Not sure how much of it is "predatory" behavior and how much of it is just a combination of being a masterful salesman + being really, really dumb, "drinking his own Kool-aid"... The dude was piloting the sub on every expedition after all
The thing that struck me is he maybe favored, and maybe only had young inexperienced people working on the project. This can only mean that older people would not work with him, or he did not want people that actually know something asking hard questions. The same would be true for not having a good non-destructive testing campaign and a destructive one too. If true this is a huge organizational issue. He may have been short of money too, so he presumably cut corners for this reason as well. Exactly where was the money coming from for example.
The OceanGate CEO … once explained how he didn’t hire “50-year-old white guys” with military experience to captain his vessels because they weren’t “inspirational.”
Stockton Rush, 61, added that such expertise was unnecessary because “anybody can drive the sub” with a $30 video game controller.
Each thing that comes out about this guy makes him look a little worse.
Hopefully this serves as a cautionary tale going forward and dissuades other misinformed people about the purpose of regulations. All loss of life is tragic but hopefully it can serve as a warning.
Okay, can we talk about this headline for a sec? It kinda sounds like we're about to hear from an expert 'predator' :'D "Yeah I've been ripping off investors for over a decade now and I can tell you this is exactly the sort of thing I'd do. Usually I don't die from it, though."
Rush said: "While there's obviously risk it's way safer than flying in a helicopter or even scuba diving. There hasn't been even an injury in 35 years in a non-military subs."
He also apparently said something like "almost all sub accidents are the result of pilot error".
These are both because almost all subs are certified for safety. A certification he specifically chose not to get, because of his belief about pilot error. The risk of mechanical faults is all but eliminated, leaving pilot error as the only likely risk - without the certification, mechanical faults are much more likely and, in this case in particular, almost inevitable.
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