Titanic Sub Latest: CEO's Former Friend Accuses Him of "Murder" and Calls Titan a "Mousetrap for Billionaires"

The tragedy of the OceanGate Titan continues to captivate the world. As more time passes since the devastating implosion the private submersible and instantaneous death of all those onboard (British businessman Hamish Harding; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son, Suleman; French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet; and Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate) more people continue to come forward, revealing that they expressed concerns about the safety of the vessel. During a new episode of 60 Minutes Australia, a former friend and submarine expert confesses that he isn't surprised about the implosion of the high tech sub, calling it a "mousetrap for billionaires," while another former colleague calls the vessel a "ticking time bomb." 

Karl Stanley, tourist submarine expert and a former friend of the late OceanGate CEO claims people in the industry, including himself, know that OceanGate was doomed from the start. "He definitely knew it was going to end like this," he says in the opening of the show. 

Rush "quite literally and figuratively went out with the biggest bang in human history that you could go out with," Stanley told Amelia Adams. "And who was the last person to murder two billionaires at once and have them pay for the privilege?"

"They were diving in something that was quite literally a ticking time bomb," said submersible expert Rob McCallum, who worked with OceanGate as a consultant early on, but quit when Rush prematurely announced plans for a passenger expedition on the Titan. He added that from "a technical standpoint" he wasn't surprised that the sub imploded, "that's why we tried so hard to prevent it," he said. 

"I think Stockton was designing a mouse trap for billionaires," Stanley, who went down into the ocean on the Titan during a test dive in the Bahamas in 2019. He said there was gunshot-like banging every three-to-four minutes of the dive. "It'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," he said.

Stanley maintains that the noise was the carbon fibre hull slowly cracking. "There's no doubt in my mind that it was the carbon fibre tube that was the mechanical part that failed," Stanley said. Rush used the material so the vessel could hold more passengers.m 

McCallum dubs the late CEO "Completely reckless," in his blatant disregard of following rules. "I mean, it's great fun breaking world records. I mean, I just love it, but they don't count if everybody doesn't make it home." 

While the paid customers onboard signed a waiver that mentioned the word "death" at least nine times, McCallum maintains they never understood what they were signing. "The game changes when you put paying passengers in there because you can't do that unless there is consent and people can't consent to something that they they don't really understand," he said.  

"The only question in my mind, the only question is when," added Stanley when asked if his former friend had a "death wish." "He was risking his life and his customers' lives to go down in history. He's more famous now than anything else he would've ever done."