Ambitious CEO of a diving company watching the wreck of Titanic

Stockton Rush founded the ocean floor exploration company OceanGate Expeditions because it believed that this would be the place where humans would live in the future, not Mars.

Stockton Rush - CEO of ocean floor exploration service provider OceanGate Expeditions - was one of five people on board the submersible that went missing in the Atlantic Ocean on June 18. This ship, called Titan, is operated by OceanGate and is doing a tour of the wreck of the Titanic.

Rush founded OceanGate in 2009, headquartered in Washington (USA). He turned his passion for exploring the ocean floor into a business model because he realized this place was much more accessible than space. Rush wants to do the same thing tech billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are doing with aerospace.

"One of the reasons I started this company is that I don't understand why we have to spend 1,000 times more money to explore the universe, when we can explore the oceans. The ocean is not private to anyone, and it's not the same. a lot to explore," he said at a conference held in Seattle last year.

In 2021, Rush also asserted that if the latter cannot live on the Earth's surface, "the future of humans will be underwater, not on Mars".

Stockton Rush (left) in an OceanGate submersible 2013. Photo: AP

OceanGate begins to open a tour to see the wreck of the Titanic at a cost of about 250,000 USD per person from 2020. 2021, Rush completes the first Titanic wreck. "Like space tourism, we saw this as an opportunity to help the rich get access to a shipwreck," he said on a radio show in Detroit at the time. In 2022, the Titan made 10 such dives within a few weeks.

Adventure tourism is considered a high-risk business, but with attractive returns. With enough money, visitors can go to the top of Everest, go to space or dive to the bottom of the ocean. "Money is not an issue for the super-rich. They care more about the experience. They want something they will never forget," Nick D'Annunzio - TARA communications director said on CNN .

Over the years, the 61-year-old engineer and explorer has both helped the world learn about the ocean floor and earned income from wealthy tourists. Still, Rush says the company is not yet profitable, because fuel is expensive and other costs are high.

In an interview in the New York Times in 2022, he explained: "For those who think that $250,000 is expensive, this is only a fraction of the cost of going to space. We also spent a lot of money. money to get a submersible and go down there. There are a lot of people who don't like to give other people money. But they forget the fact that that's the only way to get things done in this world."

Born into a wealthy family in San Francisco, Rush studied aerospace engineering at Princeton University. He later earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley.

Stockton Rush (left) and the diving team in 2021. Photo: OceanGate Expeditions

Rush's passion for exploration appeared very early. At the age of 14, he got his diver's license. At the age of 19, he became the youngest jet transport pilot in the world, according to information on the OceanGate website. He also flew around the world while working for Saudi Arabian Airlines and later as a flight test engineer.

"He lived the life any boy would want. I felt like I was working with Henry Ford," Reiss told the WSJ .

Rush has dreamed of space travel for many years and wants to be a passenger on a commercial flight into space. But in 2004, he changed his mind when British billionaire Richard Branson sent the first group of passengers into space.

"I realized this is not all I want to do. I don't want to go into space as a passenger. I want to be a captain and an explorer," he told Smithsonian magazine in 2019 .

When he founded OceanGate in 2009, Rush said the company bought a tourist submersible in New Zealand. In 2015, they launched a submersible that can go down to a depth of 490m. Then the Titan appeared, capable of reaching a depth of 4,000m, enough to reach the wreck of the Titanic.

Rush said that like space exploration, diving to the bottom of the sea also has many great challenges, such as the hull having to withstand great pressure. "It was a technical challenge. But once that was done, I think the risk was greatly reduced. Of course, nowadays, nothing is without risk," he said on the show. in Detroit in 2021.

Rush had to cancel a visit to the wreck of the Titanic in 2018 when his submersible was struck by lightning, damaging the electrical system. The trip in 2019 was also unsuccessful because the mother ship used to transport visitors and the submersible had problems.

OceanGate has also faced numerous complaints in the submersible industry, for failing to independently verify Titan's safety. In 2018, the Ship Technology Association sent a letter to OceanGate warning that the company's decision could lead to catastrophic errors. Will Kohnen - President of the association said that most submersible manufacturers hire a third party to check to ensure consistency between design and production.

In 2019, OceanGate said this process was not enough to ensure safety, in part because the company operating the submersible was not necessarily following the correct procedure. Kohnen also said that after receiving the letter, Rush also told him the process would stifle creativity.

Rush has always emphasized the company's breakthrough. "If you don't break things, you can't be creative," he told a conference last year.

He also said he was willing to drop the design that he was concerned about. If on the second test dive the cracking sounds don't subside, "we'll throw it away, start over, build another one".

"Stockton is very proud of his submersible design," said Joseph Wortman, who took part in the 2021 Titanic wreck aboard the Titan. Rush once circumnavigated the United States on the Titan, to attract attention with his explorations of the seabed.

In an interview with CBS in December 2022, he said that while OceanGate adheres to strict safety regulations, "it's always limited." "If you want to be safe, don't get out of bed, don't get out of the car, don't do anything. At some point, you take risks for rewards," he explained.

Some passengers on previous OceanGate expeditions said Rush's care gave them peace of mind, even signing a disclaimer if they died during the trip. "I've never met anyone with such attention to detail. I have faith in him," said Mike Reiss, one of the creators of the popular animated series The Simpsons, while participating in the dive. sea ​​aboard the Titan last year.

Craig Sopin - an employee of the Titanic International Society, an association specializing in the study of Titanic, said that although not the one who came up with the idea to visit the Titanic, Rush contributed to the expansion of this tourist destination. "He wanted the whole world to be able to see Titanic," Sopin said.

Filmmaker David Waud toured the Titanic with Rush in 2021. He describes Rush as a visionary. Rush finds joy in reaching the bottom of the ocean and wants to share the experience with others.

"When he came back to shore, he used to lean back and sleep. But on the way down, he talked to all of us because everyone was so excited," Waud said.

Ha Thu (according to WSJ)

How did the Titan submersible go missing?
The Titan submersible with 5 people was lowered into the Atlantic Ocean by the mother ship on the morning of June 18 to visit the Titanic wreck, but lost contact after 1 hour 45 minutes, with enough oxygen for 96 hours.  250

Possible causes for the disappearance of the Titan submersible
Experts believe that the submersible Titan may have technical problems or damage to the hull leading to disappearance when visiting the Titanic wreck.