OceanGate CEO’s biggest fear was getting stuck on Titanic tourist sub

OceanGate Expeditions founder and CEO Stockton Rush admitted last year that his biggest fear while conducting tourist trips to the Titanic was being stuck under the ocean aboard his own submersible.

Rush, who is among the five missing aboard the Titan sub, made the confession during a conversation with CBS reporters in late 2022 on the Unsung Science podcast.

Speaking with journalist David Pogue, whose TV feature went viral following Titan’s disappearance on Sunday, Rush claimed there are no safety concerns regarding his sub.

However, that didn’t mean the CEO was fearless when it came to the nearly 13,000-foot dives to the shipwreck.

“What I worry about most are things that will stop me from being able to get to the surface,” he said. “Overhangs, fish nets, entanglement hazards. And, that’s just a technique, piloting technique.

“It’s pretty clear — if it’s an overhang, don’t go under it. If there is a net, don’t go near it. So, you can avoid those if you are just slow and steady.”

It remains unclear if the very thing Rush feared befell the Titan, which disappeared less than two hours after it submerged on Sunday morning. OceanGate said the sub is equipped with 96 hours of oxygen, with the supply expected to run out on Thursday.

During the December 2022 interview with CBS, Rush also defended his assertion that the sub was safe despite Pogue’s repeated questions about the issue.

“You know, at some point, safety just is a pure waste. I mean, if you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed,” Rush said. “At some point, you’re going to take some risk, and it really is a risk/reward question. I think I can do this just as safely by breaking the rules.”

Tourist submersible exploring Titanic wreckage disappears in Atlantic Ocean

What we know

A submersible on a pricey tourist expedition to the Titanic shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean has vanished with likely only four days’ worth of oxygen. The US Coast Guard said the small submarine began its journey underwater with five passengers Sunday morning, and the Canadian research vessel that it was working with lost contact with the crew about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.

Who is on board?

The family of world explorer Hamish Harding confirmed on Facebook that he was among the five traveling in the missing submarine. Harding, a British businessman who previously paid for a space ride aboard the Blue Origin rocket last year, shared a photo of himself on Sunday signing a banner for OceanGate’s latest voyage to the shipwreck. 

Also onboard were Pakistani energy and tech mogul Shanzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman, 19; famed French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush.

What’s next?

“We’re doing everything we can do to locate the submersible and rescue those on board,” Rear Adm. John Mauger told reporters. “In terms of the hours, we understood that was 96 hours of emergency capability from the operator.

Coast Guard officials said they are currently focusing all their efforts on locating the sub first before deploying any vessel capable of reaching as far below as 12,500 feet where the Titanic wreck is located.

While the Coast Guard has no submarine capable of reaching those depths, officials are working around the clock to make sure such a vessel is ready if and when the Titan sub is located.

As of Tuesday afternoon, officials said there was only 40 hours of oxygen left on the Titan.

Mauger, first district commander and leader of the search-and-rescue mission, said the US was coordinating with Canada on the operation.

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In the report, Pogue noted that before embarking on the trip, the waiver included language that made it clear that Titan was an “experimental vessel” that had not been “approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, emotional trauma or death.”

Along with the CBS reports, previous interviews with Rush have surfaced where he appeared to downplay safety concerns about trips to the Titanic with his company’s vessel.

Folow The Post’s live blog for updates in the search for the missing Titanic tourists

He told the Smithsonian Magazine in 2019 that the US submarine industry’s “obscenely safe” regulations had been holding back his “innovations.”

And in 2018, members of the Marine Technology Society collectively warned OceanGate that its experimental designs could lead to “catastrophic” results that could impact the entire industry.