The CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, who is currently trapped in one of his company’s Titanic tour submersibles that went missing deep below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, previously said he refused to hire “50-year-old white guys” because they are not “inspirational.”
“When I started the business, one of the things you’ll find, there are other sub-operators out there, but they typically have gentlemen who are ex-military submariners, and they — you’ll see a whole bunch of 50-year-old white guys,” said CEO Stockton Rush in an interview with Teledyne Marine several years ago.
“I wanted our team to be younger, to be inspirational and I’m not going to inspire a 16-year-old to go pursue marine technology, but a 25-year-old … who’s a sub pilot or a platform operator or one of our techs can be inspirational,” he said.
Rush added that hiring experienced professionals is unnecessary because “anybody can drive the sub” with a $30 video game controller.
One of Rush’s submersibles touring the wreckage of the Titanic went missing over the weekend, and an extensive operation has been launched to find the vessel, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. Rush is on board the submersible along with four other individuals.
Several figures in political commentary have weighed in on Rush’s recently resurfaced comments.
BlazeTV host Lauren Chen said this is “Yet another ghastly reminder that engineering and wokeness don’t mix.”
However, others have argued there is little-to-no connection between Rush’s statements and his current entrapment at the bottom of the sea.
The Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh said Rush’s comments are “absurd” but noted that Rush “is operating the submersible himself and most of the people in the thing are middle-aged men.”
“So this isn’t some sort of diversity expedition gone wrong, no matter what dumb s**t the guy said in the past,” he said.
In addition to Rush, the other passengers of the missing submersible include 48-year-old Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his 19-year-old son Suleman, 77-year-old French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and 58-year-old British businessman and pilot Hamish Harding.
As reported by The Dallas Express, eight more ships are joining the search for the lost submersible.
The U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday that a Canadian surveillance plane “detected underwater noises” near where the submersible disappeared.
“We will do everything in our power to effect a rescue. … There is a full-court press effort to get equipment on scene as quickly as we can,” Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick said Tuesday.
Frederick added that the search is “an incredibly complex operation.”