OceanGate Co-founder Calls Out James Cameron For His Criticism Of Titan Submersible

The co-founder of OceanGate, ​Guillermo Söhnlein, has spoken out in defense of the late Stockton Rush. Söhnlein criticized "Titanic" director James Cameron for his statements on the submersible tragedy. He said the media reports are wrongly based on words from Cameron and a few others.

Cameron has emphasized that the carbon fiber material used for the Titan submersible is widely known as unsafe. Söhnlein challenged the famous director by saying he "knows nothing about OceanGate."

Keep on reading to learn more.

​Guillermo Söhnlein, the co-founder of OceanGate, has responded to the company's criticism amid its Titan submersible tragedy. While speaking to Insider, he criticized "Titanic" director James Cameron, who blamed the company's poor safety procedures for the disaster.

Söhnlein claimed that "the media's whole spin on how unsafe [the expedition] was is based on David Lockridge, Will Kohnen from Marine Technology Society, Jim Cameron, who knows nothing about this stuff … and Karl Stanley. Four people."

He added that Cameron is "a very experienced ocean explorer and a sub guy himself, but knows nothing about OceanGate and that stuff." 

The Titan tragedy happened when a submersible that went missing on June 18th reportedly imploded, killing all five passengers onboard.

Stockton Rush, the owner of the company, was one of the passengers who died, along with British billionaire Hamish Harding, British-Pakistani father and son Shahzada Dawood, and Suleman Dawood, and French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

Söhnlein, a 58-year-old Argentine-American businessman, co-founded the OceanGate expedition company in 2009 alongside the late Rush.

After it was confirmed that the submersible had imploded, several people revealed that they'd warned Rush about the Titan's safety. Kohnen, the chairman of the Marine Technology Society, reportedly sent Rush a letter saying he'd misled the public about the submersible meeting industry safety standards.

Stanley, an expert on submersibles, also revealed that he'd taken a test trip in the Titan in 2019x and had concerns about its safety at the time. He said Rush was "designing a mouse trap for billionaires." Lochridge, meanwhile, was fired from OceanGate after he reportedly raised concerns that they hadn't performed "non-destructive testing" on the Titan's hull.

However, Söhnlein has insisted that the four men's criticism is a "vocal minority." He said, "Over 15 years, that company's probably employed like 200 and has dived dozens of people. And you're only hearing from four people." He claimed that hundreds of others " aren't speaking up who disagree with those four."

One of Cameron's significant criticisms of the Titan submersible was its carbon fiber design. The celebrated deep sea explorer said carbon fiber is widely known as unsafe material in the deep sea diving community. During a recent interview with Times Radio, Söhnlein agreed with Cameron's statement that the deep sea diving community is small.

He said, per Daily Mail, "We all know each other. I think, in general, we all respect each other. But as you would expect in this kind of community, there are completely different opinions about how to do things - how to design submersibles, how to engineer them, how to operate in the dives."

However, he emphasized that all the experts that have spoken out since the tragedy, including him, have no actual knowledge. He said, "None of us were involved in the subs' design, engineering, or testing. So no one can speculate from the outside."

In his Times Radio interview, Söhnlein also called out Cameron and the other experts for saying OceanGate was reckless. He said he was involved in developing the company's submersibles early and knew for sure that they were "extremely committed to safety and risk mitigation."

Söhnlein also defended Stockton from the criticisms of his decision to use carbon fiber for the submersible. He said, "The world only had one foremost expert on using carbon fiber to go in the deep oceans, and he's gone now."

Regardless of his claims, Cameron has insisted the submersible had "three potential failure points." He said the decision to use carbon fiber for the hull and cylinder was the "Achilles heel" of the Titan.