Sounds like Rush was one of those risk takers and visionaries. These sorts of people hold themselves up as beacons of light and others do too until the risk taking catches up.
I remember I had a boss that liked some book they read about one of these sorts of people. My boss even had the company buy each of us a copy to read. I skipped it. What I remember though was the the guy died while doing one of their risky things maybe 6 months later. Just thought it was classic. Guy held up as an example by people in authority shows how stupid those people are by getting himself killed.
When things are going well, so many feel like the person avoiding or mitigating risk is silly and dramatic, and the person running headfirst into that risk is brave and rational. Then, when something awful like this happens, it’s always, “No one could have predicted this tragedy!” and they learn nothing.
Stockton Rush, the former CEO of Oceangate held a patent on a system that would listen for cracking of the hull that would warn of hull failure, I wonder how it worked out for him.
Say what you want about the guy. He was confident enough to convince others and hubris fucked him hard. No human deserves to die, but there should be consequences if your this fucking delusional.
Since the 1990's I've known people who ride around in old VW's because they were cool. They are not overbuilt and rust is a real problem, but I don't see people worry when 4 people are in the car. I see 6 people in the back of a pickup truck on a regular basis. People will do very risky things on wheeled transportation with high death rates. But when it comes to airplanes, they are hyper concerned about safety. I think people worry too much about the way they are gong to die or the details of a person's last week alive. Makes them ignore the risks in front of them, like car wrecks.