The US Coastguard has released new footage of Wendy Rush, the wife of OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush, and her chilling words right as the Titan submersible imploded on June 18, 2023.
Wendy was responsible for overseeing the vehicle’s progress from a support ship and reacted to what sounded like a “door slamming.”
Though it is not confirmed, investigators believe this was the exact moment her husband’s submarine was destroyed into pieces.
The wife of OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush asked a chilling question as the Titan submersible imploded
Image credits: Netflix
With a smile on her face, Wendy asked, “What was that bang?” as she turned to a team member behind her.
Just a few moments later, she then received a text message informing her the submersible had dropped two weights — to which Wendy believed it meant the dive was just going as planned.
But as BBC reported, the text may have arrived just before tragedy struck, its arrival being delayed due the sound of the implosion.
Image credits: Netflix
Now, a two-year-long investigation has gone underway by the US Coastguard to dive deeper into what went wrong with the Titan submersible to cause such a catastrophic disaster. The footage of Wendy is currently being used as evidence.
What was supposed to be a seven to nine hour trip in the early summer days of 2023 turned into a disaster, talked worldwide, that ended the lives of all five people on board.
The victims included OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush, adventurer Hamish Harding, father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, and Frenchman Paul-Henri Nargeolet — with Suleman reportedly having begged his father not to take the two of them on the trip.
The passengers had paid to see the Titanic wreck, which lies a whopping 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) below the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean, around 325 nautical miles south-southeast of Newfoundland, Canada. Each ticket was a jaw-dropping $250,000.
“What was that bang?” she asked
Image credits: BBC
Image credits: BBC
Initially, the submarine had lost contact with its support vessel, Polar Prince, at around the one hour and 45 minute mark into its two and a half hour descent. For days, no one knew what had happened to it — and the mystery of the submersible caused worldwide discussions.
While a massive search was conducted, people were brewing up their own theories on what had occurred. Many suspected an implosion, while others believed the Titan had simply malfunctioned but that the five passengers were still alive and running out of oxygen.
Audio footage of patterned bangs were recorded, and a few flocked to social media to give voice to the terrifying thought that those sounds were the desperate pleas of those on board.
The Titan submersible descended to view the Titanic wreck on June 18, 2o23
Four days later, debris fields from the submarine were found on the ocean floor, confirming its implosion.
As reported by Daily Mail, investigators believe the submersible was destroyed approximately 90 minutes into its projected journey. Its wreckage was found about 330 yards (~301 meters) from the bow of the ship.
Image credits: OceanGate
As soon as the fate of the Titan was confirmed, questions were raised by experts regarding the safety of the vehicle before it made its descent as more information was brought to light.
It was revealed that the submersible had been operated by a video game controller with leaders in deep-sea exploration warning Stockton Rush five years prior that his company’s “experimental” methods could end in a “catastrophic” disaster.
David Lochridge, who worked as the Titan project’s director of marine operations, had also expressed his concerns.
But Rush paid no heed to any of this.
The submarine imploded around 90 minutes after it started to descend
Image credits: WFAA / maritimecommons
His response was to slam those worried that these questions regarding the Titan’s safety were “personally insulting” and that the claims that he was “going to k–ll someone” were “baseless.”
He then added that he was “tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation” and saw the regulations as a barrier to his development.
At the end of the day, however, his mistake cost lives. And the wife of Shahzada Dawood and mother of teenage son Suleman is pointing fingers at the “ego and arrogance” that could have easily been avoided.
“I wanted to hear the confidence of the person who built it, who ran the company, but also he surrounded himself with literal experts,” she told BBC. “I mean, one d–ed with them. If you have an expert like this with you, I mean, you don’t doubt.”
Image credits: OceanGate
She continued, “The arrogance of the people in charge when they think that they’re above everything. That really gets to me.
“Why is ego and arrogance more important than safety? The irony is not lost on me that the Titanic sunk for exactly the same reasons.”
Comments blamed Stockton Rush for his carelessness
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