OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who died in the Titan submersible tragedy, allegedly wanted to die at the Titanic wreck site and become part of the ship’s mythology. Rush's longtime friend Karl Stanley told this to author Matthew Gavin Frank for his new book, “Submersed: Wonder, Obsession and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines", as reported by the New York Post. “He was in fact a good engineer, and that machine did exactly what he designed it to do … He set a new standard for going out with a bang,” Stanley reportedly claimed.
The Titan imploded on June 18, 2023, during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic. All five people aboard died, including Rush, French underwater explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood.
Stanley, who had known Rush for more than a decade, alleged that the OceanGate chief was driven by a desire for notoriety and knowingly pursued a dangerous course. He described Rush as a “madman” who could manipulate people around him, arguing that his ambitions may have influenced decisions leading up to the fatal expedition.
“He wanted to go [die] at the wreck [of Titanic],” Stanley said, suggesting that Rush wanted to secure a place in the history surrounding the Titanic.
“Rush’s ego was so big 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],” Stanley reportedly told Frank just days after the Titan implosion.
“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 allll part of the Titanic mythology now.”
Stanley said he believed Rush had planned to die during the expedition. He went further, suggesting that the circumstances surrounding the submersible’s design and operation could amount to deliberate wrongdoing.
“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,” Stanley alleged.
Carbon-fibre hull raised safety concerns
The Titan used an unconventional cylindrical hull made partly of carbon-fibre composite, a design that drew scrutiny following the disaster. The submersible was developed to carry paying passengers to the Titanic wreck, which lies nearly 3,800 metres beneath the ocean’s surface.
Stanley said he had concerns about the vessel’s structural integrity after joining Rush on a test dive in 2019. He recalled hearing loud cracking noises during the dive, which he said Rush dismissed.
His account added to questions about how OceanGate assessed the submersible’s safety and responded to concerns about its performance under extreme pressure.
The connection between the Titan and a fictional ship
The name Titan also carried a literary connection. Morgan Robertson’s 1898 novella 'Futility' features a fictional ocean liner called Titan that strikes an iceberg and sinks. The story is often compared with the real-life sinking of the Titanic in 1912 because of similarities between the fictional vessel and the historic ship.
Stanley suggested that Rush’s desire for recognition was central to his actions, portraying the expedition as part of a larger narrative in which the OceanGate chief wanted to become associated with the Titanic’s history.
What the US Coast Guard had said earlier
The US Coast Guard had launched its highest-level investigation following the Titan’s implosion in June 2023 in the North Atlantic, off the coast of Canada. In its report, the Coast Guard concluded that OceanGate’s operational failures were the primary cause of the Titan submersible disaster and that the implosion was preventable.
In a 335-page report, the Coast Guard said Stockton Rush ignored critical data before the vessel imploded and identified serious shortcomings in OceanGate’s safety practices and workplace culture. The report found that Rush’s negligence contributed to the deaths of those aboard the submersible.
Rush, who piloted the Titan during its fatal dive, “exhibited negligence that contributed to the deaths of four individuals,” the report stated. It also identified evidence of a potential criminal offence and said that, had Rush survived, the Coast Guard would have recommended that the US Department of Justice consider a separate criminal investigation.
The disaster prompted lawsuits and renewed calls for stricter safety regulations governing the private deep-sea exploration industry, particularly companies offering commercial expeditions to extreme ocean depths.