OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush DISMISSED ‘really loud bang’ on prior trip before Titanic sub tragedy

Another clip of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush dismissing past concerns about the deadly Titan submersible has emerged, with the the exec filmed ignoring a ‘really loud bang’ on a prior mission.

Five passengers, including Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood, 58, and his 19-year-old son Suleman were killed during a dive to the Titanic last month. 

In a BBC documentary, only available to view outside the U.S., a crew member warned Rush on camera that they’d heard, in Rush’s words, ‘a really loud bang’ while the Titan was at the ocean’s surface. 

Rush – addressing his entire crew in the 2022 documentary – dismissed the concerns, even though he agreed that it was ‘not a soothing sound, the Independent reported. 

‘Almost every deep-sea sub makes a noise at some point,’ he said pointing to Nargeolet saying that he ‘can attest’ that this was normal.

It was in that same documentary where Rush admitted that he ‘had broken some rules to make’ the Titan and compared himself to US General Douglas MacArthur in doing so. 

‘I’d like to be remembered as an innovator. I think it was General MacArthur who says you’re remembered by the rules you break,’ he said. 

‘I’ve broken some rules to make this. I think I’ve broken them with logic and good engineering behind me.’ 

Concerns from associates and employees have been revealed frequently in the days and weeks since the tragedy. 

Just yesterday, a man who was once a passenger on the Titan claimed that OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush suggested the crew sleep on the vessel overnight while they were stuck at the bottom of the Atlantic.

Jaden Pan’s 2021 expedition took a terrifying turn when the Titan’s battery die just over two hours into its descent to the Titanic wreck on the ocean floor.

Speaking to the BBC last year, the videographer recalled the moment Rush told the passengers that the battery had gone ‘kaput.’

Rush reportedly told passengers they needed to go back to the surface when they were within two football fields’ distance of the legendary ship wreckage.

‘At first, I thought he was joking because we were over two hours into our expedition and so close to the bottom,’ Pan told the BBC.

The crew were pictured smiling arm in arm before they boarded the submersible on the $250,000 per person trip in which they and three others perished. 

Pan’s story has come to light after five passengers, including Rush, were killed during a dive to the Titanic last month

Rush – a self-professed ‘innovator’ who sought to push the boundaries on passenger diving – was one of five died in what proved to be the Titan’s final voyage, after its pressure chamber imploded near the 3800meter depths where the Titanic rests.

He reportedly believed going to the depths of the Atlantic in the Titan was ‘safer than crossing the street’, despite having been warned by dozens of experts in 2018 that his company’s ‘experimental’ approaches could be ‘catastrophic’. 

The safety of the submersible and OceanGate’s dismissal of several warnings has drawn considerable criticism after the Titan went missing during a June 18 dive to the seafloor.

The CEO – who considered himself to be more of a scientist than a salesman despite much of his efforts being focused on marketing the sub trips – was begged in 2019 to suspend operations after a submersible expert heard cracking sounds during one of the Titan’s dives in the Bahamas.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk