That must have happened much later, because employees at his company complained about it and that’s been documented. But okay, let’s say that point is debatable: The real issue - that the submarine can no longer be controlled during a power outage - still stands.
I postet an argument right away - maybe you didn’t see it right away because of the edit:
“I don’t think anyone would board a passenger plane if the pilot had only ONE wireless controller, instead of the current setup: dual and mechanical - so it also works during a power outage failure.”
Would you agree or disagree with that? You’re welcome to adjust this to “two controllers” - the focus is on power outages and wireless connections.
Just to reiterate and to keep the arguments separate:
That was precisely the issue they faced - they were unable to shed the weight. Not on the day of the accident, but before the event. Consequently, they became stranded and completely unable to move. I don’t know how long that lasted; I’d have to look it up. In fact, they should have died months before the accident. It took them what felt like an eternity - as I said, I don’t know the exact number - to finally get rid of the ballast. I hardly need to tell that they ran out of air to breathe. There were already paying passengers on board.
That was the day they thought they were all going to die. Some engineers left the company as a result - not just because of that, but that was part of it. Only one person had no concerns: the founder.