In a moment of hubris, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush casually shared with Arnie Weissmann, editor-in-chief of Travel Weekly, that he had purchased expired airplane-grade carbon fiber at a discount for use in his Titan submersible.

This cost-saving measure was a focal point of the conversation, sparking concern given the subsequent tragedy that claimed the lives of five people aboard the Titan.

As Weissmann recounted the conversation to the Washington Post, he noted his immediate concern. “I responded right away, saying, ‘Don’t you have any concerns about that?’”

However, Rush dismissed these apprehensions, confidently asserting, “No, it’s perfectly fine. Having all these certifications for airplanes is one thing, but the carbon fiber was perfectly sound.”

Rush even extended an invitation to Weissmann to join him in the dive, which, thankfully, due to prior commitments, Weissmann had to decline.

Despite Rush’s claim of collaboration with Boeing in the design of the submersible, the aviation giant firmly distanced itself from both Rush and OceanGate, stating unequivocally they had no record of such a partnership or a carbon fiber sale to the company.

Regrettably, this fateful decision to use carbon fiber had been a red flag waved before the accident.

Experts had expressed their worries over the structural integrity of the submarine, designed with the unconventional material.

Years before the ill-fated dive, Rush admitted his design “broke some rules,” opting for carbon fiber over the safer alternatives of titanium or steel, thereby compromising the safety of his crew for the elongation of the cabin.

This choice, as Jasper Graham-Jones, an associate professor of mechanical and marine engineering at the University of Plymouth, told PBS, caused “pressure loads in the midsections, which increases fatigue and delamination loads.” These terms refer to the gradual degradation of the material under stress: “fatigue” is akin to bending a wire until it breaks, “delamination” is likened to splitting wood along the grain.

Furthermore, the Titan’s hull, a hefty 5-inches thick, was exposed to repeated stress during its approximate two dozen prior dives, inflicting invisible cracks in the structure that were poised to become critical over time.

Industry experts speculate the tragic implosion that resulted in the loss of five lives was triggered by water seeping in where the carbon fiber and titanium converged. “At that depth, you could have a leak that’s not much bigger than a diameter of one of your hairs and you would be dead within a fraction of a second,” Captain Alfred Scott McLaren, a nuclear attack submarine commander, grimly pointed out.

This tragic event should remind us all that in the pursuit of progress and innovation, safety and proper oversight should never be compromised for the sake of expedience or cost-savings.

Traditional values of responsibility and care for human life must not be overshadowed by the allure of groundbreaking exploration.

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