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The guy who drove his sub to destruction isn't going to get much condemnation from me.
Although the flaws in his idea are obvious... So were the flaws in everything associated with flight.
How many people died trying to figure out powered flight?
How many people died trying to figure out helicopters?
How many people died trying to figure out tilt-rotors?
Fewer each time.
Figuring shit out will kill people.
Advancing new things kills people while breaking the obvious rules.
Yes, most of the time, the obvious rules are absolutely correct.
Occasionally, the rules are wrong.
Lots of people die trying to find those occasional instances.
It's the price of advancing the state of the art.
Deal with it or stay in your cocoon.
Every field needs that idiot that everyone else goes, "Yah, no, don't be like that idiot."
ReplyDeleteThe list of flaws that led to the oops is much like the list of flaws in the experimental aircraft field. Like the flaw that killed John Denver, or all the other oops moments.
It is what it is.
High speed motorcycle crashes are quite spectacular. And one can use that as an example of what not to do. "Don't drive a motorcycle at 120mph while drunk and weaving on the interstate and then smash face first into an overpass."
Or... "Don't do a Sonny Bono and know where you are skiing and don't ski out of your class."
Idiots should be used as a teaching moment.
I have no actual experience, but doesn't the military use this? "Private Schmuckatelli was trying to see if he could fit his junk into X part on a tank and that's how he became she..." That type of thing?
Yes, but.
ReplyDeleteThe vitriol and mockery kick - deservedly - in because he was taking paying passengers, and selling a fraud for self-gain. That's a sociopath.
If he'd just been an eccentric schmuck who had inadvertently found another way to descend to the sea floor as fish bait all by himself, or with a trusty not-so-bright sidekick, by exploring new technology, it would be only mildy pathetic.
But for blowing up total strangers for money, he's a killer, and his company are soulless ghouls, for collectively and repeatedly ignoring every safety warning and cautionary note that told them this was a monumentally stupid idea headed for a catastrophic failure.
James Cameron is far from the sharpest tool in the drawer, and when even he could spot the flaws in the scheme from a mile away...
Nobody goes after Amelia Earhart much. (Hell, there's even parks and schools named after her hereabouts.) But if she'd had a planeload of paying tourists in the back on her last trip, it would be a far different story.
They were not adventurers testing the limits of new concepts and new knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThey are a tourist agency taking tourists to a famous underwater gravesite for selfies.
When NASA blew up a shuttle with that NH Teacher in it, it was still somewhat for NASA promotion to taxpayers everywhere and real research was planned.
Do we give such credit to a crappy tourist boat in Bahamas taking tourists to a reef for a booze and snorkel trip IF it sinks due to poor construction-Maintenace?
Tell me you've never read about the development of aviation without saying you've never read about the development of aviation.
ReplyDeleteStuff like this sub happened so often it doesn't even stand out.
For profits. For publicity.
Look up why it went from anarchy to the Civil Aviation Board in an astonishingly short period of time.
You are correct.
DeleteAnd for that exact reason, this will fuel the marine version of that in short order.
If people thought the NTSB and FAA were a pain, wait until tourist subs start getting VBSS visits from Coast Guard cutters, enforcing Safety At Sea laws in international waters.
And then have the SEC and IRS sicced on them as icing on the cake.
We've already seen this with trains and planes. We know how it ends this time, just far faster.
5:1 there's already five bills in Congress waiting to hit the hopper in the House and go straight to any nine committees.
Martha Stewart did federal time, and she didn't even kill anyone.