Stockton Rush

American businessman (1962–2023)

Richard Stockton Rush III (March 31, 1962 – June 18, 2023) was an American engineer, pilot, and businessman. He was the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of OceanGate. On June 18, 2023, he was killed along with four others aboard OceanGate's submersible Titan while attempting to visit the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic.

Rush in 2015

Quotes edit

  • All that can happen is something on the outside can get hurt. We’re not getting hurt. We are now the safest five people on the planet. [1]
  • You know, there’s a limit. You know, at some point, safety just is pure waste. I mean, if you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed. Don’t get in your car. Don’t do anything. At some point, you’re going to take some risk, and it really is a risk/reward question. I think I can do this just as safely by breaking the rules. [1]
  • I don’t think it’s very dangerous. If you look at submersible activity over the last three decades, there hasn’t even been a major injury, let alone a fatality. [1]
  • I have grown tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation and new entrants from entering their small existing market. Since Guillermo and I started OceanGate we have heard the baseless cries of "you are going to kill someone" way too often. I take this as a serious personal insult. [2]
  • If you're not breaking things, you're not innovating. If you're operating in a known environment as most submersible manufactures do, they don't break things. To me, the more stuff you've broken, the more innovative you've been. [3]
  • I’d like to be remembered as an innovator. I think it was General MacArthur who said: ‘You are remembered for the rules you break’. And I've broken some rules to make this. I think I've broken them with logic and good engineering behind me. Carbon fibre and titanium? There's a rule you don't do that. Well, I did. [4]
  • There hasn’t been an injury in the commercial sub industry in over 35 years. It’s obscenely safe. [5]
 
Wikipedia
Wikipedia has an article about:
  1. a b c [|Pogue, David] (2022-11-27). "Back to Titanic Part 1". Unsung Science (CBS Broadcasting Inc.). Retrieved on 2024-02-10. 
  2. [|Morelle, Rebecca]; Francis, Alison; Evans, Gareth (2023-06-23). "Titan sub CEO dismissed safety warnings as 'baseless cries', emails show". BBC News Online (British Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved on 2024-02-10. 
  3. "Stockton Rush: OceanGate boss in his own words". BBC News Online (British Broadcasting Corporation). 2023-06-23. Retrieved on 2024-02-10. 
  4. [Gutiérrez, Alan] (2021-08-07). Mi expedición al TITANIC parte 1/4 / Alan por el mundo (in Spanish) (video). alanxelmundo. YouTube, LLC. Archived from the original on 2023-06-25. Retrieved on 2024-02-10.
  5. Perrottet, Tony (2019). "A Deep Dive Into the Plans to Take Tourists to the ‘Titanic’". Smithsonian Magazine (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution). Retrieved on 2024-02-10.