Titan Sub CEO Stockton Rush Planned to Kill Himself on Deadly Dive, Friend Claims

Stockton Rush may have had a deadly plan in mind before embarking on the doomed Titan submersible expedition.

The OceanGate CEO, who masterminded the 2023 voyage to the Titanic wreckage, reportedly planned to kill himself during the fatal dive, according to a claim by his close friend, Karl Stanley.

In a new report from the Daily Mail, 52-year-old Stanley — an expert in commercial submersibles himself — told Matthew Gavin Frank for his new book, Submersed: Wonder, Obsession and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines, that Rush, who was reportedly related through marriage to Titanic victims Isidor and Ida Straus, was determined to etch his name into the Titanic’s mythology, even if that meant taking a few people down with him.

“Rush’s ego was so big, he was willing to die and kill to be pivotal to the character of this story,” Stanley claimed, per the outlet. “He wanted to go [die] at the wreck [of the Titanic]. The more high-profile, the better. He didn’t just murder four wealthy people and get paid a cool mill to do it — they are all part of the Titanic mythology now.”

As Globe previously reported, the Titan submersible imploded under the immense pressure of the deep North Atlantic Ocean on June 18, 2023, while descending to the wreckage of the Titanic, killing all five people aboard. In addition to Rush, the victims included British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman.

According to the Daily Mail, just 12 days after the Titan imploded, Stanley messaged Frank on WhatsApp, chillingly claiming that the millionaire engineer had known all along it would be the sub’s final trip.

Per Stanley, Rush named the doomed sub after the fictional British ocean liner Titan in Morgan Robertson‘s 1898 novella Futility. In the book, the ship meets a similar fate to the Titanic, sinking in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg 14 years before the famous ship.

In order to be a part of the Titanic’s folklore, Stanley claimed that “Rush needed to compel more than just his own death”; he needed to “fabricate a ‘futile’ vessel, costumed in a titanic name, as his murder weapon.”

Calling the sub “a mousetrap for billionaires,” Stanley remained firm when asked if he believed Rush truly intended to kill everyone on board: “I know this is what happened.”

Stanley claims he warned Rush about potential safety issues years before the fatal expedition, however.

After joining him on a 2019 test dive, Stanley raised concerns about gunshot-like noises coming from the sub, fearing that the hull was buckling under the pressure. He urged Rush to postpone any Titanic dives until the issue could be investigated, but Rush was quick to push back on any criticisms of his beloved submersible.

“I value your experience and advice on many things, but not on the assessment of carbon fiber pressure hulls… I hope you, of all people, will think twice before expressing opinions on subjects in which you are not fully versed,” Rush wrote in an alleged heated email exchange between the pair.

Stanley reiterated his claims during the U.S. Coast Guard’s inquiry into the disaster last year, the Daily Mail reports, testifying that Rush knew the Titan would eventually meet a catastrophic end and believed he would cement his place in history by doing so.

“He knew that eventually it was going to end like this and he wasn’t going to be held accountable,” Stanley said.

OceanGate declined to comment.