A new documentary on the Titan Submersible is shedding light on the events before the disaster, and one element has left people horrified.
When the world learned the Titan had vanished during a Titanic wreckage expedition off Newfoundland, the story became a media feeding frenzy.
So it's no wonder that the new Netflix documentary, Titan: The OceanGate Disaster, is creating intrigue.
Memes, conspiracy theories, and even live oxygen countdowns dominated the narrative.
“I was, just as a casual observer of news, kind of horrified at the whole idea,” says filmmaker Mark Monroe. “I don’t subscribe to any aspect of social media. I think it’s a bad thing. So it became this kind of focal point for some of my anger over social media, in the way that the story became so swept up in everyone’s reaction to it.”
One thing that viewers have been shocked by are some ominous sounds coming from the sub during tests before the fateful voyage.
These eerie sounds, a terrifying preview of the fatal implosion that killed all five passengers aboard the submersible on June 18, 2023, were just one of many red flags that went ignored, as the film details in devastating clarity.
On one early deep dive, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush bailed at 3,939 meters — 400 meters shy of the target depth — after hearing the ominous popping sounds of the hull under pressure.
“Close enough,” he muttered.
Later, to his crew, he declared: “I could’ve easily gone to four [thousand metres], but for what?”
For Monroe, these moments were crucial. “That was where I thought the drama of the film is: the step-by-step decisions that were made that add up to this situation,” he explains.
Things went from bad to worse after Titan’s 80th dive, when a “loud bang” was heard.
Rather than returning the sub to OceanGate headquarters for inspection, Rush stored it in freezing temperatures in Newfoundland.
“I told Stockton, ‘Don’t do that,’” recalls former engineering director Tony Nissen. “Once we build this, it cannot go freezing. If water gets in there and you sit it out in freezing conditions and that water expands, it breaks [carbon] fibres.”
With this information coming to light, people aren't exactly fans of Rush.
One person wrote on Reddit: "Up until this documentary, I honestly thought Stockton was just an overly ambitious pretty boy. Those cracking sounds though. How could anyone think that death trap was safe?
"The data showing how bad it got with each dive. And still he went ahead. I believe this was his rich boy pet project and all his employees his lab rats to make it look legit."
A second wrote on X: "Just watched the #Oceangate #TitanNetflix documentary. Hearing the popping sounds of the carbon fiber breaking on the previous missions was terrifying."
A third wrote: "The sounds of the carbon fibre popping BEFORE the OceanGate implosion are so terrifying Stockton Rush might have legitimately been a psychopath."
While a fourth said: "The Netflix documentary on OceanGate was insane. The popping noises the Submersible kept making was horrifying.
"Like 🍿 hearing the Hull start to break. Stockton Rush had a death wish and we was such an arrogant man for dragging innocent people to the deep depths of Titanic."
You can watch Titan: The OceanGate Disaster on Netflix now!