Titan Sub Disaster | Full Speed Ahead
4/7/202639 min
As OceanGate’s experimental submersible Titan begins deep-sea testing, engineers and industry experts raise urgent safety concerns—only to be ignored by CEO Stockton Rush. Driven by ambition and convinced the rules don’t apply to him, Rush pushes Titan deeper and deeper, setting the stage for catastrophe.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsLindsay Graham· Host0:00
American Scandal uses dramatizations that are based on true events. Some elements, including dialogue, might be invented, but everything is based on historical research. [gentle music] It's March two thousand eighteen in Claremont, a small city just outside Los Angeles, California. Late morning sunlight slants through the blinds of the office of William Conan. Narrow bars of shadow stretch across his desk, and a cup of coffee goes cold in his hands as Conan sits lost in thought. Conan is the CEO of Hydrospace, a subsea and aerospace engineering company. Last year, they were contracted by the entrepreneur Stockton Rush to design an experimental porthole for his new Titan submersible. Conan only supplied it on the understanding that Rush and his company, OceanGate, would get the new window thoroughly tested. But what he's heard about Titan's development in the months since has him worried. Conan is also a senior figure in the Marine Technology Society, a professional organization of engineers and inventors, and several other members have been reaching out to him to share their concerns about the Titan. Conan feels pressure to step in, but he knows Stockton Rush won't appreciate the interference, so he needs some advice. He reaches for his phone and calls someone he thinks can help. [phone ringing] Yeah, Rob McCallum speaking.