I talked dozens out of boarding doomed Titan sub over catastrophic safety risks – Brit victims were deceived, says diver
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A LEADING deep sea diver who warned Stockton Rush over Titan sub's catastrophic safety risks says victims were "deceived".
Titanic expedition leader Rob McCallum talked almost 40 people out of going on the doomed sub - which claimed five lives when it imploded two years ago.
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Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate, had been warned over safety concerns
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Debris from the sub is unloaded from a ship
Credit: AP
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Businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman were killed
Credit: Reuters
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McCallum, who has led seven dives to the Titanic, implored OceanGate boss Rush to let an independent agency test his vessel.
But his warnings over the sub's critical safety failings fell on deaf ears and "intolerant" Rush simply brushed aside cautions from experts.
The world was put in a chokehold when the unclassed sub vanished from radar during a 12,500ft dive down to the Titanic wreckage.
Five days after it disappeared on June 18, 2023, a piece of debris was found on the ocean floor - confirming fears it had imploded.
All five on board - Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58, French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and son Suleman, 19 - were killed.
Harrowing emails show McCallum tried to warn Rush over Titan's danger - but the OceanGate CEO replied he was "tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation".
Rush wrote: "We have heard the baseless cries of 'you are going to kill someone' way too often. I take this as a serious personal insult."
McCallum said their tense email exchange ended after OceanGate's lawyers threatened legal action, and so he focussed on limiting the number of people who boarded Titan.
He told The Sun: "I'd written to him three or four times, and he wasn't going to change.
"I'd run out of options. I thought the sub would not survive sea trials and so I just focused on trying to limit the number of people that got into that thing.
'What's that bang?' Chilling moment sound of doomed Titan sub imploding heard from support ship
"I probably talked three dozen people out of going on Titan, and I wouldn't get melodramatic about it, because I didn't want to over dramatise it.
"Both because I wanted them to keep listening to what I was saying, but also I didn't want to become a drama queen and sort of written off as hysterical.
"And so my simple answer was always, I would never get in an unclassed vehicle and nor should you."
McCallum said he spoke to both Harding and Nargeolet, who both decided to take the risk.
But he said Dawood and his son Suleman would have had "no idea" about the danger they were putting themselves in on the £195,000 dive as OceanGate downplayed the risk.
McCallum said: "Hamish and Paul-Henri knew it was risky, but not the level of risk that they were taking.
"The other two had no idea at all. And the reason that there's that uncertainty is because I think there was a concerted effort of deception.
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British billionaire Hamish Harding was among those on the sub
Credit: Reuters
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French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, also died
Credit: AFP
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"If you look at the culture of OceanGate, they weren't willing to take outside commentary, and anyone inside the camp that spoke out got fired or worse.
"And so you've got this diminishing group of people that are only listening to themselves and they just tuned out the talk of the risk.
"The risk was still there. But they just weren't talking about it anymore."
McCallum, who founded expedition company EYOS, said all of those who he successfully advised not to board Titan realise they had a "close call".
He added: "Within 48 hours of the implosion one rang up in tears and said, 'I owe you my life. I was going to get into that sub, and I couldn't get your voice out of my head, and so I turned around and came home'.
"He lost his deposit but he said 'I just couldn't get your voice out of my head', and he was in tears.
"People are very conscious that they had a close call."
McCallum said on the fateful day of the sub's disappearance from radar he "just felt sick".
After the sub lost contact with its support ship Polar Prince rescue crews worked around the clock in what was thought to be a race against time to save the crew.
But McCallum said it was clear the sub had imploded.
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"I knew immediately what had happened," he said.
"There were two or three days when everyone was going through the search and rescue.
"I didn't understand that because we knew it had imploded.
"I was sad to lose some friends and shipmates. But I was grateful for small mercies that it would have been instantaneous."
Engineer Rush, who co-founded OceanGate in 2009, created Titan with an experimental design made up of a carbon-fiber pod with titanium rings bolted on.
McCallum said carbon fiber material is not fit for submerging so deep underwater.
But McCallum's warning that carbon fiber would not withstand such pressure, Rush informed him he was "going to carry on regardless".
In 2018, OceanGate's then chief pilot David Lochridge was fired after his inspection report laid bare a series of safety risks.
A report from the Marine Board of Investigation is expected to be released in the coming weeks.
McCallum said: "The report will be comprehensive and should cover all of the attributing elements that led to the disaster.
"It will also indicate who is responsible and who might be subject to prosecution."
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Rob McCallum urged Rush to get the sub certified
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