I figure that since OceanGate was a registered non-profit, that the passengers could call it a "donation to science," as it was "raising money for research." Like a charitable donation where the big donors get an experience prize (backstage at the theater! meeting the conductor! getting to go 13,000 feet down to the Titanic!)
The passengers were then "trained" as crew and co-researchers. The research was "on the state of the Titanic."
This is just another way that Rush had of thumbing his nose at regulations and ordinary practices. The Titan, itself, was never bought or sold nor given any kind regular registration in any nation. It's not yet clear if the craft was registered as a craft, anywhere. The Polar Prince was, of course, "hosting" a gadget. It did not need to be certified as a passenger vessel, according to Rush, because it was a gadget used for research in the ocean. So he skirted all kinds of regulations - and even hinted to potential passengers that the Titan had in fact been inspected (see upthread).
So, they weren't "passengers." They were donors and crew. The Titan wasn't a seagoing vessel, it was a DIY project attached to a (registered) ship.
I believe Polar Prince is registered to Canada.
The way in which the rules for this voyage were constructed gave the "crew" only a small bottle of water, no ability to stand up (one of the methods for raising the sub involved having to stand up - so it bothers me that certain pundits keep saying it was "equipped" with 7 methods of rising - it wasn't!
Two were unavailable (balloon and standing up and tilting craft to get it untangled and/or remove ballast). Apparently the total time frame was 8 hours, crew were encouraged not do eat the night before/day of (great way to handicap the brain's best functioning). 19 year old was pressured to go, but scared. No intake interview for this "scientific expedition" (a real scientific expedition funded by any credible grant would involve much more rigorous selection of "crew"). Each trip needed to be treated as we treat manned space missions (governmental oversight, many levels; juried publications; many observers; tons of caution and still things go wrong).
The reporter who keeps appearing on my screen telling me "they had 7 ways of getting up" is driving me crazy.
Because I do not believe they had a verified method of using salt (!) or pipes strapped to the bottom of the Titan (!) which had to be released...mechanically? electrically? Either could fail. We see no salt bags on this craft in the video of it being prepped to enter the water. (Maybe someone can locate them?)
So THREE of the methods were unavailable and the fourth relied on mechanical integrity. Indeed, all methods had something that could go wrong.
But the real problem was those "stress sensors" (that experts say could never have worked to set off an alarm that the Titan was about to implode).
And that makes me put CEO Rush into the same category as many criminals, whose fantasies of "success" at something take over their minds, clouding their reason and making them, really, fairly insane. I do understand that "Safety Third" is a thing and if all the participants had had the knowledge of the French scientist, I wouldn't be typing this. That 19 year old never had a chance. Family dynamics meets crazy rich DIYer with hubris.
My heart goes out to the mother and aunt of Sulemon, who spent 19 years growing up and trying to understand the ordinary world he lived in, then was induced to take this trip as (IMO) an emotional power move. My heart goes out to the family of Nargeolet, but from what I'm hearing in French news, his grandkids were pretty much resigned to/ready for this kind of outcome, given what he was interested in doing.
imo
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