OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush’s “close friend” called the Titan submersible a “mouse trap for billionaires” during an interview with “60 Minutes Australia,” claiming that the deep-sea explorer “definitely knew it was going to end like this.”
“He quite literally and figuratively went out with the biggest bang in human history that you could go out with, and, who was the last person to murder two billionaires at once, and have them pay for the privilege?” said Karl Stanley during the Sunday interview.
The submarine operator went on to describe that even as one of the first passengers on the Titan, there were major red flags.
During a test dive descent with Rush in the Bahamas in 2019, Stanley explained how he heard “loud gunshot-like noises” every few minutes—a frightening sound to hear “when you’re that far under the ocean in a craft that has only been down that deep once before.”
Stanley’s concern was that there was “an area of the hull that [was] breaking down,” which he said would only worsen. His friend ignored the advice, however.
“I literally painted a picture of his wrecked sub at the bottom and even that wasn’t enough,” Stanley said.
“He was risking his life and his customers’ lives to go down in history. He’s more famous now than anything else he would have ever done,” he added.
Karl Stanley is a tourist submarine operator who was friends with OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush. Stanley had previously travelled on the doomed Titan in a test dive.
— 60 Minutes Australia (@60Mins) July 16, 2023
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In addition to Rush, four passengers died after the submersible imploded within hours of descending: Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood, British billionaire Hamish Harding, and French deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet.