Friend of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush says he ‘created a mouse trap for billionaires’ and accuses him of MURDER

• Submarine operator Karl Stanley was one of the first to board the Titan
• He said Rush  ‘definitely knew [the vessel] was going to end like this’
• The experimental submersible that imploded last month on its way to the Titanic wreck, killing all five men onboard, including Rush

A friend of Stockton Rush has claimed the OceanGate CEO designed a ‘mouse trap for billionaires’ and accused him of murdering his clients.

Submarine operator Karl Stanley was a close friend of Rush and one of the first passengers to go on the Titan, the experimental submersible that imploded last month on its way to the Titanic wreck, killing all five men onboard, including the CEO.

Speaking to 60 Minutes Australia, Stanley said Rush ‘definitely knew it was going to end like this’ as he recalled hearing concerning noises during his dive.

‘He quite literally and figuratively went out with the biggest bang in human history that you could go out with,’ he said.

‘Who was the last person to murder two billionaires at once, and have them pay for the privilege?” 

Submarine operator Karl Stanley said OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush designed a ‘mouse trap for billionaires’

Rush’s friend claimed he warned the CEO about an area of the vessel that was cracking

Stanley shared the frantic emails he sent Rush warning him about the hull

https://youtube.com/watch?v=kxud6ZQKmMw%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26start%3D1%26hl%3Den-US

Stanley also suggested Rush was willing to risk his and his clients’ lives in order to ‘go down in history.’ 

He shared how he heard ‘loud gunshot-like noises’ during his descent on the Titan with Rush in 2019 in the Bahamas.

‘That’s a heck of a sound to hear when you’re that far under the ocean in a craft that has only been down that deep once before,’ Stanley told 60 Minutes. 

The submersible expert recalled telling Rush that he believed there was an area of the hull that was breaking down.

Stanley shared the frantic emails he sent Rush warning him about the hull, and said that and that he even ‘painted a picture of his wrecked sub at the bottom.’

‘Even that wasn’t enough’ to convince his friend that the vessel was not safe.

Stanley said he is shifting between grief and anger, because the tragedy, he explained, was both preventable and inevitable. 

He has ‘no doubt’ that the implosion was caused by the ‘the carbon fiber tube’ – the area he warned Rush about.

Tourists Hamish Harding, 58, Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman Dawood, 19, French Navy pilot Paul-Henry (PH) Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush all died on the submersible after it imploded in the middle of the Atlantic on June 18. 

The five passengers started to descend as Rush piloted the vessel. At 9:45am it lost contact with its mothership, the Polar Prince.

He shared how he heard ‘loud gunshot-like noises’ during his descent on the Titan with Rush in 2019 in the Bahamas

Stanley also suggested Rush was willing to risk his and his clients’ lives in order to ‘go down in history’

OceanGate Expeditions took eight hours to report the missing sub to the US Coast Guard after it lost contact.

That led to a massive international response to rescue the five passengers. Ships from across the globe started to make the trek to help search for the missing sub while the hours and estimated oxygen ticked down.

Days later, it was announced the five people aboard the sub were believed to have been killed in a likely implosion.

It was also revealed that a US Navy monitoring system picked up a possible sound of the implosion in the descent – but search efforts continued.

After announcing the death of the five passengers, it was later revealed that debris form the imploded sub was found near the site of the Titanic.

Their investigation started at the end of June, a day after it emerged human remains were found during the recovery mission and segments of the vessel were brought ashore.

French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet (left) was on the sub along with Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate Expedition

Five people had been on board, including British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding (left)  and Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who was just 19

Superintendent Kent Osmond, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said a team of investigators has been established with the ‘sole purpose’ of determining whether a criminal investigation would be warranted.

‘Such an investigation will proceed only if our examination of the circumstances indicate criminal, federal or provincial laws may possibly have been broken,’ he said.

‘Following the US Coast Guard’s announcement earlier this week that debris from the submersible was located and all five on board were presumed dead, we will now look at the circumstances that led to those deaths.

‘Our investigators are engaged and active in this matter as of this morning. Once a determination has been made as to whether or not a full investigation will be launched, we will provide an update at that time.’

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