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TITAN sub boss Stockton Rush intended to die at the wreck of the Titanic, his friend has claimed.
The bombshell allegation suggests the OceanGate CEO wasn't simply chasing deep-sea glory, but allegedly orchestrating a high-profile mission designed to etch himself into Titanic legend.
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Karl Stanley, a veteran submersible expert and longtime friend of Rush, made the explosive claim in a new book called Submersed: Wonder, Obsession and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines.
He told author Matthew Gavin Frank: “Rush’s ego was so big, he was willing to die and kill to be pivotal to the character of this story.
“He wanted to go [die] at the wreck [of the 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 now.”
Read more on the Titan Sub
According to Stanley, Rush meticulously planned the doomed voyage as a one-way trip.
The pal described it as a "death dive" in a "futile" submarine that was never intended to return, The Daily Mail reported.
Twelve days after the Titan's catastrophic implosion in June 2023, Stanley messaged Frank via WhatsApp, alleging Rush knew exactly what would happen - and intended for it to.
The friend further claimed the OceanGate boss deliberately named the sub after the fictional British liner Titan — the ship in the 1898 novella Futility, which famously sank in eerily similar circumstances to the Titanic.
The implication, according to Stanley, is that this was no coincidence, but allegedly part of a calculated bid to tie himself to maritime legends.
'What’s that bang?' Chilling moment sound of doomed Titan sub imploding heard from support ship
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In Frank’s telling, Stanley claimed 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.”
He even described the Titan as a “mousetrap for billionaires.”
Asked point-blank if he believed Rush had knowingly killed the other four passengers, Stanley said: “I know this is what happened.”
Those passengers — British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, and renowned Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet — were all killed instantly when the Titan imploded just 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent.
This isn’t the first time concerns have been raised about Rush’s approach to safety.
In 2019, Stanley himself reportedly warned Rush about serious structural issues after a deep test dive in the Bahamas.
During that mission, Stanley recalled hearing ominous “gunshot-like” sounds every few minutes — noises he believed were the sub’s carbon fiber hull buckling under pressure.
“The sounds we observed yesterday sounded like a flaw/defect… being crushed/damaged,” he wrote in an email to Rush.
He urged OceanGate to pause operations until the problem could be investigated.
But Rush allegedly dismissed the warnings.
In an icy reply, he reportedly wrote: “I value your experience and advice on many things, but not on the assessment of carbon fiber pressure hulls…
“I hope you, of all people, will think twice before expressing opinions on subjects in which you are not fully versed.”
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In response, Stanley painted a chilling picture of what could happen: “The worst-case scenario of pushing ahead… involves [Triton Submarines CEO] Patrick Lahey and some Russian oligarch tooling around a Russian nesting dolls version of a wreck site in a made-for-TV special, telling his version of how things went wrong.
“I hope you see option B as unacceptable as I do.”
The boss of the ill-fated submersible was also branded a “psychopath” obsessed with fame by former OceanGate staff, according to a new Netflix documentary exposing the lead-up to the 2023 disaster.
He had reportedly dismissed safety concerns raised by his team, accusing critics of stifling innovation.
Veteran Titanic expedition leader Rob McCallum, who last year told The Sun that the disaster had been “unavoidable,” is featured in the documentary.
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McCallum said he repeatedly warned OceanGate that the Titan was unsafe.
The sub had never been certified or classed, and McCallum urged Rush to allow independent testing — advice he claims was ignored.
He said: “I run an expedition company that had delivered over 1,500 expeditions — we are not cavalier, we manage risk as far as we can.
“So when OceanGate say things like exploration involves risk, yes it does, but that doesn’t give you carte blanche to ignore obvious danger.”
Rush, for his part, reportedly accused those voicing safety concerns of attempting to block technological progress.
How the Titan tragedy unfolded
By Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital)
FIVE men plunged beneath the surface of the North Atlantic in a homemade sub in a bid to explore the Titanic wreckage.
Four passengers paid £195,000 each to go on the sub, with the fifth member of the trip being a crew member.
But what was supposed to be a short trip spiralled into days of agony as the doomed Titan vanished without a trace on June 18, 2023.
The daring mission had been months in the making - and almost didn't happen at the hands of harsh weather conditions in Newfoundland, Canada.
In a now chilling Facebook post, passenger Hamish Harding wrote: "Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023.
"A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow."
It would be his final Facebook post.
The following morning, he and four others - led by Stockton Rush - began the 12,5000ft descent towards the bottom of the Atlantic.
But as it made its way down into the depths, the vessel lost all contact with its mother ship on the surface, the Polar Prince.
It sparked a frantic four-day search for signs of life, with the hunt gripping the entire world.
There was hope that by some miracle, the crew was alive and desperately waiting to be saved.
But that sparked fears rescue teams faced a race against time as the passengers only had a 96-hour oxygen supply when they set out, which would be quickly dwindling.
Then, when audio of banging sounds was detected under the water, it inspired hope that the victims were trapped and signalling to be rescued.
It heartbreakingly turned out that the banging noises were likely either ocean noises or from other search ships, the US Navy determined.
Countries around the world deployed their resources to aid the search, and within days the Odysseus remote-operated vehicle (ROV) was sent down to where the ghostly wreck of the Titanic sits.
The plan was for the ROV to hook onto the sub and bring it up 10,000ft, where it would meet another ROV before heading to the surface.
But any hopes of a phenomenal rescue were dashed when Odysseus came across a piece of debris from the sub around 1,600ft from the Titanic.
The rescue mission tragically turned into a salvage task, and the heartbroken families of those on board were told the devastating news.
It was confirmed by the US Coast Guard that the sub had suffered a "catastrophic implosion".
English (US) · 