I was not particularly interested in the massive search and rescue operation when the submersible lost contact. I don’t have any particular sympathy for the people who died: Death is a part of life and will happen to everyone, and as far as I am concerned, they had the right to spend their money as they wished doing what they wanted. I don’t even particularly condemn morbid curiosity as a motive for the trip. That would be hypocritical.
I am concerned with the judgement nature has rendered on the CEO’s design philosophy and practice. We don’t know yet which of the many possible points of failure was responsible. Speculation has focused on the shape, composite material, and the possibility that fatigue induced by repeated dives created an unanticipated weakness.
However, we do know that the collective engineering experience of those who design vehicles at the cutting edge of technology for operation in hostile and poorly known environments was repeatedly ignored. We know that the designers took shortcuts in established methods of engineering, such as testing materials and designs to destruction in order establish safety factors for those materials and designs, and staying well within them, before risking precious human lives. We also know that the easiest person to fool is yourself. The CEO of Oceangate Titan was concerned that the opinion of safety experts would kill his dreams. He should have had more respect for the laws of physics. There is no mercy in them, and no forgiveness for errors made by fallible humans. If you ignore the laws that govern the behavior of materials that compose your vessel, the ocean will crush you. In this case, it has rendered an irreversible and final judgement that he was reckless and foolish.