The families of some of the dead on the Titanic are protesting the billionaire tourist trade that spawned the missing Titan submarine, calling it a “disgusting” example of “ogging” at the watery grave of their loved ones.
The Titan has been missing since Sunday morning with five people on board and is rapidly running out of oxygen.
The Coast Guard says it will search beyond the 96-hour limit set by tour operator OceanGate Expeditions, assuring today that the human “will to live” cannot be discounted.
The passengers paid $250,000 for their seats on the 21ft ship. OceanGate is now facing a mountain of fierce backlash and anger over its promises of security.
‘Why, why do you have to do that? Let the people rest,’ John Locascio and his wife Angelica Harris. Locascio’s uncles, who were brothers, died in the disaster of 1912
Images of the Titanic wreckage previously acquired by OceanGate on a previous expedition
Among those most enraged that the private company was operating in such a dangerous area are the families of some of the 1,517 souls who died when the Titanic sank in 1912.
‘I compare it to looking into a grave. I mean, people died there tragically, very tragically. Why make it a place for people to go?
‘Why, why do you have to do that? Let the people rest,” said John Locascio, whose uncles, Alberto and Sebastiano, died in the disaster CNN.
The pair – who were brothers – worked as waiters on the ship. They were 17 and 20. Locascio’s wife, Angelica Harris, wrote their story in the book The Peracchio Brothers.
“Why make it a place for people to go? There are dead bodies, or what’s left of them.
“The ship is there, or what’s left of it, and it’s just a peaceful place there right now, or as peaceful as it gets.
“If I were them, if my soul was there, I wouldn’t want people to come and look at me.
Wendy Rush is the wife of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, one of five missing aboard the submarine. Her great-great-grandparents died on the Titanic
Isidor Straus and his wife Ida died on the Titanic. Isidor co-owned Macy’s with his brother Nathan: their father, Lazarus Straus, convinced Rowland Hussey Macy, founder of Macy’s, to allow L. Straus & Sons to open a dinner service department in the store. Isidor and Nathan became co-owners in 1896
In the 1997 film, Isidor and Ida Straus are depicted lying on a bed as the water rises
‘I don’t think it would be a very comfortable situation if people just look, ogle. It does not make any sense.’
In an earlier interview with the Daily Beast, he called it “disgusting.”
‘Would you dig up your uncles or aunts to see the box? That’s actually what I compare it to. There’s no reason for it.
“They died a terribly tragic death. Let the bodies rest. They don’t want people to see them. Leave it alone well enough.”
His comments were echoed by the families of other victims.
“All those people died there. That should be it. It should be left as it is. We should let those people down there lie in peace,” said T. Sean Maher, whose great-grandfather James Kelly of County Kildare, Ireland, was killed in the disaster.
Among those on board is OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, whose wife Wendy is a descendant of two other Titanic victims.
Her great-great-grandparents, Isidor and Ida Straus, perished in the historic disaster – in which Isidor was a co-founder of the department store Macy’s.
They were also immortalized in James Cameron’s 1997 movie ‘Titanic’ where they are shown in an iconic scene, fictitiously embracing on their beds as the water rushed up onto the ship.
The race to find the submarine is now at a crucial stage.
A flotilla of international ships is at the search site some 900 miles east of Cape Cod.
They’ve deployed multiple remote-controlled submarines that are currently searching the ocean floor for signs of life, and a fleet of planes are scouring a vast 10,000 square mile stretch of ocean for any sign of life.
In an interview with TODAY on NBC this morning, US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said, “People’s will to live really needs to be taken into account as well.”
An image of the submarine Titan, now submerged since Sunday morning