Stockton Rush took advantage of Titan passengers: Physicist

(NewsNation) — The 2023 Titan submersible disaster that killed five people on the way to the Titanic was “preventable,” the U.S. Coast Guard said in a report Tuesday. Physicist Dr Michael Guillen wholeheartedly concurs.

Guillen, who is also a journalist, joined "Elizabeth Vargas Reports" on Tuesday to discuss the Coast Guard's report and the culpability of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.

"He capitalized on people's fascination with the Titanic, but he did so in a very dangerous way, by overselling (the submersible's) safety and by playing footloose with its maintenance," Guillen said.

"This was a man after fame and fortune ... He cared very little about the safety of the passengers," Guillen added.

Rush was among the five who died. The other victims were Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood.

The Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation found OceanGate, which owned Titan, had safety procedures that were “critically flawed,” noting that the core of the failures inside the company came down to “glaring disparities” between their safety protocols and actual practices.

"This was not a whoopsie. This was preventable, this was foreseeable, this was a tragedy," Guillen added.

After the implosion, Washington state-based OceanGate suspended its operations.