What a rollercoaster of emotions
As the emotions are still raw and
people are still coming to terms with the tragedy of the apparent Titan
submersible implosion with the loss of 5 souls, this is a difficult subject to
broach at any time, yet it is one we must not ignore for the pertinent lessons
to be learnt.
As the news cycle played like an
orchestra of emotions from the notification of the passengers missing through
postulations about the urgency to rescue because of the limited oxygen supply,
we even had that glimmer of hope that there was some banging noise at 30-minute
intervals, suggesting some human activity indicating distress. The truth amidst
the speculations that almost drove us to distraction was a catastrophic
incident had already happened and the people we were introduced to over the
last 5 days had perished.
We need to know why it happened
Everything is now down to a post-mortem
of what happened, and probably more will be revealed in a possible coroner’s
inquest with the verdict of death by misadventure. Then, misadventure would be
an understatement if all we have learnt about the Titan submersible and the
operations of OceanGate in facilitating the tourist event to see the Titanic
wreck is reckoned with.
I am in no way against having a sense
of adventure, even of the pioneering kind where you are doing what no one else
has done before. However, the adventure should never exclude proper risk assessment
and more pertinently safety. It has transpired that OceanGate was many times
warned about their submersible design, that it had not undergone any
independent testing, then certain engineers involved were dismissed when they
raised questions, that parts involved in cobbling together the submersible
might suffice for a hobbyist, but never for a commercial operation where a general
public is put at immeasurable risk of the possible loss of life.
The invisible fatal flaw of hubris
That this submersible was lost along
with the CEO of OceanGate pitches the positive attributes and virtues of
courage, confidence, adventurism, and derring-do against the greatest flaw when
things go wrong, hubris. He was against the essential safety inspections and
certifications that might have prevented what many experts in deep-sea
submersibles now consider totally preventable.
It is quite likely that those
passengers took and derived some confidence from the fact that the CEO was
riding with them, it might have suggested to them that if the CEO was willing
to take such as risk on such a dangerous mission, they probably would be safer
than being piloted by someone with no skin in the game. James Cameron compared
the obduracy of the OceanGate’s CEO, Stockton Rush to that of the RMS Titanic’s captain, Edward John
Smith, they both ended up at the bottom of the sea beside each other.
Trust but verify for yourself
It has become a somewhat fatal transference
of trust, the fact that you can see someone else doing something that
encourages you to dabble, even if you are totally unsure you will have the same
outcome. In many things, we do need a trailblazer and some sort of example if
we are to dare to tread where angels fear to go. We must do that with some
knowledge of what we are getting into.
For instance, in a parachute jump, there
are fundamental prerequisite checks to make long before the jump, to ensure
that the parachute is intact, will operate, that the reserve is there just in
case the main parachute does not open, and you do not jump to a conclusion without
doing the essential checks, except if on a suicide mission, and that is a
different thing.
I do wonder if any of the passengers would
have reconsidered this adventure on seeing some of the other interviews with
the CEO about the submersible and its record, along with the testimonies that
we have now heard about some who ventured and did not consider a return because of
their experience and those who pulled out after assessing the lax safety
procedures amongst other things.
A tragedy totally preventable
There seems to be a lot of information
out there that suggests this was a very dangerous activity and though a few
scraps of pulling it off suggested a greater success than the myriad of issues
and problems during the event. There is no saying that if the dive exploration
that set off on Sunday were successful, not only would we have heard nothing of
this adventurism, but it would also have steeled others to shell out about a
quarter of a million dollars to see the wreck of the Titanic at 3,810 metres
(12,500 feet; 2,080 fathoms) depth below sea level, rather than watch a
playback on a National Geographic channel.
There is nothing to celebrate about
this tragedy, but much to learn about how we perceive risk, the essential need
for safety, the consideration of better-mitigating measures in case of adverse
events, the readiness to abort missions when things turn precarious, and the
decision to curb our sense of adventure at certain times, just to gain a bit
more perspective of the fact that our humanity, whilst amazing resourceful is
neither omnipotent nor omniscient.
May their souls, therefore, rest in
peace, and may we that remain be humbled to listen and learn the hard lessons
taught by the experiences of others.
References
BBC: Titanic
director James Cameron accuses OceanGate of cutting corners
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