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Ex-OceanGate consultant says Titan sub passengers were called ‘mission specialists’ to avoid legal trouble over deaths
But "there were no passengers — the word 'passenger' was never used," former consultant to OceanGate Rob McCallum said
Passengers on board the Titan submersible were not referred to as “passengers,” but as “mission specialists” to avoid legal trouble if anyone died, former consultant to OceanGate Rob McCallum told The New Yorker. These customers reportedly paid $250,000 for a place on the Titan.
But "there were no passengers — the word 'passenger' was never used," Rob said. He added that it is not legal to transport passengers in an "unclassed, experimental submersible" under US regulations.
"You do get in a little bit of trouble, in the eyes of the law," Rob said. "But, if you kill a passenger, you're in big trouble." The catastrophic implosion of the Titan submersible killed OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French diver Paul Henry Nargeolet, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman.
Previously, email exchanges between Stockton and Rob went viral on social media, revealing how the OceanGate CEO dismissed safety concerns raised by the deep-sea exploration expert. In the conversation, Rob urged Stockton to get a safety certificate for the submersible before offering rides to customers.
"You are wanting to use a prototype un-classed technology in a very hostile place,” Rob told Stockton. "As much as I appreciate entrepreneurship and innovation, you are potentially putting an entire industry at risk.” Stockton replied that his "engineering focused, innovative approach flies in the face of the submersible orthodoxy - but that is the nature of innovation".
"We have heard the baseless cries of 'you are going to kill someone' way too often. I take this as a serious personal insult,” Stockton said. Rob wrote, "I think you are potentially placing yourself and your clients in a dangerous dynamic. In your race to Titanic you are mirroring that famous catch cry: 'She is unsinkable.'”
Following the tragedy, investigators from the US Coast Guard, the US National Transportation Safety Board, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, the French marine casualties investigation board and the United Kingdom Marine Accident Investigation Branch have been working closely on the probe.
