A submersible expert who ventured on the Titan sub with OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush four year ago claimed that the hull made terrifying creaking noises as descended towards the ocean floor.
Karl Stanley said he told Rush to ease the pace with his Titanic plans after their 12,000-foot descent in the Caribbean, The Mirror reports.
Mr Stanley was invited by the CEO, as he operates an undersea tourist business in Honduras. On the dive in the Bahamas he demonstrated his Titan sub which had a carbon fiber hull he had put together himself.
Read More: Son killed with billionaire dad in Titanic submarine implosion was 'terrified' about trip
Rush, 61, founded OceanGate in 2009 and was one of five people killed when the Titan broke communications with the surface on Sunday morning during a dive to the wreck of the original Titanic.
Parts that linked to an implosion was found on the sea bed on Thursday, 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic.
Discussing his 2019 trip on CNN, Karl Stanley recalled how Rush, who was piloting the sub, warned him about the creaking sounds coming from the hull so he was not overly concerned at the time.
Stanley later emailed to say the sounds were dangerous.
He said it “sounded like a flaw/defect in one area being acted on by the tremendous pressures and being crushed/damaged.”
The email, gathered by the New York Times, says that the loud creaking sounds indicated "an area of the hull that is breaking down."
He wrote to Rush to take the development of his sub at a slower pace and maximise safety. He did not hear back.
Stanley wrote: "A useful thought exercise here would be to imagine the removal of the variables of the investors, the eager mission scientists, your team hungry for success, the press releases already announcing this summer's dive schedule.
"Imagine this project was self funded and on your own schedule. Would you consider taking dozens of other people to the Titanic before you truly knew the source of those sounds??'
In 2018 more that three dozen dustry leaders, deep-sea explorers and oceanographers warned Rush in a letter that the company's 'experimental' approach could have ‘catastrophic’ consequences.
The year 2021 saw the first tourist trip.
The implosion on Sunday killed Stockton Rush alongside French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77; British billionaire businessman Hamish Harding, 58; and British-Pakistani father and son Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman.
Some submersible experts have suggested that the sub's composite hull, made from a cylinder of carbon fiber with two titanium end caps, was the cause of the implosion.
It is possible experimental carbon fiber hull was unable to stand the repeated cycles of pressurization caused by multiple trips to the sea floor.
