OceanGate CEO, who is trapped in sub, once said he avoided hiring experienced 50-year-old white guys because they weren't 'inspirational'

A resurfaced quote from the OceanGate CEO, who is currently trapped in the submersible meant to tour the Titanic shipwreck, is being criticized given the tragic circumstances.

The plight of the five people aboard the submersible lost at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean has caused anxiety across the world. Officials said Monday that they were alerted about the submersible and immediately began efforts to search for the vessel.

Unfortunately, those efforts are almost certainly to fall short as the vessel is expected to run out of oxygen supplies on Thursday morning.

In a zoom interview from before they went missing, 61-year-old CEO Stockton Rush said that he wanted "inspirational" sub operators, and that meant avoiding experienced, 50-year-old white guys.

“When I started the business, one of the things you’ll find, there are other sub-operators out there, but they typically have, uh, gentlemen who are ex-military submariners, and they — you’ll see a whole bunch of 50-year-old white guys,” said Rush to Teledyne Marine.

“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, uh, you know, who’s a sub pilot or a platform operator or one of our techs can be inspirational,” he added.

“So we’ve really tried to get, um, very intelligent, motivated, younger individuals involved because we’re doing things that are completely new," Rush concluded.

The CEO is stuck in the submersible along with four other passengers who paid around $250,000 for the tour of the Titanic shipwreck, which lies about 12,500 feet below surface around 370 miles off the coast of Canada.

On Wednesday, officials said that they were able to detect what sounded like "banging noises" in the area that they were searching for the submersible.

Here's more about the search for the OceanGate sub:

Past Titanic sub passenger on danger of dive: "You know going in how very dangerous this is"www.youtube.com

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