Titanic families fume over ‘disgusting’ billionaire sub tourist trade

The families of some of those killed on the Titanic are railing against the billionaire tourist trade that spawned the missing Titan submersible, calling it a ‘disgusting’ example of ‘ogling’ at their loved ones’ watery grave.

The Titan has been missing since Sunday morning with five people on board, and oxygen is fast running out. 

The Coast Guard says it will search beyond the 96 hour limit the tour operator OceanGate Expeditions set, assuring today that the human ‘will to live’ cannot be discounted. 

The men on the ship paid $250,000 for their seat on the 21ft vessel. OceanGate is now facing a mountain of fierce backlash and fury for its promises of safety. 

‘Why, why do you have to do that? Let the people rest,’ John Locascio and his wife Angelia Harris. Locascio’s uncles, who were brothers, died in the 1912 disaster  

Images of the Titanic wreckage previously obtained by OceanGate on a prior expedition 

Among those most irate that the private company was operating in such dangerous territory are the families of some of the 1,517 souls who died when the Titanic sank in 1912. 

‘I compare it to looking inside a grave. I mean, people died there tragically, very tragically. Why make it a place for people to go see? 

‘Why, why do you have to do that? Let the people rest,’ John Locascio, whose uncles, Alberto and Sebastiano, died in the disaster, told CNN. 

The pair – who were brothers – were working was waiters on the ship. They were 17 and 20. Locascio’s wife, Angelica Harris, chronicled their story in the book, The Peracchio Brothers. 

‘I compare it to looking inside a grave. I mean, people died there tragically, very tragically. 

‘Why make it a place for people to go see? Why, why do you have to do that? Let the people rest. Dead bodies are there, or what’s left of them. 

‘The ship is there, or what’s left of it, and it’s just a peaceful site there right now, or as peaceful as can be.

‘If I were them, if my soul was there, I wouldn’t want people coming down to take a look at me. 

Wendy Rush is the wife of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who is among the five people missing on board the submersible. 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 crockery department in the store. Isidor and Nathan became co-owners in 1896

Isidor and Ida Straus are depicted lying on a bed as the water rises in the 1997 film

‘I don’t feel that it would be a very comfortable situation, to have people just looking, ogling. It makes no sense.’ 

In a previous interview with the Daily Beast, he called it ‘disgusting’. 

‘Would you want to dig up your uncles or aunts to see the box? That’s basically what I compare it to. There’s no reason for it. 

‘They died a horribly tragic death. Just leave the bodies resting. They don’t want people down to see them. Just leave well enough alone.’ 

His comments were echoed by other victims’ families. 

‘That’s where all those people lost their lives. That should be it. It should be left just as it is. We should let those people down there lie in peace,’ T. Sean Maher, whose great-grandfather James Kelly, of County Kildare, Ireland, died in the disaster, said. 

Among those onboard is OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, whose wife Wendy is a descendant of  two other Titanic victims. 

Her great-great-grandparents, Isidor and Ida Straus, died in the historic disaster – with Isidor being a co-founder of the Macy’s department store.

They were also immortalized in James Cameron’s 1997 movie ‘Titanic’, where they are shown in an iconic scene, fictionally embracing on their bed as water rushed onto the ship. 

The race to find the sub is now in a crucial stage. 

A flotilla of international ships are at the search site some 900 miles east of Cape Cod. 

They have deployed multiple remote control subs that are currently searching the ocean floor for signs of life, and a fleet of aircraft are scouring an enormous, 10,000 square-mile patch 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 accounted for, as well.’

An image of the Titan submersible, which has now been underwater since Sunday morning