'He knows nothing': OceanGate co-founder lashes out at James Cameron after Titan sub criticism
25 July 2023, 15:27
Titanic director James Cameron "knows nothing about OceanGate", a co-founder of the company has said as he defended his former boss Stockton Rush.
Guillermo Söhnlein, who helped start OceanGate in 2009, lashed out at a number of people who he claims have helped put a "negative spin" on the company in the media.
That includes Dave Lockridge, OceanGate's former director of marine operations, marine tech expert Will Kohnen, and submersible expert Karl Stanley, alongside Mr Cameron.
Mr Cameron is "a very experienced ocean explorer and a sub guy himself, but knows nothing about OceanGate and that stuff", Mr Söhnlein told Insider.
It comes around one month after the company's CEO Stockton Rush died in a catastrophic implosion on the Titan sub on a voyage to see the Titanic wreckage.
Mr Cameron, who has been dozens of deep sea dives, previously said the Titan would have had "three potential failure points", calling out the sub's carbon fibre hull as its "achilles heel".
This was broken into "very small pieces" following the catastrophic implosion, he said.
Read More: Stockton Rush's OceanGate company behind doomed Titanic descent scrubs itself from the Internet
But Mr Söhnlein has hit back, saying we have only heard from four people.
"Over the course of 15 years that company's probably employed like 200 and has dived dozens of people. And you're only hearing from four people," he said.
"Common sense seems to indicate these must be the vocal minority because there are a lot of other people that aren't speaking up who disagree with those four," he added.
As for the criticism of Mr Rush's decision to use carbon fibre to design the sub's hull, Mr Söhnlein added: "The world only had one foremost expert on using carbon fibre to go in the deep oceans and he's gone now."
