Sad to report that corporate greed has probably taken five more lives this week in the case of the OceansGate submersible that disappeared on its way down to view the wreck of Titanic. (It's sad even if, like us, you think that the zillionaires who paid $250,000 apiece to step into that 22-foot tin can in the first place were crazy idiots.)
With 40 hours of oxygen left in the missing craft, the story you knew was coming broke today. Turns out that five years ago, 60 leaders from the Marine Technology Society wrote an urgent letter to OceansGate CEO Stockton Rush to sound the alarm at his company's risky skirting of safety guidelines. Rush's response was that "industry regulations were stifling innovation," The New York Times reports.
And where is Rush now? Stuck in that submersible with four passengers, and running out of air — if the craft hasn't broken up and they're not already dead. Ugh — it gives us the heebie-jeebies, not to mention the shivers and the jimjams.
It's also a creepy echo of the history of Titanic itself. The ship carried just 20 lifeboats for more than 2,000 people, because White Star Line worried that stacking up the necessary number of boats on deck would obscure first-class passengers' views. And when a safety inspector warned before the ship's maiden voyage that at least 10 more lifeboats should be added, the company threatened to fire him. Long story short, money trumped everything.
After Titanic sank, lifeboat regulations famously became much more stringent. You can bet that, however this OceansGate situation works out, rules will become stricter for submersibles, too. But it's a shame that Stockton Rush had to snooker four people, including a father and son, out of a ton of money — not to mention their lives — before that could happen. We cats HISS.
(IMAGE: Titanic lies on the ocean floor. You know what? Nobody except remotely operated, non-crewed submersibles has any business being down there. Let her rest in peace. We cats HISS again.)
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