Titan CEO Stockton Rush had an hour-long meltdown after he stuck another sub in the wreck of Andrea Doria in 2016, then threw the joystick controller at safety engineer David Lochridge to save them.
- Rush died on June 18, 2023, along with the other four men aboard Titan.
- In 2016 he deposited the submarine in the wreck of the Andrea Doria, another ship
- Eventually engineer David Lochridge got the group to safety but Rush had refused his help for an hour
- Since the Titan disaster, many anecdotes of Rush’s ignorance towards safety have emerged.
Stockton Rush, the CEO of the doomed Titan submarine, once had an hour-long seizure on a previous dive after lodging the ship in another sinking, and threw the joystick controller at a safety engineer to save him.
The anger was reported today for the first time by Vanity Fair.
It took place in 2016 as Rush and a handful of others explored the wreck of the Andrea Doria.
The Andrea Doria sank in 1956 after colliding with another ship. Her wreck lies about 250 feet underwater, not far south of Nantucket.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush is shown aboard the Titan. He died along with the three tourists and the pilot who died when the submarine imploded on June 18.
In 2016, Rush led a group to the wreck of the Andrea Doria but got lodged in her underwater hull. He finally allowed an engineer on board to bring them back to the surface, but only after pressure from his well-paid clients.
Engineer David Lochridge, who was later fired by Rush for continually raising concerns about the Titan’s safety, was on board with a handful of customers.
Rush insisted on steering the ship, Cyclops 1, and landing it near the wreckage.
The engineer, David Lochridge, was eventually fired for raising concerns about Titan and OceanGate
He ignored recommendations on where to land and inadvertently lodged the Titan in the wreckage of the ship.
After a panicky hour, he finally relented and allowed Lochridge to take control of the joystick and guide the group to the surface.
Only after one of the highest paid guests urged him, “Give him the f*****g controller”.
The anecdote further illuminates Rush’s utter refusal to admit his own shortcomings or those of his prized project.
On June 18, he led a group of three tourists to the site of the wreck of the Titanic with French pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77.
The ship imploded underwater, killing the men instantly and triggering a multi-day search and rescue operation.
The search for the submarine consumed the country for several days in June
Since the disaster, a multitude of anecdotes and evidence of Rush’s ignorance of safety and concerns have become public.
He had ignored several warnings from others in the deep-sea community as to why his commercial submarine was unsafe, including from Lochridge, who rescued the team on the 2016 dive.
Lochridge, who had moved from Scotland to Washington state with his family to work for Rush, was eventually fired for raising concerns.
He was also sued by Rush and OceanGate, his company, tried to compel Lochridge to pay his legal fees.
Rush was selling tickets for the Titanic trip for $250,000 per person.
