OceanGate Co-Founder STILL DEFENDING Titan Sub's Safety Against James Cameron's Damning Comments!

Is this really the time to be defending a sub that just imploded?!

Guillermo Söhnlein, who co-founded OceanGate Expeditions in 2009 with the now-deceased Stockton Rush, is clapping back at James Cameron and other deep-sea experts over safety concerns about the Titan submersible, which vanished earlier this week during a dive to the Titanic. Investigators have since confirmed they believe the vessel imploded during the descent to the shipwreck, killing all five passengers.

In a new interview with BBC Radio 4‘s Today show on Friday, Guillermo, who left the company in 2013 but who is still a minority shareholder, argued the sub was perfectly safe — despite not passing any kind of regulated safety protocol.

He explained:

“I think one of the issues that keeps coming up is everyone keeps equating certification with safety and are ignoring the 14 years of development of the Titan sub.”

Addressing James’ heated commentary more directly, he continued:

“Any expert who weighs in on this, including Mr. Cameron, will also admit that they were not there for the design of the sub, for the engineering of the sub, for the building of the sub and certainly not for the rigorous test program the sub went through.”

But if they’re test results were so great, why didn’t they just go the extra mile and certified anyway?

Also, these are experts who were concerned about the sub (and they were for YEARS) — that should speak volumes! The Titanic director has gone down to visit the historic ship 33 TIMES in his own sub and has never had an accident like this. Just saying…

The businessman went on to claim he thought developers were in a better position to understand the risks involved with the dive and how to best minimize them. More boldly, he added that he believes technology and innovation outpace regulation. But just because you can build something quickly doesn’t mean it’s safe! As this horrific incident proves.

Defending his former company, Guillermo went on:

“This was a 14-year technology development program and it was very robust and certainly led through successful science expeditions to the Titanic even over the last three years.”

It’s true. Many people have opened up about being a passenger on a previous OceanGate expedition… but not all their experiences sound very enjoyable! Or safe, for that matter!

As for the Avatar visionary’s comments, in an interview with BBC earlier this week, the 68-year-old argued OceanGate “didn’t get certified because they knew they wouldn’t pass,” he explained:

“I was very suspect of the technology that they were using. I wouldn’t have gotten in that sub.”

The filmmaker also claimed the deep submersible community had raised concerns about the vessel — and they even wrote to the company, declaring:

“You are going on a path to catastrophe.”

The Marine Technology Society also sent a letter to Stockton in March 2018 addressing their similar concerns, via the NYT. US court docs even show former employees warned of safety risks that same year, too! So, there was a TON of pushback, and yet, OceanGate didn’t listen…

In his interview, James remarked on the harrowing similarities between this incident and the loss of the Titanic, saying:

“We now have another wreck that is based on unfortunately the same principles of not heeding warnings. OceanGate were warned.”

It’s such a heartbreaking situation for all the family and friends who are now mourning a loved one. While the high-paying passengers may have been somewhat aware of the risk they were taking stepping into the sub, it doesn’t mean OceanGate shouldn’t be held accountable for not doing everything in its power to make sure the dive was as safe as possible.

You can hear more from the co-founder (below)…

Thoughts?

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