Entertainment5 Things we learn from Titan: Oceangate disaster, Netflix documentary

Stockton Rushthe late CEO of Oceangate who died with four other people when his submersible Titanimploded in June 2023, admired what he called the energy of “big dick” of entrepreneurs like ELON MUSK and Jeff Bezos. He was obsessed with Titanic. He had a habit of dismissing those who disagreed with his judgments. And it took the fatal dive later even after several engineers and experts warned that the submersible was sentenced to failure.

These are some of the details presented in Titan: The Oceangate disasterthe new documentary of Netflix which opens on June 11. Titan covers part of the same material Implosion: The Titanic sub disasterdocumentary of Diskincluding extensive images of the audience of US coastal guard in 2024, which investigated the tragedy.

But there’s a trump card: David LochridgeDirector of Maritime Operations of Oceangate and submersible pilot, fired after questioning the security standards of Rush and later revealed critical information under the Reporting Protection Law. Next to Mark Harrisinvestigative journalist from Wiredwhich also acted as a consultant producer in Titan, Lockridge It offers a flood of blunt facts in the new documentary.

Below, see five things that Rolling Stone learned from Titan: The Oceangate disaster:

1) Disagreeing with Rush usually meant rapid resignation from Oceangate

Lockridge was dismissed when he insisted that Titan was not ready for his great dive towards the wreckage of the Titanic. The same happened with Tony NiessenEngineering Director of Oceangate. Titan He paints the portrait of a CEO who surrounded herself with flatterers – many of them inexperienced and disqualified. Bonnie Carlformer financial and HR Director of the Oceangatecounts on the movie that, at some point, Stockton I wanted to make it the company’s new chief pilot. Her response in the documentary: “Are you crazy? I’m an accountant.”

Lockridge details the stubborn arrogance of Rush In the movie: “He had all the contacts of the submersible industry telling him not to do that. But when you choose to do everything alone, and realize that you missed it early, you have to admit it was wrong.” No one interviewed in Titan suggests that Rush I could admit your mistakes.

Niessen It is straightforward in evaluating your experience in Oceangate: “I worked for someone who is probably on the verge of a diagnosis of clinical psychopathy. How do you deal with such a person who owns the company?”

Emily HasmmermeisterEngineering Assistant at Oceangate and viewed by Rush as a promising young woman in the company, she left when she realized that the carbon fiber hull of the Titan It was unstable. “Stockton was so obsessed with reaching Titanic That nothing that someone said made a difference, ”she says in the movie.“ I would never hold someone into that submersible. And that was something many of mine agreed at the time. None of them spent a lot of time in the company. ”

2) Rush and his wife came from rich and traditional families

Rush There was a profile of those who released a “f ***” if easily-which suits someone who came from a family with “f *** money.” “Both Stockton As for your wife, Wendycame from generational wealth, ”says Mark Harrisreporter for Wiredin the documentary. Rush formed in Princetondespite the median notes. He said he was a direct descendant of two signatories from Declaration of independence: Richard Stockton and Benjamin Rush. In an ironic turnaround, Wendy Rush It was a great -tatanet of two people who died in the Titanic: Bisker and Ida Strauss. Bisker It was one of the owners of the chain of stores Macy’s. “Stockton It was definitely part of the one percent, ”says Harris In the movie.

3) Rush liked to save using cheap materials

If you took a sip of alcohol every time someone mentions “carbon fiber” in TitanI probably couldn’t go home driving. The material is cheaper than, for example, titanium or steel – and also easier to transport. These factors have made carbon fiber an attractive choice for Rush during the construction of Titan. But the engineers interviewed in the documentary say the material can be highly unstable. Had never been used before for a dive as deep as what Rush I wanted to do it.

In the movie, Rob McCallum – co -founder of Eyos Expeditions and consultant for Oceangate – Describes the carbon fiber as “basically a wire made of carbon. It is coated with resin to stay together.” It summarizes the structure of Titan So: “There was no way to know when she would fail. But it was a mathematical certainty that she was going to fail.”

4) Rush also liked to circumvent regulations

According to the documentary, Rush refused to make Titan It was “classified” – that is, certified by an outsourced entity that would ensure compliance with industry standards. Lockridge states that, shortly after insisting on an independent inspection and writing, in a 2018 report, that the Titan was not ready for the dive of 3,800 meters to the wreckage of the Titaniche was fired.

McCallum highlights another artifice of Rush: He insisted on classifying his passengers as “mission experts.” This denomination aimed to legally protect the company if something was wrong. “It was just one of the steps that Oceangate I could circumvent the United States legislation, ”he says McCallum In the movie.

5) Titanic still exerts fascination with the popular imagination

Rush called these people “Titaniacs”. They are the obsessed with everything related to Titanic. Some were willing to pay more than $ 100,000 for a seat in the Titan. In the movie, Rush states: “There are three words in the English language known worldwide: Coca-cola, God and Titanic. ” The success of the James Cameron In 1997 there is certainly part of this – production raised more than $ 2 billion worldwide and led many viewers to feel kings (or queens) in the world.

But it wasn’t just the movie that kept Titanic In evidence. The British ship sank in 1912, killing about 1,500 people – largely due to structural failures, such as those who would later condemn the Titan. The documentary makes a point of punctuating this irony.

“Even now, more than 100 years after the wreck, it still captures people’s attention,” says McCallum in the doc. Something in the combination of mass catastrophe and class divisions on board – First class, Second class and Third classwith survival rates falling according to economic status – remains hypnotizing. Even before the movie Titanic (1997), there was the musical The uminkable molly brown (1960), who became a film in 1964 with Debbie Reynoldsbased on the life of the survivor and philanthropy Margaret Brown. Rush It was not the first fanatic enthusiast of the Titanic “But it may have been the most catastrophically arrogant.”

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