OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush acknowledged he had ‘broken some rules’ in Titan sub's manufacturing
"I think it was General MacArthur who said: 'You're remembered for the rules you break,'" Stockton Rush said
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush reportedly acknowledged two years ago that the Titan submersible’s design had"broken some rules." Stockton, along withBritish billionaire Hamish Harding, French diver Paul Henry Nargeolet, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, died after the vessel was destroyed in a catastrophic implosion.
In a 2021 interview with Mexican YouTuber alanxelmundo, Stockton said he wished to be remembered as an innovator. "I think it was General MacArthur who said: 'You're remembered for the rules you break,'" Stockton said. He then said he acknowledges that he had “broken some rules" with the Titan's manufacturing, however, he had confidence that the vessel was safe.
"I think I've broken them with logic and good engineering behind me. Carbon fiber and titanium? There's a rule you don't do that," he told alanxelmundo. "Well, I did."
The Titan’s hull was constructed with aerospace-grade carbon fibre, even though submersible hulls are typically made with solid metals like steel or titanium. Several emails and messages between experts and Stockton went viral after his death, revealing that he dismissed repeated warnings that the submersible was not safe.
"It's picking the rules that you break that are the ones that will add value to others and add value to society," Stockton said. "And that really, to me, is about innovation."
Of his journey into the ocean, Stockton said, “Because this is where we're going to find strange new lifeforms, and the future of mankind is underwater. It's not on Mars, we're not going to have a base on Mars or the moon.”
It recently emerged that Stocktontold a friend in 2019 that he would shut down his company, it has been revealed. Stockton emailed a friend named Karl Stanley, who is an expert in submersibles. Karl had earlier expressed concerns over the safety of the Titan submersible after hearing cracking noises while on a dive in the Bahamas.
Following the tragedy, investigators from the US Coast Guard, the US National Transportation Safety Board, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, the French marine casualties investigation board and the United Kingdom Marine Accident Investigation Branch have been working closely on the probe.