In June 2023, privateer sea exploration firm OceanGate sent its Titan submarine to the wreck of the Titanic with four paying customers onboard. The craft experienced a catastrophic failure during the dive, killing every passenger as well as pilot and CEO Stockton Rush. Now, a probe into the disaster has found that Rush once said he had “no desire to die” in a craft he called the “safest thing I will ever do.”
A U.S. investigation into the implosion of the Titan submersible has so far revealed that the craft crashed just days before the disaster and also found that one of the sub’s key engineers was fired after saying he would never ride in the machine. Now, the inquiry has unearthed some quotes from Rush that have aged about as well as Ross from “Friends.”
New papers released as part of the hearing into the disaster by the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation show heated exchanges between Rush and other OceanGate executives regarding the safety of the Titan craft. The craft was constructed from a carbon fiber tube with a titanium cap at each end, it was this design and its use of carbon fiber that was linked to the eventual failure of the sub.
Despite its flaws, the BBC reports that Rush called the sub the “safest thing I will ever do” while arguing with his former director of marine operations, David Lochridge. The transcript of the conversation was released on Friday and comes from a 2018 meeting about safety concerns at OceanGate, as the BBC reports:
The 2018 meeting was recorded, and the transcript captures Mr Lochridge saying: “I am addressing what I view as safety concerns, concerns I have mentioned verbally… which have been dismissed by everybody.”
Stockton Rush was recorded replying: “I’ve listened to them, and I have given you my response to them, and you think my response is inadequate.”
Rush went on to say: “Everything I’ve done on this project is people telling me it won’t work – you can’t do that.”
After telling the meeting attendees that he had no desire to die and that he believed his sub was safe, Rush continued by saying: “I’ve got a nice granddaughter. I am going to be around. I understand this kind of risk, and I’m going into it with eyes open and I think this is one of the safest things I will ever do.”
He then added: “I can come up with 50 reasons why we have to call it off and we fail as a company. I’m not dying. No one is dying under my watch – period.”
Lochridge gave evidence at the inquiry last week, where LBC reports he shared a “quality inspection report,” which highlighted issues he’d uncovered with the controversial design of the submarine. What’s more, Lochridge also claimed that the company was just about making money with “very little in the way of science” at its heart.
It’s for that reason that OceanGate charged upwards of $250,000 for a ride in its experimental sub, which explains why the victims of the disaster included billionaire Hamish Harding and millionaire Shahzada Dawood.
