The company that made the submersible is sounding sort of fishy (sorry).
This is the company blog on why they did not want to certify. Got a bit of muskiness to it.
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It’s not like they did it on porpoise.
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I have a sinking feeling about this whole thing…
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They might be in over their heads.
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They’re in it deep now, for sure.
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They went looking for the Titanic and found Davy Jones’ locker.
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There is, of course, a human tragedy here. The loss of those on board will be felt by their friends and loved ones. But I can’t quite shake the schadenfreude that there are fewer billionaires today than there were last week because they wanted to - and could - spend $250,000 per seat for the ultimate in tourism oneupmanship.
This is what it would’ve been like if Bezos’ dildo rocket had exploded and ejaculated him all over the countryside. I’m sure someone would’ve felt the loss, but it would’ve been hard not to feel the irony of it all. Like when the owner of Segway rode one over a cliff.
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While these people were dumbasses, they are still people. I find it difficult to find the joy or the humor in human deaths.
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I get it. They had lives and loved ones. But they were dumbasses and something was fucked up.
I think I understand what Limey is getting at, but for me, the feeling is not shadenfreude. While I also disagree with how some of the folks on the trip chose to spend their money, I will take no pleasure in their deaths and am still hoping that somehow they are rescued.
What stinks to me is the company’s stance that sees commercialization as the driver of innovation and pits innovation against safety. These seem to be the mantras of entrepreneurship in our age, particularly of founder/CEOs types. I get that we are a capitalist society, but I’d like to see just a little dialing back of the greed idolatry.
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Unconfirmed I think, but the CEO is widely believed to be on board. I sincerely hope they are all rescued and that he faces charges over this insanity. But it doesn’t sound like there is much hope.
Charges of what? Everyone one board signed up for it and knew the risks.
They’re still looking.
Apparently, the contracts have some insane, Scientology-level, disclaimers. Of course, enforceability when billionaires are involved does come down to how many SCOTUS Justices are your besties.
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Assuming he isn’t among the dead, something in the vein of criminal negligence/endangerment, or the closest analog in the charging jurisdiction (whatever it would be). Even if assumption of risk were a defense—doubtful—he’d have a long way to go to prove they were adequately informed of the risk. Civil liability waivers wouldn’t mean shit.
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I’m no lawyer, so I wouldn’t be surprised one could make the argument, but if I were on any type of jury, I’d have a really hard time believing that these people didn’t understand the risk of submerging 2 miles into the north Atlantic in a homemade submarine, especially when they had to sign no less than seven times that they understood death was a very real possibility. No one is that stupid. Not even a Republican House representative.
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Shit, if it came down to how foolish the passengers were, you wouldn’t need to tell me more than that they got on a vessel called the “Titan” to dive to the Titanic.
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I mean, this was what, the 12th Titanic tour this vessel made, so I guess you could argue that prior success somewhat normalized the risk in the passengers’ minds. But it’s like hiding in a barn full of chainsaws in a slasher movie.
You can’t contract your way out of your own negligence.
It’s in international waters so the claim authority is super light:
“The International Seabed Authority (ISA) regulates the laws in international underground and seabed waters. Their regulation is limited to research and exploration, including that for the purpose of natural resources. In cases where an accident or another incident would occur not related to ISA regulations, the laws of the country where the vessel is registered would apply.”
The tending ship is registered to Canada. Who are well known to be light on maritime restrictions.
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