Titan Pilot is a driver of deep-sea tourism

Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions and one of five occupants of the submarine that went missing in the North Atlantic this week, has advocated for deep-sea tourism despite criticism.

His company continued its tours despite the “unanimous concern” expressed by three dozen industry leaders in 2018. In an interview last year, he told The New York Times that high-resolution images collected during the Titanic tours could benefit researchers.

“No public entity will fund a return to the Titanic,” said Mr. Rush. “There are other sites that are newer and probably of greater scientific value.”

In the interview, he defended the price tag – seats in the Titan cost up to $250,000.

“For those who think it’s expensive, it’s a fraction of the cost of going to space, and it’s very expensive for us to get these ships and go there,” said Mr. Rush, who founded OceanGate in 2009. And the people who don’t like someone making money miss the fact that that’s the only way anything in this world gets done.

According to some, Mr. Rush has been a charismatic proponent of underwater travel. Mike Reiss, a writer and producer of “The Simpsons”, who took a trip in another OceanGate submarine piloted by Mr. Rush compared him to Henry Ford and the Wright brothers on Tuesday, describing him as “a magnetic man.” who is “the last of the great American dreamers.”

Craig Howard, an old friend of Mr. Rush, said Tuesday that Mr. Rush, just before leaving Newfoundland for the Titanic site, told him he was excited about this year’s dives.

“And there was always a ‘next dive,'” he said.

Mr. Rush is a descendant of two signers of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton. According to his business biography, he graduated from Princeton in 1984 with a degree in aerospace engineering. In 1989, he personally built an experimental aircraft that he continues to fly, the company said.

In a segment on “CBS Sunday Morning” which aired in November 2022, Mr. Rush told the interviewer, David Pogue, that he grew up wanting to be an astronaut and, after graduating, a fighter pilot.

“I had an epiphany that I didn’t want — it wasn’t about going to space,” said Mr. Rush. “It was about discovering. It was about finding new life forms. I wanted to be like Captain Kirk. I didn’t want to be the passenger in the back. And I realized that the ocean is the universe.”

Anushka Patil And Emma Bubola reporting contributed.