Rescue Efforts for Wealthy Adventurers Spark Debate Over Who Should Foot the Bill

The recent search for a submersible vehicle lost during a north Atlantic descent to explore the wreckage of the Titanic has raised questions about who should pay for rescue efforts.
The demand for resources for rescues has been spotlighted by wealthy travelers in search of singular adventures who spend big to scale peaks, sail across oceans, and blast off for space.
The U.S. Coast Guard is generally prohibited by federal law from collecting reimbursement related to any search or rescue service, but the larger issue of whether wealthy travelers or companies should bear responsibility to the public and governments for exposing themselves to such risk remains unresolved.
Most officials and volunteers who run search efforts are concerned that if they charged to rescue people, they won’t call for help as soon as they should and by the time they do it’s too late.
While some places have laws commonly referred to as “stupid motorist laws,” in which drivers are forced to foot the emergency response bill when they ignore barricades on submerged roads.