Killing People for Hubris (and Money)

The only positive thing about the OceanGate disaster is that the clown who essentially guaranteed that it would happen died in the implosion. It was about as inevitable a disaster as can be.

At every step of the way, Stockton Rush seemed to revel in defying common sense. the laws of physics, and good engineering practices. He hired people who, whether from inexperience or lack of training, didn't know what they were doing. He used materials that were not suited for the purpose, because he thought that defying the rules was a good thing. Which may be, to some extent, but when dealing with hostile environments, safety rules are often written with blood. Rules come about because people have gotten themselved killed, or killed other people, from doing stupid shit.

There seems to have been far less oversight of the construction of OceanGate's submersible than there is of some guy building a GT400 in his garage.

Here's one that can be learned: When you want to take a ride on something, and the operator tells you that you're going to be given the title of "mission specialist," think really, really hard about finding something else to do for funzies.