OceanGate CEO Allegedly Wanted to Send Huge Rock Band to Titanic in Ill-Fated Submersible

Late OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush allegedly wanted to send a huge rock band to the Titanic wreck in his ill-fated submersible.

A new documentary on the 2023 Titan tragedy, Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster, was just released on Netflix this past Wednesday (June 11). The film covers the history leading up to the day the Titan made its final dive and the discovery of the dismantled submersible at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Titan doc features interviews with former OceanGate employees, deep-sea exploration experts and more. Joseph Assi, a videographer that Rush recruited to document the expeditions, loosely touched on OceanGate and its CEO's plans for the sub, including a band they supposedly wanted to take in it.

"They needed more exposure, that's why we came along. The sub they were making was very basic, so the idea was — 'Make us videos so we can catch the attention of people,'" Assi recalled.

"They had wild ideas, like they want to take Pearl Jam in the submarine, or he talked about some floating city that could also submerge."

There's no evidence online that Rush was a fan of Pearl Jam or that anyone from OceanGate had ever approached the band with the idea.

What Was the 2023 Titan Submersible Tragedy?

On June 18, 2023, Rush and four passengers — French deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani-British businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman — embarked on a journey to see the Titanic wreck that sits over 12,500 feet deep in the northern Atlantic Ocean in OceanGate's Titan submersible.

The domes on each end of the Titan were constructed with titanium alloy, and the hull was made of carbon fibre and reinforced plastic.

Less than two hours after their initial dive, the OceanGate crew lost contact with the vessel. After four days of searching, debris was found on the seafloor, and was confirmed to be from the Titan. The discovery revealed that the sub had imploded, meaning all five passengers died instantly.

The Titan Did Successfully Make it to the Titanic Wreck

The Titan actually made 13 successful trips to the Titanic wreck before its implosion in June of 2023. The Netflix documentary shows footage of Rush and various other passengers from within the vessel, as well as the actual shipwreck.

However, various audio clips played throughout the doc of "banging noises" that the passengers heard during their expeditions, which indicated that the carbon fibre was actually failing and the hull had weakened. Rush described them as warning signs that indicated it was time to ascend to the surface.

One last sound was heard just before the OceanGate crew lost contact with the vessel forever.