Time is running out for the passengers of the Titan Five, who went into the depths of the ocean to view the wreckage of the Titanic up close a couple of days ago and went missing.
On Tuesday night, banging sounds were reportedly heard in 30-minute intervals, near where the vessel went missing. Passengers include billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood, 48, his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, and Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate, which designed and operates the Titan Five.
It’s hard for me to imagine why anyone would choose to go into a submersible coffin like that, but I’m sure those willing to fork over the large sums of money required to participate in such an excursion assumed that the vessel was completely safe, all while ignoring the irony that they were to visit the underwater wreckage of the supposedly “unsinkable ship.”
Related: OceanGate Was Twice Warned of ‘Catastrophic’ Problems With Its Submersible
If there’s anything we’ve learned from this harrowing situation, which continues to look bleak for those trapped, is that the Titan Five wasn’t nearly as safe as it was claimed to be, and wokeness may very well have been a contributing factor.
Since the Titan Five went missing, a two-year-old Zoom interview with Stockton Rush has gone viral, in which he indicates he prioritized diversity and youth over experience when hiring people.
“When I started the business, one of the things you’ll find, there are other sub operators out there, but they typically have gentlemen who are ex-military submariners, and you’ll see a whole bunch of 50-year-old white guys,” Rush told Teledyne Marine in the interview. “I wanted our team to be younger, to be inspirational, and I’m not going to inspire a 16-year-old to go pursue marine technology. But, a 25-year-old, you know, who’s a sub pilot or a platform operator or one of our techs can be inspirational. ”
Rush continued, “So we really tried to get very intelligent, motivated younger individuals involved, cuz we’re doing things that are completely new. We’re taking approaches that are used largely in the aerospace industry, as related to safety and some of the preponderance of checklists of things we do for risk assessments and things like that, that are more aviation-related than ocean-related, and we can train people to do that. We can train someone to pilot the sub; we use a game controller, so anybody can drive the sub.”
And how exactly has that worked out? There’s nothing routine about exploring the depths of the ocean, and if you’re prioritizing “diversity” and youth over experience, you’re missing out on knowledge that can’t be taught in the classroom.
Real-world experience is crucial in fields like this, and while I can understand Rush’s desire for fresh ideas to push the field further and innovate, does he really think those who have trusted him with their lives care about which diversity boxes those involved in the Titan Five checked off? Is Stockton Rush down there in the vessel consoling his fellow passengers by saying, “At least there were no old white guys involved in this project”?
Is anyone really willing to die in the name of diversity, inclusion, and equity? Sadly, Stockton Rush may well do that.
