EXCLUSIVE: Titan Sub CEO’s Friend Claims Rush Wanted to Die at Titanic Wreck to Enter ‘Mythology’

Liberty Check

• CEO’s alleged ego-driven plot sacrificed lives in pursuit of personal fame at historic wreck site
• Preventable disaster exposed reckless disregard for safety protocols and paying customers’ lives
• Taxpayer-funded rescue operations strained resources after privately financed reckless expedition

Stockton Rush, the OceanGate CEO behind the ill-fated Titan submersible, reportedly wanted the vessel to implode at the Titanic wreck site so he could become part of “Titanic mythology,” according to a longtime friend.

Karl Stanley, a commercial submersible expert, made the stunning claim in author Matthew Gavin Frank’s new book, “Submersed: Wonder, Obsession and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines.”

“[Rush’s] ego was so big,” Stanley told Frank, “he was willing to die and kill to be the pivotal character of this story. He wanted to go [die] at the wreck [of 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.”

The Titan lost contact with its support ship on June 18, 2023, while descending to the Titanic wreckage in the North Atlantic. Debris was found four days later, confirming the vessel had imploded and killed all five people onboard.

Passengers paid up to $250,000 for the doomed voyage. A U.S. Coast Guard investigation later determined the disaster was preventable.

Frank wrote that Rush’s ambitions extended beyond his own death. The name Titan was borrowed from Morgan Robertson’s 1898 novel “Futility,” which featured a fictional British ocean liner named “Titan” that strikes an iceberg — a parallel to the real Titanic’s fate.

“According to Stanley, in order to extend, and to be a part of this larger story, Rush needed to compel more than just his own death, and he needed to knowingly fabricate a ‘futile’ vessel, costumed in a titanic name, as his murder weapon,” Frank wrote.

“You believe that Rush knew the sub was going to implode — actually intended it to — and that he killed everyone onboard, himself included, to best become part of the ongoing Titanic mythology?” Frank asked Stanley.

“I know this is what happened,” Stanley said.

Stanley also alleged that “most everyone” who worked for OceanGate knew what would happen to the Titan, and “all of them are s—ting their pants” after the implosion.

Brandi Young, a former federal and state prosecutor, told Fox News Digital that a first-degree murder charge would have been difficult to prove because Rush was risking his own life on the dive, saying a manslaughter charge would have been more likely.

“There’d be an argument to be made that perhaps second-degree murder, showing just reckless, extreme disregard, something that’s heightened over manslaughter, that potentially might be an avenue,” said Young. “You have a lot of direct evidence of just the pure recklessness of someone going forward with complete disregard for the other human life.”

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