday, Matthew McCoy, a Coast Guard veteran who served for several months as operations technician for OceanGate, also said he had safety concerns when he learned the company broke ties with the University of Washington's applied physics lab, that Boeing wasn't going to construct the carbon fibre hull, and that the thickness of the hull had been reduced.
He also had concerns about the financial model when he learned there would be paying passengers.
At a lunch meeting to raise concerns, OceanGate co-founder Stockston Rush told McCoy the vessel would be flagged in the Bahamas and launched from Canada to avoid U.S. regulations, McCoy said. McCoy said there could be U.S. regulatory concerns if it went to a U.S. port and Rush told him, "If the Coast Guard became a problem, then he would buy himself a congressman and make it go away."
McCoy said it was a "tense" conversation and that he was "aghast." He resigned.
