Who should pay for OceanGate's experimental approach and subsequent disaster? | CBC News
Who should pay for OceanGate's experimental approach and subsequent disaster? | CBC News
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I have no sympathy for Stockton Rush whatsoever, but search and rescue services are basic, essential, and should never be provided at a cost.
Search and rescue does not normally include anywhere near the extent of services given to looking for a lost private submarine.
What, then, is the appropriate amount of resources to spend on five people lost at sea in a fairly well-defined area?
Why are you asking me? I don't know anything about the field. However, a quick search shows this was one of the most expensive S&Rs of all time, comparable to efforts in rescuing 33 stranded miners in chile, who were victims of an accident rather than their own decisions. My point is only that saying "search and rescue is important" doesn't really work as well when we're talking about people who consciously got themselves into an incredibly dangerous and unrescuable situation. I'd fully support sending out normal coast guard searches as we would for a lost boat, for example.
Put differently, if five people took a sailboat out into rough waters and lost contact, would several countries spend tens of millions of dollars looking for the wreckage? If not, then why would we do it for this case?
This is entirely notwithstanding that there's immediate comparable evidence that the S&R was because the passengers were rich, since the coinciding disaster with the refugee boat near greece didn't merit even a fraction of that amount of resource expenditure, so it's pretty hollow to act like this was the normal response.
My point is only that saying “search and rescue is important” doesn’t really work as well when we’re talking about people who consciously got themselves into an incredibly dangerous and unrescuable situation.
When it comes to search and rescue of human beings, the circumstances don't matter. It's a last resort situation - a literal safety net.
Except apparently the circumstances did matter
They absolutely didn't - a resue was attempted.
All the other things I just said do matter.
I could see a good case being made for rules that charge the rescuees a fine or fee if they were doing something knowingly and deliberately stupid that put them into the situation that required rescue, such as trespassing into clearly marked off-limits areas.
Whether this sub counts as that would be a matter for the courts, if such a rule existed.
I believe it's international waters, and there are no laws surrounding submersibles, so I don't think any laws would apply.
If the company can be nailed for gross negligence, I'm all for it, but that's separate from charging for rescue.
The ship it was launched from is under some country's flag, I would expect that that country's laws apply to it. International waters aren't a total legal free-for-all.
Horizon Arctic is flagged to Barbados, so you can commence holding your breath.........now.