Chilling promise Titan boss made before sub imploded on Titanic voyage killing all five onboard
A chilling eight-word promise was made by Stockton Rush, the boss of OceanGate, before the ill-fated Titan submersible implosion that killed all five onboard.
Rush himself was among the five who perished in the implosion, which happened during a deep sea underwater expedition to see the Titanic wreck on the floor of the North Atlantic Ocean.
Paul-Henri Nargeolet, French deep-sea explorer and Titanic expert, also died alongside British businessman Hamish Harding and Pakistani-British businessman, Shahzada Dawood. Dawood's son, Suleman, was on board with his father and also lost his life during the incident.
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Contact with the Titan vessel was lost one hour and 45 minutes into its dive in to the North Atlantic, with it then later not resurfacing at its scheduled time.
Authorities were told of the missing submersible, with a debris field that contained parts of Titan found four days later roughly 500 metres from Titanic.
It was confirmed that the pressurised hull containing the five passengers had imploded during the descent, with all five people losing their lives instantaneously.
Now, a transcript has been released from five years before the fatal trip took place in which Rush made a now-eerie promise regarding those who use his private sector submersibles.
The transcript, from a meeting between Rush and former director of marine operations, David Lochridge, captures a heated exchange.
He says: "I am addressing what I view as safety concerns, concerns I have mentioned verbally... which have been dismissed by everybody."
Lochridge had raised safety concerns, the log states, with Rush responding: "I have no desire to die... I think this is one of the safest things I will ever do.
"I've got a nice granddaughter. I am going to be around.
"I understand this kind of risk, and I'm going into it with eyes open and I think this is one of the safest things I will ever do."
He later says: "I've listened to [the safety concerns] and I have given you my response to them, and you think my response is inadequate."
Rush later said eight chilling words to Lochridge, with the log from January 2018 recording: "No-one is dying under my watch - period."
The log has been released as part of the ongoing investigation in to what happened to Titan, with the US Coast Guard making it public as part of the inquiry in to the disaster that took place back in June 2023.
Since the implosion, OceanGate has suspended all of its future exploration operations as well as commercial dealings.
A two-week hearing is being held by the coast guard.
During this time, it is hoped that investigators can reveal exactly what happened in the lead-up to the fatal incident.
Critically, they want to know how to avoid this happening again going forward.
Speaking to the inquiry last week, former OceanGate employee Lochridge said: "That meeting turned out to be a two-hour, 10-minute discussion… on my termination and how my disagreements with the organisation, with regards to safety, didn't matter."
After quitting OceanGate, Lochridge took his concerns to the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration; a body which failed to act, he alleges.
He told the inquiry that had it investigated OceanGate properly, the tragedy would never have happened.
Topics: Titan Submersible, Titanic, World News, US News
Tom Earnshaw