Stockton Rush had been casting around for prominent clients in a “predatory” quest to win their endorsement for his expeditions to the Titanic, industry leaders have said.
OceanGate’s founder, who died with four passengers while piloting Titan, his submersible, to the wreck on the Atlantic seabed, was struggling to make the operation profitable and to recruit clients while respected figures in the exploration community worked desperately to steer them away on safety grounds.
“He could even convince someone who knew and understood the risks . . . it was really quite predatory,” said Patrick Lahey, president of Triton Submarines, a leading manufacturer.
Lahey, who has been involved in the design, engineering, manufacture and testing of undersea vehicles — including 60 human-rated submersibles — was a close friend of Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, the French explorer and Titanic expert, known as PH, who was among those killed.
“It’s a terribly sad thing that his life ended that way but PH knew the risks. I told him in very candid terms why he shouldn’t be out there. He understood. I believe PH thought in some way that by being out there he could help these guys avoid a tragedy but instead he ended up in the middle of one,” Lahey said. “I told PH that going out there in some way sanctioned this operation. I said: ‘You’re becoming an ambassador for this thing; people look at you and your record and the life you lead and things you’ve done, which are extraordinary, and in some ways you are legitimising what [OceanGate] are doing.”
Rush argued that industry certification standards could not keep up with his innovative technology. Experts in the field, however, said that his combination of a cylindrical carbon fibre hull with titanium end caps was a dangerous and debunked one. Filament-wound cylinders were an outdated component of deep-dive vehicles that had been deemed unpredictable by Lloyds Register — a maritime certification body — decades ago, said Lahey, who has 43 years’ experience in the field.
“At the very time this monstrosity was being made, I was building the most capable subs of our age,” he said. They include the Triton 36000/2, the only submersible accredited by an internationally recognised third-party agency to take humans to full ocean depth. It has been to the deepest points in the five oceans. Triton subs have been used in the BBC’s Blue Planet.
Lahey and others who warned people not to go with OceanGate have had messages thanking them.
After getting word of the tragedy, “I sat here with my wife and daughter and we just wept and wept,” he said.
Horizon Arctic, a Canadian vessel carrying a remotely-operated vehicle owned by the US military was conducting mapping and recovery work yesterday at the accident location, 345 miles off Newfoundland, along with a US coastguard vessel.
• I told my friend Hamish: ‘Don’t get on that damn Titan sub’
Hamish Harding, 58, a British explorer and aviator, Shahzada Dawood, 48, a Pakistani-British businessman, and his son Suleman, 19, also died when Titan imploded thousands of metres into its descent to the Titanic on June 18.
Harding’s sons Giles, 15, and Rory, 18, paid tribute to him yesterday. “My dad was a tenacious, hard-working businessman but most importantly he was the best father I could have ever asked for. He inspired me more than anyone will ever know, taught me things I’ll never forget, and he meant everything to me,” said Giles, who had accompanied his father on trips including to the South Pole.
Rory said: “He constantly sought to be the best man he could be and nothing half-way . . . an energetic and charismatic man who by the sheer weight of his personality lifted up an supported everyone around him . . . The world is so much less without his larger-than-life presence.”
Teenager wanted to break Rubik’s Cube record onboard
The teenager who died on the Titan submersible was planning to break a Rubik’s Cube world record while onboard, his mother has revealed (Seren Hughes writes).
Suleman Dawood, 19, had completed his first year at Strathclyde Business School weeks before joining his father, Shahzada, a Pakistani-British businessman, on the vessel.
Suleman had applied to Guinness World Records and Shahzada brought a camera to document the feat.
Christine Dawood said her son carried a Rubik’s Cube with him everywhere and was able to solve the puzzle in just 12 seconds. He vowed to complete it at the site of the Titanic wreck.
Christine and her 17-year-old daughter, Alina, saw off Suleman and Shahzada on the submersible’s support vessel, the Polar Prince, and waited there as the rescue mission progressed.
She had initially planned to do the dive with her husband, but the trip was cancelled due to the pandemic and she let her son go instead. Christine said Suleman “really wanted to go”.
“I was really happy for them because both of them, they really wanted to do that for a very long time,” she said. She remembered her husband’s curiosity and “childlike excitement”.
She said she “lost hope” after the predicted 96 hours of oxygen deadline passed. Christine and Alina returned to land on Saturday and held a funeral prayer on Sunday. The pair plan to learn to finish a Rubik’s Cube and Christine hopes to continue her husband’s work in tribute.
A statement from the family said Suleman loved science fiction literature and volleyball but “his greatest quality” was his humility.
Azmeh Dawood, Shahzada’s older sister, previously told NBC that Suleman had admitted he felt “terrified” about the trip but had gone on the dive as a Father’s Day bonding experience.
