YokelRidesAgain said:
AustinCountyAg said:
Eventually people will take the risk and do this again. It's like aviation. You have to start somewhere.
Well, of course. The difference from early aviation is that people did not start taking passengers up on a heavier than air craft for crazy amounts of money after, like, 20 trips in a new contraption.
(The reason for that is that it was not technically feasible to do so. Otherwise it definitely would have been done.)
Point is that people who risked their lives in early airplanes, or spacecraft, or polar expeditions, or mountain climbing, were doing it for the joy of discovery and/or the glory. They knew they were risking their lives and prepared accordingly.
This was "hey, we can make it down there, let's sell seats for 250 grand a pop". It was just reckless folly to commercialize this poorly tested vessel based on "we made it down a couple of times and didn't die."
I don't think it was so much reckless folly to commercialize it. I think it was a rich billionaire who had a big head and wanted to have the glory that he did it in "his" sub. The people who chose to pay and go for the ride knew the risks. Their is a reason only a handful of vehicles have gone down there and those folks who paid to take the trip didn't have a ton of options and so they chose to pay to take their ride in his makeshift vessel. I feel sorry for those who lost there life's, but I'm not gunna necessarily blame the ceo of oceangate that they died. Nobody forced them on that sub.
I would assume they did some prior research on the trip and vessel and came to there own conclusion that they thought the risk was worth the reward.
Clearly the overwhelmingly majority can see that the thing was pretty much a jerry rigged POS, but those who took the trip didn't really care because they wanted to see the titanic.
I can't really see how anyone can sue his estate or company. They went on a super dangerous trip knowing full well the risks and knowing that what they were doing had only been done a handful of times prior.
I'm more shocked it only cost 250k. I would've thought a million or so.