I knew he was an ass, but this takes it to an entirely new level. Almost every expert in the matter was telling Stockton Rush that the Titan would implode and he ignored them for over 6 years. Not only that, he actively sued a whistleblower and essentially threatened him with bankruptcy to prevent him from going public with the very legitimate safety concerns. And he also organized the dives and payments in such away as to avoid any kind of regulation or penalty whatsoever.

A completely brutal dissection of all of the failings of Stockton Rush, his hubris and those at OceanGate who were complicit in his insanity. So many times people raised warnings about this thing and instead of heeding them, the response was to sue the whistle-blower, who due to the way the US courts are structured (that is to say incredibly skewed toward the wealthy), had no choice but to withdraw his complaint.

Great article, really outlines just how headstrong and arrogant Rush was. Pushing the bounds of exploration is one thing, doing it with paying passengers on board is just reckless. The bit about confronting PH Nargolet for giving credence to Ocean Gate was especially well done, seems like the dude was just old and didn’t really care anymore.

Just when you thought the whole thing couldn’t get worse a new thing comes out that tops it.

Rush eventually decided that he would not attempt to have the Titanic-bound vehicle classed by a marine-certification agency such as DNV.

I have read elsewhere that certifivation was declined.