‘Safer than crossing the street’: Titan sub CEO mocked concerns in bid to sell tickets

Canadian authorities will investigate the loss of the Titan sub and five people on-board during a dive to the Titanic wreck this week as a liability waiver against any ‘negligence’ emerges.

Chief Executive and founder of OceanGate Inc Stockton Rush

Canadian authorities said Friday they would launch an investigation into the loss this week of the Titan submersible along with five people on-board during a dive to the Titanic wreck.

The sombre announcement ends a multinational search-and-rescue operation that has captivated the world since the tiny tourist craft went missing in the North Atlantic a week ago.

It comes amid revelations the company’s liability waiver asked passengers to assume “full responsibly” even if company negligence resulted in death.

Meanwhile, submersible experts say the founder of OceanGate, the company that built the Titan submersible, ignored several warnings about its craft and the risks the company was running.

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who perished with four other passengers, has been accused of brushing aside safety concerns in an attempt to fill seats at the last minute.

Chief Executive and founder of OceanGate Inc Stockton Rush has been accused of ignoring safety concerns. Picture: OceanGate

Rush is also said to have mocked safety concerns as “very stupid” in his attempt to sell last-minute discount tickets to the doomed voyage have also emerged.

Those seats ultimately went to Pakistani-British businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, 19.

Rush and the Dawoods, along with French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet and British billionaire Hamish Harding, were crushed to death in milliseconds after the submersible suffered a “catastrophic implosion”.

“I expressed safety concerns and Stockton told me, ‘While there’s obviously risk — it’s way safer than flying in a helicopter or even scuba diving’,” said Jay Bloom, who decided against joining the expedition after his son, Sean, researched the dangers.

“He was absolutely convinced that it was safer than crossing the street.”

The Titan Five are likely to be ‘left at peace’ alongside Titanic passengers, according to rescue experts. Picture: Supplied

Mr Bloom posted a text messages conversation with Rush outlining his son’s fears about what could go wrong on the journey to the Titanic.

“Curious what the uninformed would say the danger is and whether it’s real or imagined,” Rush replied, according to the text message exchange.

After Bloom said he thought the risks, like a sperm whale attack or giant squid, were “really stupid”, Rush agreed.

“Yeah very stupid, the pressure is over 100 million pounds,” he said.

OceanGate’s liability waiver from April 2022, obtained by TMZ, mentions death several times and asks passengers to accept the risks of the voyage.

“I hereby assume full responsibility for the risk of bodily injury, disability, death, and property damage due to the negligence of any Released Party while involved in the operation,” the document states.

While attempting to sell tickets at a discount to fill seats on the Titan, Stockton Rush said in text messages that a potential passenger’s fears were ‘very stupid’. Picture: Supplied

“The experimental submersible vessel has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and may be constructed of materials that have not been widely used in human occupied submersibles” the document adds.

“When diving below the ocean surface this vessel will be subject to extreme pressure, and any failure of the vessel while I am aboard could cause severe injury or death.”

It was unclear whether the document is the same or similar to what would have been signed by the five explorers killed in the tragedy.

The tail cone and landing frame were the first parts of the vessel discovered at the bottom of the Atlantic. Picture: Supplied

Efforts to recover the wreckage are expected to rise into the “millions”, Chris Boyer, the executive director of the National Association for Search and Rescue, told The New York Times.

“These people paid a lot of money to do something extraordinarily risky and hard to recover from,” he said.

Their bodies are likely to remain behind “in a resting place along with hundreds of Titanic passengers”, Constellation Marine Services director Captain John Noble added to Sky News

“The decision may well be to leave them in peace where they are,” he said, adding the implosion will be the “start of a very long path by regulators” to tighten rules around deep-sea exploration.

The catastrophic the implosion of the Titan is expected to launch regulatory changes aimed at tightening rules around deep-sea exploration. Picture: OceanGate Expeditions / AFP

Ofer Ketter, president of submersible safety consultancy SubMerge told Newsweek that the “catastrophic implosion” was likely caused by repeated stress to a carbon fibre hull “just not designed to withstand the pressure that it went down to”.

“In this case of this extreme, catastrophic implosion, there is only one explanation — and that is an engineering fault,” Ketter, who has spent over 20 years making trips, said, adding that the laws of physics “are known” and “don’t change”.

“That means, from an engineering and operational point of view, we know how to do it; it’s not something that needs to be discovered.”

Originally published as ‘Safer than crossing the street’: Titan sub CEO mocked concerns in bid to sell tickets