OceanGate co-founder hits back at James Cameron over Titan submersible

LONDON - Titan

submersible pilot Stockton Rush

was “extremely” serious about safety, his former business partner said on Friday after mounting criticism following a deadly implosion.

Titanic movie director

James Cameron has accused OceanGate Expeditions

of ignoring safety warnings, after Mr Rush and four other people were

lost in a catastrophic implosion

while descending to the famous shipwreck.

Mr William Kohnen, chairman of the Manned Underwater Vehicles Committee, a voluntary industry body, said OceanGate was “not willing” to undergo a standard certification process for the Titan submersible.

But Mr Guillermo Sohnlein, who started OceanGate with Mr Rush in 2009, before leaving the company in 2013, denied his late friend was reckless.

“He was extremely committed to safety,” he told Britain’s Times Radio, while stressing that he was not involved in Titan’s experimental design.

“He was also extremely diligent about managing risks and was very keenly aware of the dangers of operating in a deep ocean environment,” he added.

Mr Sohnlein noted that Mr Cameron himself had conducted many submersible descents, including more than 30 to the

Titanic site in the North Atlantic

and to the Earth’s deepest point in the Pacific Mariana Trench.

“I think he was asked about a similar risk and he said, ‘Look, if something happens at that depth, it will be catastrophic in a matter of microseconds.’“

“To the point where the implosion happens at almost supersonic speeds, and you’d basically be dead before your brain could even process that anything was wrong.”

Mr Kohnen told BBC Radio that his Los Angeles-based committee had

raised safety concerns

in 2018 about OceanGate’s development of Titan.

But the company wanted to go its own way, despite the committee’s warning that the project’s development could have “negative outcomes from minor to catastrophic that could have serious consequences”.

Voluntary industry regulations were “written in blood” to prevent just such an outcome, he said, adding: “We’re only smart because we remember what we wrote and what we did wrong last time.”

Mr Sohnlein stressed it was too soon to say what happened to the Titan and that it was “tricky to navigate” how to formulate global regulations for ultra-deep submersibles.

“Just like with space exploration, the best way to preserve the memories and the legacies of these five explorers is to conduct an investigation, find out what went wrong, take lessons learnt and then move forward.” AFP