A writer who said he was set to travel on the doomed Titan submersible said OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush told him that for the vessel's hull, the company used cut-price Boeing carbon fiber that was past its airplane shelf life.
The stunning claim came in a series of articles by Travel Weekly's editor in chief, Arnie Weissmann, who this week chronicled his experiences with the deep-sea-diving company.
Weissmann wrote that he was due to board the Titan to view the Titanic in May but the trip was stopped by weather. In fact, just a couple of weeks stood between his would-be voyage and the trip that ended in tragedy this week when the vessel imploded, killing all five on board, he wrote.
In general, he said, he was impressed by "what appeared to be a risk-averse operation."
But one thing concerned him, he wrote.
Rush told Weissmann that "he had gotten the carbon fiber used to make the Titan at a big discount from Boeing because it was past its shelf life for use in airplanes," Weissmann wrote.
In his recollection, he asked Rush whether that was a problem, but he said he was told that the shelf-life dates "were set far before they had to be."
Both OceanGate and Boeing declined to comment on Weissmann's claims. Insider was unable to independently verify the source of the Titan's carbon fiber.
OceanGate's website previously claimed that the vessel was designed and engineered "in collaboration" with Boeing.
Boeing has denied any involvement in the design of the Titan.
Much remains unknown about the circumstances of the disaster, including what could have caused the vessel to implode. The US Coast Guard said Thursday that debris found at the scene was "consistent with catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber."
The Titan's experimental carbon-fiber hull has become a subject of discussion since the vessel went missing.
Rush previously touted the cost-saving benefits of carbon fiber versus the standard titanium and claimed in a 2021 presentation that "carbon fiber is three times better on a strength-to-buoyancy basis than titanium."
"And underwater, that's what you care about," he added.
A 2017 CompositesWorld report said the initial carbon-fiber hull design was prepared on just a six-week deadline, though GeekWire reported the vessel was rebuilt later.
Before the tragic trip, Rush publicly discussed taking risks to pursue what he called "innovation," saying in 2021 that he knew he had "broken some rules" by using a carbon-fiber hull for the vessel.
The cops will come after you if you run a barber shop out of your house. But what will the feds do about a corrupt company involved five deaths doing totally unregulated vanity tourism that involves trips to literally 4,000
feetmeters down in the ocean?[Edit - Oops. I weakened my own joke.]
Oops. I weakened my own joke.
Good thing you're making jokes and not submarines.
Rush told Weissmann that "he had gotten the carbon fiber used to make the Titan at a big discount from Boeing because it was past its shelf life for use in airplanes," Weissmann wrote.
So Rush never had any sort of sales training, huh.
Rookie mistake.
"We got the carbon fiber from Boeing. It's used in airplanes. Cool, huh?"
"How many atmospheres of pressure can it take?"
"Well, it's for airplanes, so I'd say anywhere between 0 and 1."It's amazing to me that people do stuff like go down miles in the ocean but they don't google the company in question. If there's a magic phrase like "You can see the Titanic up close! It will be just feet away!" - their critical thinking skills turn off.
It doesn't help that the legit sub company is called Triton. So when people who don't do any real research see "Titan" they're like oh yeah! The guys who make good luxury submarines!
I wonder how much google would have turned up before this? I doubt there would have been much on it besides official company media.
I wonder how much google would have turned up before this?
If you can't find anything about a company that's going to send you 4,000m down into a depth that will kill you due to even a tiny slip up - that's not a trip any sane, rational, intelligent person is going to make. If I had $250,000 to spend on a trip - I'd splurge on a private jet and go on a killer vacation to a place like the Great Bear Rainforest for a week. I don't know what that would cost. ~$10k? Anyway - I'll still have ~$240k.
The Great Bear Rainforest is a temperate rain forest on the Pacific coast of British Columbia, Canada, comprising 6.4 million hectares. It is part of the larger Pacific temperate rainforest ecoregion, which is the largest coastal temperate rainforest in the world.
But people that are willing to risk death to see the Titanic aren't anything like me.
A brain genius stridently disagrees with me - https://hexbear.net/post/274700
lol, Air-Budding himself and other rich idiots to a watery grave:
There are rules that prevent Boeing from using it in planes, but there are none about using it on a submarine!
Boeing found it not suitable for 1 atmosphere and less of pressure but let's use it at ~400 atmospheres what could go wrong
Rush saw this episode of Futurama and didn't quiiite get the joke
But he saved a couple bucks, so it was totally worth it. Besides, it's not like he would instantly die if it failed, right?
To be fair, the Trieste had lots of issues and held the depth record until 2019, but that one was piloted by 2 insane dudes who knew the risks and went down anyways.
I this CEO dickhead wasn't white or american
the media would have been tut tuting him over killing 4 people to save a couple bucks. But instead it's a tragedy and he's a captain of industry.I think any talking head who uses a word like "explorer" or "explore" or "exploration" should get a serious electric shock.
Carbon fiber seems like an odd choice to begin with for a submarine.
literally the stupidest possible materials choice for a submersible. you add CF to a composite to improve its tensile strength, it has little if any benefit for compressive strength. this thing was relying 100% on the binding resin to resist water pressure
Yep. Also the fact that it's extremely brittle, combined with his ridiculous acoustic sensor array that's supposed to detect cracks, makes the whole early warning system totally useless.
Love how they're still pretending it's a huge mystery why it exploded
It's funny because you always hear chuds say "rich people get rich because they buy used cars instead of buying new or get the early bird special instead of going out for a swanky steak dinner."
The people who get rich by starting businesses 100% do be like that, as we can see here, it is not always a beneficial trait.
Even the thing that's supposed to be most expensive was a corner cut. Lol, lmao.
Are they saying they got the raw carbon fiber reel from Boeing?
Yep. And the adhesives it's bound with are expired so they denature in some way.
