"He definitely knew it was going to end like this."

Sub Standard

In a bonkers interview with the Australian version of "60 Minutes," a sub operator purporting to be a friend of the late OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush made a bunch of outlandish statements that seemed to accuse the deceased of gross negligence — if not outright knowing the sub was doomed to catastrophically fail.

"I think Stockton was designing a mousetrap for billionaires," tourist sub operator Karl Stanley told "60 Minutes Australia" as part of that show's investigation into the Titan submersible's tragic implosion earlier this year.

Stanley told the Australian broadcaster that he'd previously gone on the Titan with Rush during its maiden test voyage back in 2019 and tried to warn him of the issues they encountered down below.

"I would say every three to four minutes there [were] loud gunshot-like noises," he said. "It's a heck of a sound to hear when you're that far under the ocean. And [in] a craft that has only been down that deep once before."

Hear No Evil

Though the Bahamas-based sub operator says he warned Rush repeatedly that he thought the Titan's carbon fiber hull was breaking down and "only going to get worse," his concerns about what he called an "inevitable" tragedy were ignored like those raised by so many others.

"He definitely knew it was going to end like this," Stanely said. "Who was the last person to murder two billionaires at once and have them pay for the privilege?"

While some of his rhetoric in the interview tended towards hyperbole — "he quite literally and figuratively went out with the biggest bang in human history that you could go out with" is another particularly choice quote — Stanley's comments are nevertheless chilling.

In an industry built on adventure, some dramaticism is expected — though in the case of the Titan, it appears that the hysterics were more than warranted.

More on OceanGate-gate: Yacht Broker Attempting to Sell Leftover OceanGate Submersible


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