Video Shows the Grim Moment OceanGate Honcho’s Wife Heard Doomed Submersible’s Implosion

Debris from the Titan submersible, recovered from the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic, is unloaded from the ship Horizon Arctic at the Canadian Coast Guard pier in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Wednesday, June 28, 2023. (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press via AP)

Wendy Rush, the wife of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, unknowingly heard the moment the deep-sea Titan submersible imploded with her husband and other passengers onboard.

The US Coast Guard released the footage of the grim moment this week, which showed Rush asking “what was that bang?” as she and her communications team tried to contact the submersible during its descent to the ocean floor to see the Titanic.

All five people onboard the Titan were instantly killed in June 2023 when it imploded, including Stockton Rush, who was operating the vehicle. Rush’s passengers were British businessman Hamish Harding, French deep-sea explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood.

In the newly released footage, Wendy Rush is seen with OceanGate colleague Gary Foss as they track the vehicle and hear a noise that Sky News described as like a “door slamming.”

Wendy Rush clearly hears it and then, smiling, turns to her colleague to ask what it was, as Foss shrugs. Wendy Rush then receives a message from the Titan saying it had descended further. Investigators concluded that the message had been sent just before the implosion, but arrived on a delay given the distance.

The search for the Titan gripped the globe in the summer of 2023 as a five-day search dominated headlines. The sub’s wreckage was eventually found some 500 meters from the Titanic, 3,800 meters below the ocean surface. OceanGate and its founder, Stockton Rush, have since been embroiled in controversy over accusations that he skipped necessary safety checks to avoid such a catastrophe.