The company behind the submersible that imploded during a recent dive to the Titanic ignored key principles that guide organizations working in high-risk environments, experts in emergency management say.
Jack Rozdilsky, a professor at York University in Toronto, says OceanGate's business -- ferrying paying passengers to the floor of the North Atlantic -- could be compared to the immensely risky work of companies that launch space flights, drill for offshore oil, fight wildfires or operate nuclear power plants.
There is evidence to suggest OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush -- one of five people killed June 18 when the submersible Titan ruptured near the ocean floor -- emphasized simplicity over complexity when it came to Titan's engineering. During an interview last year with CBS News, Rush showed off Titan's basic interior, which included one power button, two video screens and a gaming controller for steering the 6.7-metre vessel.
In the case of Challenger, a presidential commission determined that NASA officials had responded to early warnings about design flaws by increasing levels of acceptable damage during flights. The commission concluded NASA justified the changes by saying, "We got away with it the last time.""One way to view those mishaps is proof of success," Rozdilsky said. "But successful, high-risk organizations look at that from a different perspective: they ...
YouTube celebrity Jake Koehler also released a video describing how his trip aboard Titan was scrubbed earlier this year because of persistent computer problems. In the video released last month, Rush can be heard saying the computer's role was "up there with life support," but it was "not consistently communicating."Even as Titan was being built in Everett, Wash., red flags were being raised.
Merv Wiseman, a retired search-and-rescue co-ordinator, said it remains unclear whether OceanGate filed a preparedness plan with the Marine Rescue Sub-Centre in St. John's, which is where Wiseman worked for 35 years.
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