Stockton Rush

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  in the North Atlantic.

Quotes

 * 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.


 * 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.


 * 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.


 * 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.


 * 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.


 * 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.


 * There hasn’t been an injury in the commercial sub industry in over 35 years. It’s obscenely safe.