NEWYou can now listen to articles!
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush built the Titan submersible to implode on its dive to the Titanic wreck so he could become part of “Titanic mythology,” a longtime friend claimed, saying it was a “mousetrap for billionaires.”
Karl Stanley, a commercial submersible expert and longtime friend of Rush, made the claim in author Matthew Gavin Frank’s new book, “Submersed: Wonder, Obsession and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines.”
“[Rush’s] ego was so big,” Stanley told Frank, “he was willing to die and kill to be the pivotal character of this story. He wanted to go [die] at the wreck [of Titanic]. The more high-profile, the better. He didn’t just murder four wealthy people and get paid a cool mill to do it—they are all part of the Titanic mythology.”
TITAN SUBMERSIBLE WIDOW SAYS REMAINS OF HUSBAND AND SON CAME BACK IN WHAT LOOKED LIKE SMALL ‘SHOEBOXES’
Stockton Rush and four others died when the Titan imploded. (Netflix)
The Titan lost contact with its support ship on June 18, 2023 while it was descending to see the Titanic wreckage in the North Atlantic, which sparked a multinational search. Debris was found four days later, and officials announced the Titan had imploded, killing all five people onboard: Rush, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Hamish Harding, and Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman.
Passengers paid up to $250,000 to be onboard the Titan.
A U.S. Coast Guard investigation would later determine that the disaster was preventable.
TITANIC SURVIVOR’S LIFE JACKET SELLS FOR OVER $900K AT AUCTION, FAR EXCEEDING PRICE EXPECTATIONS
Frank wrote that Rush’s ambitions went well beyond his own death, saying that the name Titan, which was borrowed from the doomed ocean liner in Morgan Robertson’s 1898 novel “Futility,” was done intentionally. That novel features a fictional British ocean liner named “Titan” that strikes an iceberg, drawing a parallel to the fate of the Titanic.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE FOX TRUE CRIME HUB
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush built the Titan submersible to implode on its dive to the Titanic wreck so he could become part of “Titanic mythology,” a longtime friend claimed. (Netflix)
“According to Stanley, in order to extend, and to be a part of this larger story, Rush needed to compel more than just his own death, and he needed to knowingly fabricate a ‘futile’ vessel, costumed in a titanic name, as his murder weapon,” Frank wrote.
SEND US A TIP
“You believe that Rush knew the sub was going to implode—actually intended it to—and that he killed everyone onboard, himself included, to best become part of the ongoing Titanic mythology?” Frank asked Stanley.
“I know this is what happened,” Stanley said.
LISTEN TO THE NEW ‘CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO’ PODCAST
Stanley also alleged that “most everyone” who worked for OceanGate knew what would happen to the Titan, and “all of them are s——- their pants” after the implosion.
GET BREAKING NEWS BY EMAIL
The Titan lost contact with its support ship on June 18, 2023 while it was descending to see the Titanic wreckage in the North Atlantic, which sparked a multinational search. Debris was found four days later. (Netflix)
Brandi Young, a former federal and state prosecutor, told Digital that a first-degree murder charge would have been difficult to prove because Rush was risking his own life on the dive, saying a manslaughter charge would have been more likely.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE APP
Composite of OceanGate’s vessel and wreckage: at left, the submersible in the water; at right, NTSB images label debris on the ocean floor, including the forward dome, aft dome and rail sections, from June 2023 recovery work. (Becky Kagan Schott; NTSB)
“There’d be an argument to be made that perhaps second-degree murder, showing just reckless, extreme disregard, something that’s heightened over manslaughter, that potentially might be an avenue,” said Young. “You have a lot of direct evidence of just the pure recklessness of someone going forward with complete disregard for the other human life.”
