@mods resolves no

Bought NO. This seems too tragic and unfunny.

Dumping my NO: Although it “shouldn’t” be a DA, having read some of them, there are certainly less deserving DAs than this one. So there is a good chance it may go in.

Hell no!

A skim of the Darwin Award history suggests they aren't keen on giving awards for events in which other people also died through no fault of their own. They also don't seem to give awards to test pilots, climbers who die on the peak of Mt Everest, etc; it's for people who die in ways that a layperson can relate to and look down on, not for people who die by failing at difficult, highly technical things.

@JamesBabcock I'd argue that getting into a glorified tin can is neither difficult nor technical. Less than Everest at least. It seems to me to be exactly within the "Astoundingly stupid judgement" rule: it is both unique and sensational considering §2 in the waiver they signed and the news coverage.

On Wikipedia the "innocent bystanders cannot be endangered" rule is only listed as in development and not as part of the formal rules. It is not listed on their site.

The only question to me is whether the passengers strictly speaking took an active enough role in "caus[ing] their own demise", but the CEO definitely did.

Titan sub CEO dismissed safety warnings as 'baseless cries', emails show

In the messages, Mr Rush, who was among five passengers who died when the Titan experienced what officials believe was a "catastrophic implosion" on Sunday, expresses frustration with the criticism of Titan's safety measures.

"We have heard the baseless cries of 'you are going to kill someone' way too often," he wrote. "I take this as a serious personal insult."

lol. Lmao

My money's on the CEO; death by hubris. He knew there were safety warnings, presumably ignored them, and died as a result.

As an international search determined the implosion of a vessel setting out for the underwater wreckage of the Titanic, a man who was one of the submersible company’s first customers characterized a dive he made to the site two years ago as a “kamikaze operation.”

...

Newly uncovered allegations suggest that significant safety warnings were made during development of the submersible, dubbed the Titan.

@evergreenemily Can’t hate on him too hard though, at least he had the cajones to board that death trap

@Bobdabiuld Pure embodiment of the award.