Boeing, University of Washington deny developing missing Titan sub

Boeing and the University of Washington have both denied being involved in developing the still-missing Titanic sub — despite the company’s CEO bragging about their help as proof it was “safe” and not “MacGyvered.”

Oceangate had repeatedly touted outside expertise in developing its Titan submersible — now feared to have run out of oxygen with its CEO among five onboard — in interviews and on its website.

A 2021 press release celebrating the Titan’s first successful 12,500-foot dive to the Titanic wreckage thanked Boeing as an “industry partner” giving “design and engineering support.”

However, Boeing told The Post early Thursday: “Boeing was not a partner on the Titan and did not design or build it.”

Oceangate’s CEO Stockton Rush — who was piloting the still-missing sub — had also namechecked Boeing as well as the University of Washington (UW) in a now-viral interview with CBS News in which he showed off how his deep-diving sub was run by a videogame controller.

Challenged over concerns it appeared to have “some elements of MacGyvery jerry-rigged-ness,” Rush confidently stated that only “certain things that you want to be buttoned down.”

“So the pressure vessel is not MacGyvered at all — that’s where we worked with Boeing and NASA and the University of Washington,” he said.

“Everything else can fail. Your thrusters can go, your lights can go — you’re still going to be safe,” he said at the time.

However, UW told CNN its Applied Physics Laboratory’s only work with OceanGate had nothing to do with the missing vessel.

The lab “was not involved in the design, engineering or testing of the TITAN submersible used in the RMS TITANIC expedition,” university spokesperson Victor Balta told the network late Wednesday.

While OceanGate used testing tanks at the UW School of Oceanography for nine tests between 2016 and 2022, it was on a contract basis without any assistance from university researchers.

“UW personnel did not provide any verification or validation of any OceanGate equipment as a result of those tests,” Balta added.

In fact, OceanGate’s CEO previously said that he only used the lab at night, when other people were not around.

He admitted that the hull of a prototype — only a third of the size of the Titan — imploded during those tests, shaking the building and blowing out the lab’s pressure sensors, which Rush had to replace.

Balta said that its $5 million research deal with OceanGate was scrapped early, after “only $650,000 worth of work was completed.”

“That collaboration resulted in a steel-hulled vessel, named the Cyclops 1, that can travel to [1,650 feet] depth, which is far shallower than the depths that OceanGate’s TITAN submersible traveled to,” Balta also noted.

NASA, meanwhile, told AL.com that its “Marshall Space Flight Center had a Space Act Agreement with OceanGate and consulted on materials and manufacturing processes for the submersible.”

However, “NASA did not conduct testing and manufacturing via its workforce or facilities, which was done elsewhere by OceanGate,” a rep told the outlet.

“We regret to hear the Titan submersible is missing, and we remain hopeful the crew will be found unharmed,” NASA said.

OceanGate did not immediately respond to requests for comment early Thursday. Its website appeared to be mostly offline.

Along with Rush, the missing include British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani tech and energy mogul Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Sulaiman, and famed Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet.