CBS correspondent David Pogue reflects on his risk assessment prior to boarding OceanGate's Titan submersible compared to commercial space tourism.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Pogue: OceanGate Operated with a Strict Rocket-Launch-Style Safety Culture
“There is a very obvious culture of safety among the crew. I mean, this thing is run like a rocket launch with Long countdowns and checklists and inspections and mandatory twice daily briefings, even if you're not diving, you have to be there, where they go thr…”
Assertion Contradicted
Pogue: OceanGate's Titan Completed 20 Dives to Titanic Depths
“Secondly, it had made 20 uneventful dives to the Titanic depths and back.
Without a blink.”
Assertion Contradicted
Pogue: Titanic Expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet Fully Approved Titan's Design
“Thirdly, probably the most famous, one of the most famous living Titanic explorers in the world, P.H. Nargele was on board as an Ocean Gate employee.
He had been looking over the design, construction, and testing of the Titan submersible and fully approved.”
Assertion Supported
Pogue: Stockton Rush pressure-tested a 1/3-scale Titan model to implosion at UW
“Stockton first made a one-third scale model. Nobody talks about this. He took it to the University of Washington, subjected it to pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure, until it imploded to see what the level of pressure was that it could handle.”
Opinion
Pogue: Titan implosion likely caused by dissimilar material fatigue, not carbon fiber alone
“I believe that he's correct, meaning submarine pilot, that it's not the carbon fiber, it's the dissimilar materials connected to it. So, the titanium end caps, and the plexiglass porthole, seven inch thick, What happens is each of them has a different coeffici…”
Assertion Supported
Pogue: OceanGate shut off ship Wi-Fi when Titan lost contact
“During the time that the sub was lost on the seafloor, the CBS crew, and actually everybody else, was on the bridge of the ship with the control room people which is primarily Wendy Rush, Stockton's wife, ran the comms, and the various experts and scientists, …”