Titan submersible mastermind Stockton Rush knew the risky venture would end in disaster but went ahead with it anyway because it would protect him from liability, one of his close friends said.
“He knew that this was going to happen eventually and that he wouldn't be held accountable,” Carl Stanley, a longtime friend of Rush's, testified Tuesday at a U.S. Coast Guard investigation into the disaster.
“But he was bound to be the most famous of his famous relatives,” Stanley said, offering a sick, warped view of the mindset of Rush, a descendant of two signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Stanley, himself a commercial submersible specialist, has been friends with Rush for more than a decade, eventually accompanying him on a Titan test dive in 2019. He remembers hearing a loud cracking sound, but Rush dismissed his concerns.
“The definition of an accident is something that happens unexpectedly and completely by chance,” he said. “There was nothing unexpected about this accident. This was something that was anticipated by everybody with access to a little bit of information.”
“And if it wasn't an accident, I think it has to be criminal to some degree. And if it is criminal, I think to really understand it, you have to understand the motive of the perpetrator. The reason this whole operation started is because Stockton had a desire to leave his mark on history,” Stanley said.
Four years after that dive, Rush and four other passengers died when the carbon-fiber hull of their submersible imploded during a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic.
New photos released at a Coast Guard hearing into the disaster show pieces of the destroyed hull found about 1,500 feet from the Titanic's wreckage, which lies about 12,500 feet below sea level in the Atlantic Ocean.
Previous testimony at the hearing had painted a chaotic picture at Rush's company, Ocean Gate, which was perpetually underfunded and routinely ignored obvious problems with its subs in the name of paying bills.
“The whole idea behind this company was to make money,” David Lockridge, Ocean Gate's former general manager, testified Monday. “There was very little science involved.”
Lockridge testified that he tried to point out “egregious” flaws in the submersible's design but was later fired for doing so.
He and others testified that the Titan had constant technical problems and even suffered a dangerous ballast failure during a dive just days before the accident, throwing passengers across the cabin.
Despite these problems, Rush insisted on continuing to dive to cater to paying customers.
The Coast Guard hearing continues through Friday.
