The myth that may have doomed the Titan

As details emerged about

the implosion last week of the Titan submersible

in its descent to the wreck of the Titanic nearly 4km below the surface of the North Atlantic, there was widespread anger that its owner and pilot knowingly took civilians on an uncertified vessel to a depth of crushing pressure.

The billionaire investor Ray Dalio, who founded the ocean exploration company OceanX with his son Mark, expressed what he described on Twitter as his “great anger”. He accused Mr Stockton Rush, the chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions, who was piloting the Titan when it imploded, of “reckless disregard for tried-and-true safety protocols that have made manned submersible exploration extremely safe”. Within the oceanography community, that view was widely held.