Oceangate CEO’s wife asks chilling question after Titan submersible implosion

The wife of Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush unknowingly heard the moment her husband died when the Titan submersible imploded.

New footage released by the US Coastguard shows Wendy Rush monitoring the sub’s progress from a support ship during its doomed descent on June 18, 2023.

The Titan submersible was attempting to reach the wreck of the Titanic 3,700metres below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean – but it imploded about an hour-and-a-half into the journey, killing all five people on board.

As well as Mr Rush, adventurer Hamish Harding, father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, and Frenchman Paul-Henri Nargeolet died on board the sub. They had paid to see the Titanic wreck.

The new footage shows Wendy reacting to a noise which has been described as sounding like a door slamming.

Chillingly, she turned and asked a colleague ‘what was that bang?’ with a smile, not realising she had just heard the moment of her husband’s death.

Wendy received a text message moments later, telling her the sub had dropped two weights, which meant she initially assumed the dive was going as planned.

But the message was actually sent just before the implosion – and by the time it arrived everyone on board the sub was already dead, the BBC reports.

The footage forms part of the US Coastguard’s two-year investigation into the Titan’s failure, and comes months after audio capturing the sub’s final moments was published.

An international hunt was launched after the sub lost contact with its support vessel, and the wreckage was found days later about 300metres off the bow of the Titanic.

Last September, the US Coastguard held public hearings to question company executives over what could have gone wrong and caused the sub to implode.

Since the implosion, Oceangate has suspended its operations and currently has no full-time employees. It said it has fully cooperated with investigations into the Titan disaster.

The release of the footage comes as Netflix releases a trailer for its own documentary on the sub implosion, titled TITAN: The Oceangate Disaster.

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