Court documents released by the U.S. Coast Guard have shed light on the tragic 2023 Titan submersible disaster, revealing that Stockton Rush, the CEO and co-founder of OceanGate, believed the vessel was completely safe despite internal concerns. Rush was one of five people killed when the submersible, which was on a mission to explore the Titanic wreck in the North Atlantic, imploded during its journey last year.

The documents, part of an ongoing investigation, reveal that Rush had insisted on participating in test dives, saying it was "one of the safest things I will ever do." In conversations with his employees, Rush assured them he trusted the submersible’s design, even though multiple staff members had flagged safety issues.

Internal Concerns Ignored

According to Guillermo Sohnlein, a co-founder of OceanGate who left the company in 2013, Rush had been adamant about piloting the submersible himself, telling colleagues he didn't "want anybody else on that sub" in case of an accident. "If anything happens, I want it to only impact me," Rush had said, expressing his belief in the vessel’s safety.

However, the company’s former operations director, David Lochridge, painted a starkly different picture. Lochridge said Rush had panicked during a previous dive due to his lack of experience and ignored warnings about flaws in the submersible's design. Lochridge claimed he raised concerns with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration after being fired for confronting Rush but was pressured into dropping his case.

A Preventable Tragedy?

Lochridge insisted that if OceanGate had been properly investigated, the Titan tragedy might have been prevented. "I'm not dying. No one is dying under my watch," Rush reportedly told Lochridge. Yet, despite these confident assertions, the submersible met a tragic fate, killing everyone aboard.

The hearing into the fatal dive continues this week, with the U.S. Coast Guard gathering testimony from technical experts and crew members to determine why the mission failed.