OceanGate president Stockton Rush had hoped to create a digital map of the Titanic before his tragic passing in the submersible implosion, which also claimed the lives of four others. Photo / Supplied
OceanGate president Stockton Rush had hoped to create a digital map of the Titanic before his tragic passing in the submersible implosion, which also claimed the lives of four others. Photo / Supplied
A message sent from the doomed OceanGate Titan submersible gave false hope when it arrived moments after the vessel had imploded.
New footage shows that Wendy Rush, the wife of OceanGate’s chief executive Stockton Rush, heard a loud bang while on board the support vessel but did not realise whathad happened.
“What was that bang?” she asked, not realising that her husband had just been killed alongside Titan’s four other passengers.
She then received a text message from the sub, which was at a depth of 3300m as it descended to the wreck of the Titanic, saying that it had dropped two weights.
The message reassured Rush that the expedition was proceeding normally, but in reality it took longer to receive than the sound of the implosion.
Rush was joined by Hamish Harding, a British explorer, Henri Nargeolet, a French diver, and Shahzada Dawood, the British-Pakistan businessman who took his son, Suleman, on a visit to the Titanic wreck in June 2023.
The vessel disappeared on June 18 while about 3800m below the surface of the Atlantic.
OceanGate president Stockton Rush had hoped to create a digital map of the Titanic before his tragic passing in the submersible implosion, which also claimed the lives of four others. Photo / Supplied
A four-day search for life ensued, with the eventual discovery of a debris field containing parts of the Titan found about 500m from the bow of the liner.
The sub had suffered a “catastrophic implosion”, instantly killing all those on board.
The footage of Rush, who ran OceanGate with her husband, was recently obtained by the US Coast Guard, which has been investigating the sub’s failure for two years.
It shows her on board the Titan’s support ship, sitting in front of a computer used to communicate with the sub.
The clip was shown in Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster, a BBC documentary, which also revealed the carbon fibre used to build the vessel had started to break down the year before the June 2023 expedition.
Warnings about the safety of Titan’s design were raised before the dive. A former OceanGate employee said a safety incident was inevitable, telling investigators the company had bypassed all standard safety rules.
Titan never went through an independent safety assessment, despite concerns over the carbon fibre used to build the hull.
Warnings about Titan's design safety were raised before the disastrous dive. Photo / Getty Images
The US Coast Guard believes the carbon fibre layers began to break down during a previous expedition – the 80th such dive the sub had made.
Passengers on that dive said they heard a loud bang, which Rush put down to the sub shifting its frame.
But the US Coast Guard now believes it would have been caused by delamination, which involves a material breaking down into thinner layers.
Following the sub’s implosion, its wreckage was scattered across the seabed of the Atlantic, as was Rush’s clothing and business cards.
Christine Dawood, who lost her husband Shahzada Dawood and 19-year-old son Suleman, told the BBC: “I don’t think that anybody who goes through loss and such a trauma can ever be the same.”
An OceanGate spokesman said: “We again offer our deepest condolences to the families of those who died on June 18 2023, and to all those impacted by the tragic accident.
“Since the tragedy occurred, OceanGate permanently wound down its operations and focused its resources on fully co-operating with the investigations. It would be inappropriate to respond further while we await the agencies’ reports.”
