Submersible’s implosion shouldn’t make Titanic off limits: Dick Smith

The company that owned the Titan, OceanGate, has faced scrutiny this week over its decision not to get the vessel independently checked and certified, despite warnings about safety risks. An American scientist who visited the Titanic wreck site in 2000, Michael Guillen, this week said underwater expeditions to the wreck should be shut down until authorities figure out what caused the accident.

Separately from the disaster, billionaires including Tesla boss Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and British entrepreneur Richard Branson have all in recent years invested heavily in space travel ventures.

Loading

Smith, who founded Dick Smith Electronics and was Australian of the Year in 1986, said his general view was that there should be no limits put on risk-taking. He supported the lack of regulation on expeditions such as Musk’s push to have people living on Mars – which he said was a high-risk project that could result in people losing their lives.

“I think you need people who are going to extend the boundaries. Living on Mars is going to be an incredibly risky project, but it should be allowed.”

Smith added he had been approached about diving to the Titanic in a Finnish-built Russian submersible called the Mir, but he declined deeming the endeavour “far too risky” for him.

Smith said the key debate that could be raised by the latest accident was whether adventurers should be allowed to do things that could risk the lives of others, such as rescuers.

His view was that people should be able to take personal risk and he said that when he navigated the world in a helicopter, he had said he did not want people risking their lives to try to rescue him.

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.