We begin tonight
with the urgent search
for a deep sea
submersible vehicle
missing in
the Atlantic Ocean
with five people
on board.
Developing story
that's really capturing
the world's attention
right now.
[male reporter 2]
The Titan bound for
the wreckage of the Titanic
two miles below the surface.
[male reporter 3] Passengers
paying up to $250,000.
Tonight,
the families of the crew
are waiting for word.
The idea that passengers
were going to be aboard
was insane to me.
[Stockton Rush]
This is an experimental sub.
It's very dangerous
down there.
You're in the dark.
Just enough light to see.
Breaking news.
The tragic end
to that deep sea dive.
All five men
on board the craft
lost at sea.
This was a moment in time
when their sub was there,
and then it was not.
The one person
that should not have been
on the Titan
was the teenage son.
I've gone
back and forth a lot,
like whether
I should have done more.
You know, whether there's some
moral obligation to do more.
Do you solemnly swear
that the testimony
you're about to give...
Shocking new details
about what led up
to the deadly implosion
of the Titan submersible.
Everyone in the world
wants to know
what happened to Titan.
When you're outside the box,
it's really hard to tell
how far outside the box.
I've spent
a great deal of time
trying to figure that out.
If it wasn't an accident,
it then has to be
some degree of crime.
Thanks very much.
You may have seen
in the write up of this,
that I wanted to be
an astronaut.
It's why
I got an engineering degree,
I watched
Star Trek, Star Wars.
And I wasn't going to
get to Jupiter or Mars,
but I did realize
that all the cool stuff
that I thought was out there
is actually underwater.
[Tym Catterson] Stockton was
a very strong personality.
He had a a trajectory
of what his plans were.
Why were there
only four submersibles
that could go
to the average depth
of the ocean?
I don't think Stockton
started this whole project
knowing that it would end
in total disaster.
He believed in having people
have better access
to the deep ocean.
[Catterson] He wanted
to support science,
and he wanted to support
educational outreach.
Make this kind of adventure
more approachable
to the public.
That's basically
why I stayed around.
The goal was,
"Where do you want to go
in the ocean?
"What is the most known site
in the ocean?"
And it's clearly the Titanic.
It always has been a challenge
to explain to people
why they would go in a sub
'cause they're typically
nervous.
But when you say
you're going to the Titanic,
they don't care.
They've seen the pictures
in the movie.
They want to go see
the Titanic.
And so,
from a business perspective,
it was very appealing.
And to go to the Titanic,
which is at 3,800 meters,
requires a special sub.
Level. Do a good cleaning,
check the surface out
and take measurements.
[Rush] Today is a critical
joining of the titanium
and the carbon fiber.
That seal needs to be
uniform and small,
but not too small.
[Josh Gates] Stockton wanted
to bring people to Titanic,
so he built a vehicle that had
a totally different shape.
Toilet paper tube.
[Rush] It'll be
the deepest diving
carbon fiber sub ever built.
But if we mess it up,
there's not a lot of recovery.
I'm good already north-south.
Just east-to-west.
[Gates] This carbon fiber hull
that was built to be
lighter and stronger
from the space age material,
it had these
big titanium end caps
that would seal this cylinder.
You can get more people
inside that shape.
When I first
saw it on the dock,
it was kind of this marvel.
[Rush] This technology
is what we need
to explore the ocean depth.
We're going to
go to 4,000 meters
after our testing
in the Bahamas.
What he's doing
is experimental,
and it involves exploration,
and it's a business.
And with this,
I thee christen, Titan.
[cheering and applause]
[Gates] If you're starting
a submarine company,
is there a more
famous destination
in the world than Titanic? No.
By the time
we're done testing it,
I believe
it's pretty much invulnerable.
And that's pretty much
what they said
about the Titanic.
-That's right.
-[chuckles]
[news anchor]
And we begin tonight
with breaking news.
The tragic end
to that deep sea dive
to the wreckage
of the Titanic.
The Coast Guard reporting
that pieces of the sub
have been found
in a debris field
near the Titanic.
Seeing all of the gear
that came up,
the sheared off rings
and the metal
and the bent penetrators...
I was gutted. Um...
[R. Adm. John Mauger]
Over the past week,
the world has followed
the story of the sub Titan
and the five people
who perished
in the terrible tragedy.
The Coast Guard
has officially convened
a Marine Board
of Investigation
led by Chief Investigator,
Captain Neubauer.
Thank you, Admiral Mauger.
This is the highest level
of investigation
the Coast Guard conducts
to determine the cause
of this tragic incident.
The Coast Guard investigation
can make recommendations
to pursue civil or criminal
sanctions, as necessary.
Seeing the debris,
the pieces
that were left over,
kind of replaying
what must have occurred,
that races through your mind
over and over.
[Catterson]
Three of my friends were
in the sub, and disappeared.
Do I feel bad about it?
Absolutely.
Stockton was a friend of mine.
Now he's gone.
PH was one of
the godfathers of diving.
And Hamish,
they were all in there
to get something out of this.
Do I miss them? Yeah.
I miss all of them.
Suleman knew nothing about it.
This was just
his grand adventure.
And it was the same
for his father.
[Christine Dawood]
This is the life of my son
and my husband
they are talking about.
This is the life of Hamish
and two others who died there.
It was deeply personal.
It can't get more personal.
They're never gonna come back.
Their voices
are still in the house.
Their memories
are in the house.
No matter
what the investigation is,
the rooms are still empty.
Do I need to know
exactly what happened
in order to come to terms
with these empty rooms or not?
And I don't know
the answer yet.
It's a process.
Mr. Stanley,
the board's recorder
Lieutenant Steele
will now administer your oath.
Do you solemnly swear
that the testimony
you're about to give
will be the truth,
the whole truth
and nothing but the truth,
so help you God?
I do.
[Lt. Steele] Thank you.
You may be seated.
Mr. Stanley, if you would,
explain your background
and training
that relate
to submersible operations.
I read a book
when I was nine years old,
and started researching
how to make a submersible.
This is the vehicle
I operate now.
She's named Idabel
after the town in Oklahoma,
and it's made out of
one of the approved steels.
Actually, the US Navy was
making their own submarines
out of that steel.
[Capt. Neubauer]
The public hearings are such
an important process to have.
These are traumatic events
with unexpected loss of life.
It's not a surprise to me
when witnesses
are deeply impacted.
Mr. Stanley, is there
anything that you think
would be valuable
for the board to consider?
I wish that you would
indulge me a few minutes
to lay out
what I think about this,
seeing that OceanGate
came very, very close
to k*lling me
and has had a severe impact
on my business,
as well as an entire industry.
The definition of an accident
is something that happened
unexpectedly,
and by sheer chance.
There was nothing unexpected
about this.
This was expected by everybody
that had access
to a little bit
of information.
And I think that
if it wasn't an accident,
it then has to be
some degree of crime.
Continuing coverage
of the Titan submersible
hearings.
Today we heard the testimony
from a man
who went to the bottom
of the ocean with OceanGate
and resurfaced with red flags.
Stockton Rush invited him
on the deepest dive
he had ever been offered,
and he just
couldn't pass it up.
[Stanley] I got
an email saying,
"Come out
to Marsh Harbour, Bahamas,
and I have a spot
open for you."
-[man] Yup, yup.
-Looking good.
Looking good. Hold that line.
That was an extremely
unique opportunity.
Kenny, do you hear that
from Titan?
[man] That's affirmative.
Stand by.
4,000 meters, we're there.
[people chuckle]
All of our test program
has been about
incremental testing.
Out here, we're really focused
on one thing,
and that's
the pressure vessel,
and making sure
that that component,
which is clearly
the most critical component
of the sub,
is safe and capable
of handling depths
down to 4,000 meters
repeatedly
with people on board.
[woman] Rocks around.
We've got
two different directions...
-[man on radio] Go ahead.
-[woman] Just checking
on your progress.
[Stanley] When we were
doing that dive,
I did not even come close
to appreciating
the real danger.
I was the one that was like,
"Hey, capture this moment."
Like, I was happy to be there.
[Petros Mathioudakis] In 2019,
I got invited to go down
to the Bahamas.
OceanGate purchased
a laser scanner,
and the intent was,
at the time,
to mount that on Titan
to be able to make
a 3D model of the Titanic.
And they basically
wanted someone there
to ensure that
it was operating correctly.
I had never been involved
in any submersible
operations before,
so it was a lot to take in.
You know, being in the Bahamas
and feet in the sand,
getting to work
on underwater robotics
and submersibles.
I mean, I couldn't think
of a more fun thing to do.
You know,
he was young and naive.
Kind of crazy
for somebody in their 20s
to be going that deep
with, really,
no specific background.
Okay, I'm good. Lock me up.
Stockton had mentioned
that it's really tough to test
the hull of Titan correctly.
It was just not feasible,
not possible.
It fell outside the boundaries
of normal testing.
I was aware that
this was extremely risky,
and Stockton was very clear.
He said, "Do you have a wife?"
And I said, "No."
"Do you have kids?"
And I said, "Nope."
He said, "Okay, you're in."
[laughs]
When you're inside of Titan,
on your descent,
you're just freefalling.
You're just heavy
and your, you know, gravity
is pushing you down.
You're essentially
in the dark.
Just enough light to see.
[Rush] Uh, no.
Left is forward is down.
On the left stick.
-[Stanley] This is down?
-[Rush] That's up.
-[Stanley] That's up?
-[Rush] Yup.
-[Stanley] That's down?
-[Rush] Yup.
I remember driving
for a large amount
of the time.
[Stanley] Okay.
[Rush] You don't check down.
[laughter]
The first time
the carbon fiber
made a noise in that hull,
it was extremely loud.
It was like a g*nsh*t.
[muffled thud]
Any noise
would have been loud,
but that was loud.
You don't want to be
in a submarine
and hear
those kinds of sounds.
Everyone stops talking
for a little bit and...
That loud, sudden noise
that you know is
essentially part of your
pressure vessel breaking
when you're sinking
in the near pitch blackness
and silence,
I think that's going to
scare anybody.
Just how much noise do I hear
before we all die?
[muffled thud]
[Stanley] Took a while,
let's say maybe like five
or ten cracking incidents.
That was when I think
I was composed enough
to isolate
where the cracking sounds
were coming from.
Stockton saw this,
but still he pushed on.
And you really
have to ask yourself why.
[Mathioudakis]
It didn't faze Stockton.
He's like,
"Yep, that's normal.
"Like, you know,
that happened before."
We're slightly negative.
Like,
we're getting closer to it,
but we're not touching it.
When we got
almost to the bottom,
or at the bottom,
the lights on the exterior
of the sub powered down.
[Rush] I see the bottom.
I don't think
we're touching it.
We had a bit of issue
with one of the battery banks.
Stockton had mentioned
we're not seeing full vertical
thruster availability.
[Stanley] Who wants to be
the first one to say
that they're scared
and they want to go back up,
canceling the trip
for everybody
because you got scared?
The supposed goal
was to test it
to the exact depth
of the Titanic.
We got 96% of the way there.
But because
the cracking sounds
were continuing,
at some point, collectively,
we came to a decision of,
"Well, that's good enough.
Let's call it a day."
I'm sure we were within
a few percentage points
of implosion.
You sent an email
in April 18, 2019 to Mr. Rush.
You say, "The sounds
we observed yesterday
sounded like a flaw/defect
in one area
being acted on
by the tremendous pressures
and being crushed/damaged.
"Would indicate
there is an area of the hull
that is
breaking down/getting spongy."
In my email,
I tell him that the hull
is yelling at him
and he needs to listen.
You'd literally see it
on a graph of paper,
and he still chose
to ignore that.
This exchange of emails
strained our relationship.
I felt like
I kind of pushed things
as far as I could
without just
him telling me to...
shut up and never
talk to him again.
Mr. Stanley,
within those emails,
were you made aware
that a crack
was identified in the hull?
According to
the maintenance log,
it was on May 29, 2019.
-I learned about the crack
quite recently.
-Quite recent.
[Stanley] It's like
you're paying somebody
to play Russian Roulette,
and there's really
three b*ll*ts in the chamber,
but you're told
there's only one.
That's not right.
[Capt. Neubauer]
We will now hear testimony
from Mr. Tony Nissen,
the former OceanGate
Director of Engineering.
As the director
of engineering,
did you make
all engineering decisions?
No.
-Did you make
any engineering decisions?
-Yes.
And who would
make the majority of
the engineering decisions?
It was Stockton.
In June 2019,
an OceanGate pilot
was conducting
a pre-dive inspection
and identified a crack
in the carbon fiber.
I got a picture.
I said...
I think the email was,
"Hey, Tony,
is this supposed to be there?"
Said, "No, that's a crack."
And I spent a couple hours
trying to convince people that
no, this is not salvageable.
And I said,
"Titan's got a crack in it.
I said, "The hull's done."
And we started carving it out,
they noticed that the crack
was bigger than we thought.
When the first hull failed,
they sanded it all out
and they saw
that there was a crack.
It went virtually
the whole length of the hull.
Now, I know what it takes
to create a sub.
It's because it's what I do.
That was the issue
with the Titan.
They painted themselves
in the corner
early in the game.
As Stockton was planning
to build the sub
using carbon fiber...
eh, I did not agree with it.
Hardly anybody in the public
is familiar with carbon fiber.
It's stable all the way up
until this magic point
that it is not.
The failure happens
catastrophically.
Nearly explosively.
As you're diving down,
the pressure
is getting greater.
Now, they heard big pops.
So your fibers are like this.
When this breaks like that,
that would make
some pretty loud pops.
And if it's still
hanging in there,
still supporting it,
it doesn't mean
it's failed completely yet.
Certainly,
Stockton had the money.
He had the vision,
the drive to do this,
and he surrounded himself,
for the most part,
with people
that would say yes.
Because if you didn't say yes,
you weren't there
working with him.
[Capt. Neubauer]
Thank you, Mr. Nissen.
I appreciate your testimony.
You are now released
as a witness
at this formal hearing.
[Lt. Cdr. Tom Whalen]
So after dive 47,
Tony Nissen
identified a crack.
Stockton and OceanGate
needed to maintain
their company vision
of taking people
in a carbon fiber
innovative submersible,
going down to the Titanic
for the trip of a lifetime.
They didn't know
what to do at that point
because the hull
had a crack in it.
The director of engineering,
Mr. Tony Nissen,
states that they are
going to need to scrap it.
Basically what he says is,
"The hull is done."
Mr. Nissen is then fired.
Stockton and OceanGate
then move forward
to create the final Titan hull
of the same material
as the first hull,
which was carbon fiber.
We're offering opportunities
to go to the Titanic in 2021,
and we'll be out
for around four weeks,
leaving from St. John's,
Newfoundland,
which is
380 nautical miles
from the Titanic,
and we're planning to go
with our Titan submersible.
It is the rarest of rare
to go see that.
Fewer people
have seen the Titanic
than will summit Everest
in one day.
[Dawood] This arrogance
of the people in charge
when they think
they're above everything.
That really gets to me.
Like, why is ego and arrogance
more important than safety?
The irony is not lost on me
that the Titanic sunk
for exactly the same reason.
History repeats itself.
[Catterson]
Stockton invited me once
to go out flying with him.
We were friends,
and we were friends
that would argue,
and sometimes I would win.
Most of the times I didn't.
He's got
an experimental aircraft.
"Experimental."
But anyways,
we went out flying
and he said,
"Do you want to fly?"
"Give me that thing."
So, you know,
I'm flying the airplane
a little bit. It's great fun.
And then he takes it back
and says,
"So do you want
to do a barrel roll?"
"Sure."
He told me how to do it
and then I did one.
He said,
"You know, this is great.
"You know,
nobody else ever wants
to go and do this stuff."
I said, "Well,
it's either going to work
or it's not going to work.
"You know,
while we're doing it,
it's going to be, you know,
a great fun time."
Yeah, we could've crashed.
Somewhere in there,
we were a kindred spirit.
Why I kept working with him?
I don't know.
Because I definitely
did not say yes to him
all the time.
My dynamic with Stockton Rush
was interesting.
I mean, I liked Stockton.
I respected him.
I think that he liked
and respected me as well.
We didn't agree on everything.
There we go. I bring this up.
The Earth
is really a water planet.
You know,
Stockton wasn't always right,
but he was, like,
sure he was right.
...clients who go
to the Titanic
have either been to space
or are going to space.
[Hagen] I'm guilty of the same
hubris that Stockton had.
The same desire
to do great things
and to expand my horizons.
I was raised relatively poor
and became
relatively successful.
I've always
been drawn to people
that were more successful.
He was a genius,
and he had
a very distinct vision
of what he was going to build,
how he was going to do it
and what he was
going to achieve.
[Stanley] It's a very small
group of people in the world
that have done
what Stockton and I have done.
Made a submersible,
designed it, built it
and operated it themselves.
Yes, he was attempting
going deeper,
more people,
more money involved.
However,
looking at his finances
and experience,
it didn't seem
so unreasonable to me.
I mean, he was working with
tens of millions of dollars,
doing something
that I had done
with tens of thousands
of dollars
and that I had started
as a teenager
with no formal training,
and he was
an Ivy League engineer.
The sense of adventure
appealed to him,
but I don't believe
he had to work for money
pretty much ever.
His primary motivations
were more ego-driven
than financial.
[Hagen] People accuse him
of trying to prove himself
and live up to
his own ancestry.
And those are relevant points.
Yeah. I mean,
his family legacy
was really about the closest
that you could get
to royalty
within the United States.
[Hagen] Stockton was a true
blue-blood patrician,
as was his wife, Wendy.
Her great grandparents
were the people
that owned Macy's,
whose lives were lost
on the Titanic.
She had
that direct connection.
They were of the upper crust.
I don't think
most people can even imagine
the access that Stockton had
to the uber elites
of the world.
Stockton's father
had been the president-elect
of the Bohemian Club,
which owns
a multi-thousand-acre reserve
of old growth redwood forest
an hour
outside of San Francisco
that they use
for their private campground.
You have such an
accumulation of wealth,
and there's people that want
something cool-sounding
to invest in.
[man] Yeah,
no, I'll get there.
[Stanley] Stockton
pitched an idea
at the right place
and the right time.
[man] Apparently,
Stockton's directing this too.
[Stanley] People
threw money at him,
and he felt some kind of
psychological need
to accomplish something
and impress these people.
[interviewer]
What does it mean to you
to actually go to the Titanic?
It's a culmination
of over 11 years of work,
and tons of time
and blood, sweat and tears.
I'm going to be so excited
when I get down there
and I see that bow
come into view.
Stockton wasn't necessarily
fascinated by the Titanic.
He was trying to improve
this technology
and trying to take it
to a different level
using private funding.
[interviewer]
What have you done
to make sure
Titan can survive
a trip to Titanic?
It's been a long process
to ensure that Titan
can go to the Titanic
repeatedly and safely.
We've refined the process
so that we have
extremely uniform
five-inch-thick carbon fiber.
And with great wealth
comes great responsibility.
And unfortunately,
it is not always the case
that those
who possess great wealth
behave responsibly.
The director of engineering
at the time asked him,
"While that's great
you want to build
with carbon fiber,
but can we build one
out of another material?"
He pushed
and pushed and pushed,
and OceanGate said,
"There is no debating this.
"It's gonna be carbon fiber."
There are certifying agencies.
the Pressure Vessel for
Human Occupation committee,
the SUBSAFE program
in the Navy.
These programs
are over the top
in their rules
and regulations,
but they had nothing
with carbon fiber.
So we had to go out
and work on that.
And one of the things
I learned is,
you know,
when you're outside the box,
it's really hard to tell
how far outside the box
you really are.
And we were
pretty far out there.
[applause]
He had stated
all of the advantage
of carbon fiber,
but never stated
any of the disadvantages
of carbon fiber.
He felt that operations
overruled safety
and saw classifications
as being a waste of money
and a waste of time.
They wanted to be innovative.
[Capt. Neubauer]
There's a few anomalies
that I've never seen before
in thousands of investigations
and thousands of incidents
that I've overseen.
One of them was just
not registering the Titan.
So we weren't tracking it.
We call it "stateless,"
when a vessel doesn't have
a flag or a registration.
[interviewer] Why would they
not register it?
One reason to not register
is to make sure that no one,
from a regulatory standpoint,
is monitoring your operations.
To operate in a manner
that you stay off the radar.
Ultimately had jurisdiction
because it was US-built,
US-operated
and not flagged
by anybody else.
-Hey!
-How are you, man?
-Glad to meet you.
-Nice to meet you in person.
-How are you?
-Great!
-Welcome to Everett.
-Thrilled to be here.
-This is not Titan,
I'm guessing.
-No, this is Suds.
-S-U-D-S?
-S-U-D-S.
What is Suds?
Suds is a a sub that I built,
partly finished,
and dove it
the first time in 2006.
As the host of
Expedition Unknown
on Discovery,
my job is to go
around the world
investigating great mysteries
and to tell stories
of exploration.
We had read about OceanGate.
They had been in the news.
Here was this innovator
that was going to come
and break design barriers
and to create
a next-generation submersible
that could take passengers
down to see Titanic.
And we thought this would be
a great story for
Expedition Unknown.
Okay.
Oh, dear.
What am I looking at?
-[Rush] These are the results
of some of our pressure tests.
-[Gates] Okay.
-High pressure tests?
-High pressure tests.
This is a third-scale model
of the Titan hull.
You have
the cylindrical section
and you have the domes
that we originally thought
we could make
out of carbon fiber.
-So this would have been a sub
you don't want to be in.
-This is true.
But I assume, also,
a valuable lesson, this test.
Yes. One element
we were looking at is
could we predict
the failure of carbon fiber?
So a carbon fiber sub
may work great for one dive
or ten dives or a hundred,
but will it get soft
like the deck
of your fiberglass boat
after somebody's been
stepping on it too much?
-Right.
-And how do you know that
before somebody gets hurt?
And there's been
a bunch of work
on acoustic emissions.
So basically we're listening
to the sound of the carbon.
They start popping
and crackling,
these micro-buckling pieces.
You know,
little air bubbles go
and fibers snap.
And we found that
you can tell quite clearly
way before the carbon fails
that it's going to fail.
-Hmm.
-And that would allow--
-You can hear it?
-Yes.
So If you get to 2,000 meters
and it's making more noise
than the last time
you went to 2,000 meters,
you can stop
and go to the surface, say,
"We've got a problem."
-Right.
-Our first hull
didn't work out,
so we made a full-scale hull.
We tested it to 4,000 meters,
and it didn't get quieter.
It stayed noisy.
That was not a good sign.
So we took it to a chamber
and tested it and said,
"This hull
is not good enough."
So we scrapped that one
and we made a new one
and tested that,
and it was perfect.
Okay, so in the end,
have you cracked the code?
I think
we've cracked the code.
-Okay. You ready?
-Yeah.
-Brian, whenever you're ready.
-[man yells]
-Go ahead. Lead the way.
-Okay.
We went up in May 2021
to meet Stockton
and his team in person.
-So, Josh, this is Titan.
-Wow.
[Gates] Stockton was going
to give myself
and my director
of photography, Brian,
a trip in the sub
to understand what it's like
to be in Titan
and to talk about
where we might mount cameras
and film it
when we went out
into the North Atlantic.
-[Rush] Come onboard.
-[Gates] Hi, everybody.
How are you?
[Gates] Stockton was
a really compelling salesman,
and that's a good way
to describe him, I think.
So, this is
the largest view port
on any deep diving sub
in planet Earth.
Wow, that is extraordinary.
Stockton's answers
were reassuring, I suppose,
but they also felt rehearsed.
They felt like they were
the smooth answers
that you were bound to get
as you cruised
the showroom floor
for a new car.
Carbon fiber will be
one-third the weight
-of a similar
titanium structure.
-[Gates] Right.
If you look at other
deep diving subs,
they tend to be spheres
because the shape
is the ideal shape
for pressure.
-Right.
-A cylinder is a better shape
for actually doing something.
This was
an experimental vehicle.
It had never been to Titanic
at this point.
[Rush] Hang on here.
[Gates] We all rely
on that Spidey sense.
We all have that little voice
that whispers to us.
In my job, I've learned
I have to really listen
to that voice.
Because, you know,
I dangle off a cliff
for a living
and dive into flooded tombs.
I mean,
that's my day-to-day job.
-[Rush] Come on,
get your shoes off.
-[Gates] All right.
[Gates] And that voice
started whispering to me
early on.
-[Rush] Shoes off
and you're in.
-All right.
See you later.
The way that Titan
was designed,
it had no top hatch.
You can't interrupt
that hull with a hatch.
The only way
to get in or out of Titan
was through the front.
-Thank you, sir.
-[Rush] Copy that.
[Gates] And so,
when you climbed inside of it
and they close that door,
they seal you in
from the outside.
Okay, the door is closed.
Now what's happening to it?
[Rush] They're bolting it in.
[Gates] Literally
bolting it in.
How many bolts go around it?
-Four bolts.
-Four bolts.
-So... So we're in.
-You're in.
[Gates] I mean,
the only way out of this
is if someone lets you out.
-[Rush] Yes.
-[Gates] We're sealed up.
You are a prisoner.
My prisoner.
[chuckles]
I'm happy to be here.
Happy to be serving.
Stockton just didn't see,
even psychologically,
the need for a way
out of this sub.
And so my question was,
in your tests,
how long does it take
for Titan to mate
with its sled
and rise to the surface
and for the bolts to be undone
and passengers to get out?
How long does that take?
And Stockton said,
"I have no idea."
The only things you really
want to worry about: fire.
-There are smoke hoods.
-[Gates] Those are where?
On the side here.
Pull back the mat
a little bit.
[Gates] Okay, under here?
[Rush] Yup.
Open that compartment.
-There's a smoke hood there.
-[Gates] Yup.
[Rush] You open that up
and there is a packet
which you pull open
and you have a hood that
you put on top of your head,
and that will keep you alive.
Got it.
He had never done
any emergency
docking procedures.
In fact, we were there in May.
They were bringing passengers
a few months later
for the first time
to the North Atlantic.
This is Titan, Topside.
Topside, Titan.
[indistinct response]
[man] There he goes.
[Brian] It's gonna take it
pretty steep.
This is where
it gets interesting.
[man 2] Yeah?
We're settling down.
We are underwater.
And we'll turn on our TBL.
[Gates] We were in the sub
for hours with Stockton.
And the dive was interesting
in that nothing
really worked right.
Nothing.
[Rush] I'm having trouble with
our port horizontal thruster.
[Gates] Okay.
I don't know why,
because it's starboard's
that we changed.
Okay, show him that.
[Gates] "Aft is unlocked.
No UBT light."
-Got that?
-Aft is unlocked?
"Aft is unlocked.
No UBT light."
The sub
didn't really do anything
it was asked to do.
You know,
we took it underwater,
and then there was
just a cascade of problems
with the sub.
Now this guy will be down
at Titanic too, right?
[Rush] Yeah. Yup.
They have
an emergency override
on the VBin case we have
a software problem.
Then there was an issue
with the software.
The system crashed
at one point.
Hello. Do you copy?
Topside, Titan.
Motor doesn't even
seem to be moving.
But the control program
says it's moving. No current.
Give him an okay,
and then just say
we're going to thrust.
Testing thrust again.
Yeah, we don't like
when the thrusters go out.
We may just go
back in the platform
rather than go to the bottom.
-[Josh] Okay.
-We're pretty much here.
Hey, Topside.
Topside Titan.
[Josh] At one point,
three of the thrusters
weren't working, you know?
I mean, it was...
non-functional,
is a good way to put it.
And so, eventually,
it was decided
that we had to scrub the dive
and bring it
back to the surface.
[Stockton] Okay, we're up.
[woman speaking indistinctly
over radio]
Yep, everything's good.
Tell us back
whenever you're ready.
We're gonna get
some good footage.
Big time.
And this will make
a different story.
[Josh] Stockton seemed
completely unaware
of how bad this dive had gone
from our perspective.
And so on the way
back to port,
I asked him about
his experiences
in deeper dives on the sub.
How noisy is it
when it goes down,
-you think?
-[Stockton] What?
[Josh]
Just the general descent,
-is it pretty quiet?
-Oh, it'll be quiet.
There's usually a bang,
um, somewhere...
-Most subs have
a bang of some type.
-Mm-hmm.
[Stockton] When I was
in the sub before,
and it was, you know,
I'll play you
what it sounded like
when the carbon fiber's
collapsing around you
and you don't have
much time left.
This is what it sounds like.
[Josh] And what, you just were
ascending, ascending,
ascending at that point?
[Stockton] No, no, I was
going down. I kept going down,
because [chuckling] why not?
-[Josh] That was
in the first iteration.
-Yeah.
Once I saw that that was
where he was willing to go
to get this operation
up and running,
a kind of fear set in for me
that was so much deeper
than anything I experienced
while riding in the sub.
[Stockton] I don't know
if it'll play on the speaker,
but...
[faint clicking]
[Stockton]
Those click sounds...
[clicking continues]
[Stockton]...that wasn't
a mouse clicking.
And you could feel it.
I was in the dome. I could
feel these things popping.
[Josh] Uh-huh.
[Stockton] It was...
sort of different.
Second dive,
I put earplugs in...
-[Josh] Right.
-[Stockton]...and it worked
much better.
[Josh laughing]
You just ignored it.
-Right.
-Yeah, yeah.
It wasn't just
a red flag for me,
it was like
a flare had gone up.
And here we were in 2021,
and I was thinking,
"When did they go back
and test this new sub
in the Bahamas?"
And I couldn't quite make
the dates line up in my head.
And so I pressed Stockton
and said, "Wait a minute,
when did you take Titan,
this Titan, to the Bahamas?"
Hello.
Oh. We're back.
We've had 52 dives
in the sub to date.
-[Josh] Test dives?
-Test dives.
[Josh] Are those dives
all here around Everett?
No, so 52...
We've had 52 dives
on the hull.
Um, a lot of them at Everett,
-and many of them
in the Bahamas.
-Okay.
We spent a year and a half
in the Bahamas
testing the sub.
[Josh] But this version
of Titan had never even been
to the Bahamas.
The first hull had been
on 49 dives,
but this hull, this new hull,
was only
on its third dive ever,
and it had never been
down to depth.
I suddenly realized,
what would it mean if I made
this kind of
promotional documentary
about Stockton
and about OceanGate
that maybe inspired
other people to go
and take a ride in this sub...
and then something happened
to it?
And so I made
the really difficult decision
to call up the president
of the network
and to fall on my sword
and say, "I'm really sorry.
I know that money's been
spent here.
I know that this is something
that was a big deal
for you to sign off on,
and I appreciate
the opportunity,
but we shouldn't do this.
This is a mistake.
Something bad is
going to happen here."
[narrator reading]
OceanGate Expeditions
offers you
the once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity
to be a specially trained
crew member
safely diving
to the Titanic wreckage site.
This is not a thrill ride
for tourists.
It's much more.
[Josh] There's
something eternal
about Titanic
and her passengers.
We know the ship is wrecked.
We know about the lives lost.
We know that it's down
in the depths of the ocean,
but it's still
kind of out there.
It's the ship of dreams.
It captures all of us.
We all went to that movie.
There's something about
the story of Titanic
that really reaches out to us.
The Titanic, to me,
was the embodiment.
It was the crowning moment
of the Gilded Age.
We thought that we were
leaving the past behind,
that we had created
an unsinkable ship
of incredible speed
and opulence,
and it sank
on its maiden voyage
and took most
of the celebrities
of the age with it.
You know, you can't even
imagine what that was like.
[Stockton] The Titanic is one
of the most amazing brands
in the world.
People are so enthralled
with Titanic
that it became a must-do dive.
[Josh] The idea
that the very first time
that Titan was going
to visit this...
really deadly wreck,
passengers were gonna
be aboard,
was insane to me.
[Stockton] 920 meters.
[Alfred] Stockton did bring in
people like myself
to help fund his perfection
of this technology,
and that's what
this was all about.
[man 1] We k*ll the thrust,
we are descending in a bit.
[man 2] Yeah,
we're going down.
[Stockton] We make sure
that everyone who joins
an expedition understands
this is an experimental sub.
There are no rules
for a carbon fiber
and titanium sub.
People are informed
that it's very dangerous
down there.
We're constantly improving
the sub
to allow us to innovate.
But we have to be very careful
so that you don't,
by trying to improve it,
create a safety problem.
[Alfred] I do have
a higher tolerance for risk
than the normal person,
and so did Stockton.
Maybe that's bravery,
or maybe it's foolhardiness.
I'm not sure.
[Jason] I understand
the draw to go down and see
the underwater world
of the Titanic firsthand.
But how do you keep
the person safe
who doesn't understand
submersible operations,
who just knows they want
to go see something unique?
How do you prevent them
from taking the ultimate risk
like that?
Especially because it was
a commercial arrangement
and they're paying passengers.
That is something
the Coast Guard has
to look at.
[female panel member 1]
So to confirm,
to become
a mission specialist,
did you pay Oceangate
any money?
I did.
As a mission specialist,
were you part
of the submersible crew
or were you a passenger?
Well, both. I was a...
I was a passenger
who was given the latitude
to participate in the mission.
I didn't do any of the,
what I would say,
critical items,
but certainly tighten bolts
on the dome
and other things
that I would qualify
as what we would say
in a slang version,
monkey work.
[Jason]
The term 'mission specialist'
was created by Oceangate
to give the perception
you know, to others
and including regulators
that these were
really crew members,
when in fact they were
paying passengers.
You can do
an operation safely,
where you give passengers
simple duties,
but it has to be done
with the proper oversight.
And that's what was
lacking in this case.
Did you observe the incident
as the dome fell off?
Yes, I did.
And did the dome slide
down the ramp?
A short distance,
then it got stuck.
I actually have a picture
of it on my phone.
When
the titanium dome fell off,
there were
only four bolts in it
and they just sheared
and they exploded
like b*ll*ts.
Suddenly the people inside
were looking out at the ocean
down a ramp
and obviously,
a horrifying moment.
The thought
with the four bolts was
simply that once you went
to depth,
I mean, you didn't need
anything to hold it on.
The pressure was so intense
that you couldn't pry it off.
Stockton wanted to appropriate
any pictures or videos
of the occurrence.
So there was
a dedicated effort
to hush that up.
[Jason] It was clear to me
from Mr. Hagen's testimony
that he had
a very high risk tolerance,
and that he felt like
there was a possibility
that the worst could occur.
[Alfred] I was okay
with accepting the risk.
I insisted on going down
on the next mission
after the dome fell off
because it was
the first actual descent.
[female panel member 2]
And if you look under dive 62,
there are
several issues listed.
Some are dive critical.
[indistinct radio chatter]
[female panel member 1]
And that was the dive
you were on, correct?
Dive 62?
-Yes.
-Okay.
It states "Incident,
external hull,
HPA valve set
in the wrong position
for the dive.
Starboard control pod failed
at 1700 meters
after pop sound heard.
Two drop weights jammed
in the starboard channel.
Number 1
and number 3 acoustic sensors
have extreme
and unusual events.
Dome hinge
retention plate bent.
DVL intermittent.
External lights flickering
and tilt not functional.
Port battery will not turn on
and sub comes off the platform
in a rough launch."
Did any of that cause you
any concern
while you were inside
the submersible at the time?
Well, there wasn't anything
I could do about it.
I mean, we just had to get
back to the surface.
It was...
I wasn't unduly con...
I mean, there was
a level of concern.
I just figured
we'd sort it out
and return to the surface.
[female panel member 1]
Since you paid
to go to the Titanic,
did you get reimbursed
since you didn't
make it to the Titanic?
No, I did not.
I don't believe
there was any provision
to be reimbursed,
but Stockton made it clear
that if you did not
get to the Titanic,
you would get
another opportunity.
I went back the next year,
so I had
two expeditions basically
for the price of one.
Did I answer your question?
You did. Thank you.
Hi, my name is Stockton Rush.
I'm the CEO
and founder of Oceangate.
Let's take a look at Titan.
So we're coming into the sub.
This is
the only toilet available
on a deep diving submersible.
Best seat in the house.
You can look out the viewport.
We put a privacy screen in,
turn up the music.
It's very popular.
We have
our control screen here,
our sonar screen here.
This is the second year
we've been out to the Titanic.
We're a completely
privately funded operation
and we're funded by what
we call mission specialists
who help support the mission.
So they take quite a bit
of money to come and join us.
We really are focusing
on the Titanic,
on the science around it.
We want to document
what the wreck is like now
and also try to predict
what it will be like
in the future.
[Antonella] All my background,
other than Oceangate,
has been in science work.
I love that aspect of the job.
There's a...
you know,
the exploration aspect
of it is certainly fun.
I'd been contracted to be
an engineer
in operations tech.
There are very few women
in this field.
So you're already
swimming in to it
from a place
of self-doubt, you know,
having fought to be
taken seriously.
The moment I stepped
onto the ship,
I never forgot it.
I had to sign
the liability waiver.
And Stockton was there,
and to a room full of people,
some of them who had paid him
lots of money to be there,
all I really knew was
a quarter million dollar
price tag.
He says, "The company's
registered in the Bahamas,
and they don't do
punitive damages,
so don't even bother
suing me."
And he says this with a laugh.
And I was so shocked.
I wrote it down.
That's a verbatim quote,
because I wrote it down
right after this meeting,
'cause I was
just shocked.
I wasn't even aware
the extent of how ridiculous
and unsafe
their operation was.
Even just the level
of attention to detail
in inspecting the sub
or pre-diving the sub.
You know, I'd walk around
right before a dive
and just find cables
that were loose
or unplugged.
My experience comes
from the ROV world.
Remotely Operated
Underwater vehicles.
We wouldn't send
an ROV down like that.
And they don't have
people on an ROV.
[people cheering
and talking indistinctly]
[Antonella] It felt like
watching some really bizarre,
surrealist movie or something,
and I'm the only one going,
"This is insane, right?
Like, is anyone else
seeing this?"
You know what I mean?
Sort of like,
what's the old, like, story?
The emperor has no clothes,
right?
And only one person is
saying, "Wait a second."
[Josh] How does this guy keep
taking this sub down?
There's only so many answers
to this question.
Uh,
delusion
or desperation.
Someone who is
so deep into this
and has so many creditors
at the door
and has
their personal reputation
on the line
that they have to move forward
and keep forging ahead.
And that's when you start
selling something as a product
that isn't a product.
It's an experiment.
[Alfred] I'm constantly
reminded of the Titan
and my descents
to the Titanic.
Anytime I see
a glorious tapestry
of a lightning sky,
you remember
that glorious morning
without a cloud
and the first rays of sun
brightening
the eastern horizon.
And you tend to think of that
because it was
that kind of a day.
And it was
such a memorable day,
and such
a wonderful adventure.
All right,
good morning, everyone.
Headed back to the Titanic.
Right now, we did
vessel checks this morning.
Uh, a couple
of very minor anomalies,
which is great.
[indistinct chatter]
[Antonella] It was
putting on a show.
It's like,
"Pay attention to this,
pay no attention to the man
behind the curtain.
We're going to talk about
all these different
little things."
No one actually notices,
"Wait a second.
Like, there's
a bigger problem here."
[indistinct conversation]
[Alfred] It was one
of those moments
where you embrace
the possibilities,
you embrace the unknown.
-[man] There you go.
-[ratcheting]
-[woman] All right,
we're good. Ready?
-[man 1] Yeah.
[man 2 over radio] Roger that.
[man speaking indistinctly
over radio]
Platform tugger line
will get you in place.
Titan is a go
for a dive to the Titanic.
You find that in that moment
you're living a life
trembling with joy.
At that moment, that's
the essence of what I felt.
-[man 1] Unlocked.
-[man 2] Unlocked.
[man 3] We're unlocked.
[Alfred] I remembered
how passionate we were
in that moment,
how excited I was
to see this iconic shipwreck
and to go deeper
than I'd ever gone before,
I'd ever imagined.
[man 1] Oh, my God,
that's it, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[man 2 speaks indistinctly]
-[man 1] Yeah.
That's it, that's it.
-[man 2 speaks indistinctly]
[man 1 chuckling] Oh, my God,
we're pretty close here.
We're pretty close.
It's a devastating thing
to look at,
but it's also awe-inspiring.
And inspirational
in some ways,
and deeply sobering,
where all these people lost
their lives,
but their remains are
not there.
Their belongings are.
The detritus of their lives
and the detritus
of the tragedy
are broken and ridden
with bacteria
and scattered across the floor
of the ocean for all to see.
-[man 3] Above here...
-[man 4] Oh, yeah.
[man 3] That's the funnel
number 1.
[man 4] And that's
where they were
launching the lifeboats.
[man 3] Yeah.
[somber
instrumental music playing]
Right now,
we're doing three knots,
and we're trying
to get back to the sub.
[Alfred] We were
ascending in the Titan.
We were actually fairly close
to the surface, as I remember,
and we heard a loud crack.
Which sounded like
the ship breaking apart.
It was very loud,
it was very dramatic,
and everyone sat up,
like, "What was that?"
Mmm, look at that blue.
[Alfred] I can see
the surface almost.
[man 1] That's
a pretty welcome sight.
[Alfred] It was
certainly concerning,
because we didn't
understand what it was.
I mean, we were
close enough to the surface
where I knew we were
going to come out
and that we were
going to be okay.
FRC, we see them now
out of our 9 o'clock,
about 450 meters out.
[Antonella] We spoke
to a member
of the Horizon Arctic crew
about the bang that was heard,
'cause I was, you know,
just concerned
and kind of shocked
that this had happened.
And he told me
that he heard this bang.
[dull thud]
[Antonella] He was
out in the Zodiac
waiting as the sub came up,
and he was able to hear it
from the surface.
Um.
It must have been loud.
I was just, like, shocked.
No one else really
sort of reacted,
and then Stockton sort of
shut it down
and, you know, just, "Oh,
we'll talk about that later."
[Stockton]
It's an open book here.
If you have any questions
about what's going on,
about carbon fiber,
problems we had,
rumors of problems we had,
actual problems we had.
When we got to the surface,
Scott was piloting,
he heard a really loud bang.
-Um, not a soothing sound.
-[man] No.
Um, but on the surface,
and as Tym
and P.H. will attest,
almost every deep diving sub
makes a noise at some point.
You have dissimilar shapes
and metals that are
expanding due
to thermal interaction,
due to pressure changes,
and it's quite common
to have a noise.
[Antonella]
My initial reaction was like,
"Hold on.
You know, you don't..."
Even if you heard
your car make
that sort of noise,
you'd probably stop and go,
"Wait a second, we need to,
like, see what happened here."
[Cmdr. Williams]
When they heard
this loud bang,
there should have been
all stop,
do not continue,
investigate further.
This picture here is
of the placements
of the acoustic
emission sensors
on the Titan.
The purple you see here,
this is
the acoustic emissions,
basically the energy
or acoustic data
that was heard.
On Dive 80,
this purple line goes
all the way to the top,
which means
it was a loud bang.
There is this huge amplitude.
Delamination is essentially
a parting of the carbon fiber.
And what we have come
to the conclusion was
there was a delamination
on Dive 80
upon surfacing
at 2:46 p.m. local time.
[Antonella] I did talk
to Phil Brooks,
the director of engineering.
He had told me,
"It looks like there was
movement in the hull,
but only a few microns."
But I did say to him...
I brought up the possibility
of delamination.
And I asked him,
"Are you going to keep
diving the sub?"
And he said, "Yeah,
we'll do the next mission,
and then
we'll visually inspect it
when we get back to Seattle."
I was just shocked.
Like, you don't need
to be a composites expert...
to see that and think,
"Okay, maybe we need
to step back
and stop the operation
until we figure out
what this actually means."
But of course,
as with anything
with Oceangate,
the response was to just go,
"Oh, okay."
and then just keep going.
Stockton Rush touted
this system as,
"It will let me know
something is happening
before something bad happens."
Right?
Their system did that.
Their system said
there has been
a fundamental change
in the material
of your carbon fiber,
and it was
no longer structurally sound
like it had been
prior to Dive 80.
Delamination at Dive 80 was
the beginning of the end.
And everyone that stepped
on board the Titan
after Dive 80
was risking their life.
[Antonella] I've gone back
and forth a lot, like...
[sniffles]...whether I should
have done more, you know,
whether there's some
moral obligation to do more.
I felt like it was
the right thing to do
to share what I knew
and tell that part
of the story.
So many people are watching
and commenting.
We will now hear
virtual testimony
from Ms. Antonella Wilby,
former Oceangate contractor.
Ms. Wilby, can you hear us?
-I can.
-Thank you
for your time today,
Ms. Wilby. We appreciate it.
I was really impressed
that Ms. Wilby contacted us
and said "Hey, I'm willing
to go on the record"
in a very high profile setting
and gave us some
really critical testimony.
So as I understand it,
you were present
during dive 80
on July 15th, 2022,
where a loud bang was heard
upon surfacing.
Am I correct?
Yes.
Can you please
tell me in detail
about what you know
about that dive?
[Antonella] Um,
I wanted to say something
before the next dive
because they were going
to be diving the sub
a couple days later.
I went to Amber Bay,
the director
of administration.
The culture is
sort of, you know,
anyone who has
a legitimate safety concern
should feel free
to raise that concern
without fear of retribution.
I initially went to Amber Bay.
And I told her
I was really concerned
that they were going
to continue diving the sub.
Her initial response was,
"Yes, people are
concerned about you too.
You don't have
an explorer mindset."
And, like, that's not
the mindset, you know.
Talking about
explorer mindset, like,
this is not a mindset
that you should have
for doing anything.
[Stockton] It's a very
participatory sub.
Often you'll be sitting there,
and he'll back in.
And he'll say,
"Everybody in the dome."
And so you all
pile in the dome,
and that brings the nose down
so he can slam it in there.
[Wilby] It was all about
I wasn't capable
of working with them
because they were
too innovative.
And not at all listening
to, like, what I was trying
to explain,
that, you know,
there's a lot of evidence
that something has
gone really wrong here.
[Stockton] All stations
are reporting the launch
as a go.
Please stand by.
It's two-and-a-half
miles down,
and it's difficult.
That's why
no one else does it.
[Williams] After dive 80,
every single time
you would go down to depth,
you were further
damaging that hull.
Eventually, something bad
was going to happen.
[man] The bottom should be
within a couple of meters.
-All right.
-[people applauding]
[Stockton] Right now,
they will cruise around
the bow,
and they'll spend
about two hours on that,
and then they'll come up.
It'll take about
two-and-a-half hours
to get it to the surface.
[man on radio]
Okay, all hands.
Sounds like we're go
for the dive.
Next stop, Titanic.
[Gates]
There is a real symmetry
between Titan and Titanic.
That is wild.
[man] That is nice, yep.
Naming your submarine Titan
is maybe a first clue
in some of the failings
and some of the hubris
that ultimately led
to what happened.
Titan reports on bottom.
-[all cheering]
-None of it broke out.
[Stockton speaking]
[Stanley]
There's no possible way
that Stockton didn't know
how this was
going to end,
and they just
carried on anyway.
I think he painted
himself in a corner.
He didn't have a good out.
And if he admits
defeat and failure,
and then has to
tell this to the people
that had given him
so much money,
like, what's the rest
of his life look like?
These guys, I--
I set up for the dome.
The hull itself,
you're not going
to hurt the hull.
From the standpoint
of passenger safety,
you're going to be alive
because the hull--
Nothing is
breaching the hull.
It's the safest spot
on the entire planet.
He wasn't necessarily
set on m*rder-suicide
at that point,
but he had given up
hope on the project
coming to fruition
the way he had promised.
And then it was
just a matter of
is it going to fail
with me in it,
or with other people,
or how--
How is it going to fail?
But it was obvious
that it was going
to fail in some way.
[Wilby]
I left after two weeks.
They offered to send me home,
and I said yes.
You know,
no one even looked at me.
Like, I just grabbed
my duffel bag
and walked off the ship.
And, like, people were--
Wouldn't make
eye contact with me.
It's just added
another feeling
of just feeling bad.
Like you've somehow done
something horribly wrong.
Like you're the evil,
terrible person that people
won't even like.
Look at you.
[reporter 1]
We continue to track
some of the coldest air
so far in years
felt across eastern Canada.
It pushes into
the maritime provinces...
[reporter 2] Central
and eastern Canada
is in the grips
of a polar vortex
right now.
Everything was
conspiring against the sub.
When they would
take it back and store it,
it was left out
in the elements.
Once it started getting
into freezing weather,
the water would
then start to expand
and try prizing the--
The hull away from
the titanium ring.
And each time,
the water would go through
freezing cycles.
It's like ice
breaking up rocks.
[Gates] You're not going
to tell them it was left out
all winter in the cold.
You're not going to tell them
about previous sounds
and cracking
from inside the hull.
They didn't treat
the Titan hull with respect.
And that was
your moneymaker.
[Stockton]
It's an open book here.
Do you have any questions
about what's going on about,
uh, acoustic monitoring,
about, uh, carbon fiber
problems we had,
rumors of problems we had.
We want everyone going
into this fully informed
this is an experimental sub.
This is
a dangerous environment.
Almost every deep-diving sub
makes a noise at some point.
You have these
similar shakes...
[Gates] My suspicion
is that Stockton had
enormous financial
pressure to keep going,
and that's when
bad things happened.
[man 1 on radio] Go ahead.
[man 2]
Yeah, I need to stay
alongside of this water.
[man 3] When I woke up,
I was like, "Oh, God, no."
[Catterson] There was
a risk that something
could go wrong...
[man on radio]
Topside stage,
diver one and diver two
heading to surface.
...which is why
I always kept coming back
as safety diver.
It's a choice.
It's either to make
yourself available to help
if you're needed or not.
On the 18th, it was
a perfect day for diving.
The sun came out,
the skies were blue,
the seas were calm,
the wind was down.
What was your
responsibility on that day?
I was running
the platform again.
Basically, I did
all the dive checks
for the platform.
Stockton was the pilot.
He was doing
all the internal checks.
He's like,
"This is great!
This is great!"
We get to dive.
Did you have
any communications
with the passengers
after they had come out
to the submersible?
-They'd come out
on another dinghy...
-[Whalen] Mm-hm.
...and they get out.
And then
they got into the sub.
[Hagen] Anyone
that went down in it,
whatever
their motivations,
should have understood
how risky it was.
They were either
embracing that reality
or they were delusional.
The one person
that should not have
been on the Titan
was the teenage son.
Suleman was close
to the last to going in.
And when he came up,
I grabbed him by the--
The back of his--
His flotation device.
You know,
pull him and make sure
he's not gonna, you know,
go sliding off into the water.
And...
I helped him get in.
I helped him
get into the sub,
and then I said,
"Have a good dive."
[man] At 9:14 a.m. local,
according to
the Polar Prince deck log,
the Titan disengaged,
maneuvered away
and proceeded to dive
with five persons aboard.
The Polar Prince received
a ping from the Titan
approximately every
five to ten seconds.
They're going down
to see the Titanic.
You have this young boy,
you know, who's excited.
His dad
is excited for him.
These are the flashes
going through your mind.
The quiet, right?
The moments before.
What questions,
what conversations
were they having?
[man]
Communications continued
throughout the descent.
There were no transmissions
which indicated trouble
or an emergency
aboard the Titan.
At 10:47:27 a.m. local,
the Titan messaged,
"Dropped two wts."
At 10:47:33 a.m. local,
the Titan was pinged
for the final time.
The depth of the Titan
was 3,346 meters.
[Whalen] Okay, so what
you're going to see
is Miss Rush,
uh, as she is the--
On the comms and tracker.
-[Neubauer] She leads
that team, right?
-[Whalen] Yes.
-You will hear a noise that
is external to the ship.
-Okay.
Or external to the room,
I should say.
-And you will see their
reaction to the noise.
-Okay.
-And then we'll
rewind and go again.
-Right.
How many meters to go?
Um...
[thud over comms]
[Whalen]
So at that point, she said,
"What was that bang?"
[Neubauer] Yeah.
"What was that bang?"
Is this
max volume right now?
[Whalen] It is
max volume for this.
I'm gonna back up
and play it one more time.
It sounds like
a door slamming.
Approximately in five seconds,
you will hear the bang.
[Wendy] Um...
[thud over comms]
Yeah.
Now, next, she's going
to look at the computer,
and she says,
"Dropped two weights."
Dropped two weights
was the last message
from the Titan.
[Neubauer] Right.
The message actually comes in
after they heard the noise of
what could possibly have
been the implosion noise.
Right. Okay.
It appears that she thinks
something happened,
or she senses something,
and then the relief
once she sees
"Dropped two weights."
Agreed.
[Whalen] What we believe
is the implosion sound
came first,
before the computer message
of "dropped two weights."
Based upon the speed
of actual sound.
Sound travels
through the water column
-at 1,500 meters per second.
-[Neubauer] Right.
And so they were at 3,346
meters below the surface,
so that would have been,
like, two-and-a-half seconds.
Dropped two weights
is the last thing
that they stated.
-Within five seconds is when
we lost comms and tracking.
-[Neubauer] Yeah. Okay.
Gotta show
some other folks.
That is--
I mean, you figured,
the fatal moment, you know,
for all of them.
[Whalen] Mm-hm.
It is.
It's very sobering.
[Jamie Frederick]
At 5:40 p.m.,
we received a call.
A report of
an overdue submersible
at the site of the Titanic.
We happened to have
the United States Coast Guard
C-130 on deck
in St. John's.
And, ironically,
that aircraft
was on deck in St. John's
because they were conducting
an international
ice patrol mission,
which is something
the Coast Guard does
as a result of the
sinking of the Titanic.
[reporter]
The Canadian Coast Guard,
they have new ships
that have just arrived
on scene.
The Horizon Arctic,
a ship that can drop
a remotely-operated vehicle.
If they find that sub,
they've got a huge challenge
lifting it up
out of the water,
maybe from a depth
of two-and-a-half miles.
There's no other explanation
for losing comms and tracking
when they weren't yet
at the bottom,
other than implosion.
They found what
they were looking for.
It was no longer
a search and rescue,
but a recovery.
They found debris.
Stockton would have understood
the reality of an implosion
being instantaneous
and painless.
You're talking about
something happening
in a fraction of a second,
where you're
exposed to temperatures
hotter than the sun
and pressures more than double
what's inside a scuba tank.
So they--
You know,
they didn't feel a single--
It's basically the perfect,
painless way to die.
[Catterson] This was
a moment in time
when their sub was there,
and then it was not.
[Dawood] I lost two people
who are important in my life.
I would never want
anybody to go through
that pain. [sniffles]
So here is a picture
of the aft dome that came up.
It is filled with water.
And then
we emptied the water,
and then we started to go
through some of the debris.
This is what
the sludge looked like
once you got rid
of the water.
So a lot of this is just
carbon fiber or fiberglass.
You know, electronic parts.
I mean, really,
it turned into sludge.
[Steele] Let's just
consider the end cap to be
a bowl, a mixing bowl.
Items that were inside
of the Titan at the time
now become encased
inside of the end cap.
We were all just, kind of,
getting all hands in
and separating
what needed to be considered
as, uh, human remains
and what was just
other wreckage pieces.
So as we were pulling apart,
that's how we realized
what it was,
Mr. Rush's, uh, clothing.
It was actually
caked inside of sand.
It was
the piece of his sleeve,
uh, that had survived.
No, not the whole suit.
Um, just that end
inside of the sleeve of it
was ink pen,
business cards
and stickers
for the Titanic.
And there was
nothing else but that.
But each one of
those pieces,
even the pen,
was still intact.
It hadn't been broken.
All of this debris,
all of these
things shattered,
but his pen
was still intact.
[Williams]
Everyone wants to know
what happened to Titan.
Could it have
been prevented?
I think it's important
for the public to hear
the truth.
The whole world
is interested in that.
[Neubauer] The testimony
gathered has been critical,
but there is still
more work to be done.
And our final report
will be essential in shaping
future safety standards.
I'm now ready
to take your questions.
Anne Emerson, Channel 4.
Do you believe you have
enough to recommend
criminal charges?
And if so, who are you
looking at charging?
[Dawood] I think
I will never be the same.
I don't think that anybody
who goes through loss and--
And such a trauma
can ever be the same.
One of the most important
things that came out for me
was when the Coast Guard
also assured us
as a family that
we couldn't have known.
For me, that was...
yeah, I guess
the most important,
um, reassurance
they could have given me.
[Catterson]
My belief with the dead
is just leave them alone.
The same goes for Stockton.
[scoffs]
I wish he was
here right now,
and I would smack
him one, you know.
Um...
[sighs]
[stammering]
It does no good to--
To speak ill of the dead.
You know, it's...
[Steele]
Those days searching,
I was hoping
that the outcome
was not going
to be what it was.
You know,
laws are written in blood,
you know, regulations
are written in blood.
That's the saying
in the Coast Guard.
We needed
to provide closure.
We needed to provide closure
to those families.
OceanGate gave this idea
that they were safe.
But when you look
at all of the things
that OceanGate
bypassed and didn't do,
safety was
not their priority,
it was monetary gain.
For me,
a submersible is way riskier
than other
vessel operations.
So why are we giving them less
stringent safety requirements?
It just doesn't make sense.
We've, of course, talked about
some of the recommendations.
The most important one
to me is--
Is changing how we handle
any US passenger submersible
in our naval waters.
If you want to be an explorer,
an inventor, an innovator,
that's awesome, you know.
Knock yourself out.
But when you start
inviting the public,
when you bring a kid into
this thing you've invented,
you have a responsibility
at that point to be
totally forthright
about what it is
that you're offering.
[Stanley] When people
are doing things like
spending $250,000
in a death tube
that wasn't tested,
controlled
by a game controller
by a guy that's telling you
how he wants to be remembered
for breaking rules,
it's a message
to the super wealthy,
the oligarchy, if you will,
that your money
can't buy everything.
[Whalen] He was arrogant.
He felt that his way
was the only way
and the best way.
And, I mean, I don't know
why he felt that way,
but he did.
And, um--
-[Williams] Five people
perished because of it.
-You know, it's-- Mm.
[Williams] There were
so many opportunities
for Stockton to stop this
operation from happening,
and he always chose
to continue the operation,
instead of thinking about it
from a safety perspective.
With regards to the actions
and the inactions of Mr. Rush,
continued, um, failures
to properly, um,
inspect the hull,
failures to--
To properly,
um, identify risks
and risk mismanagement.
So many steps
and so many failures
that got to
where this is at.
So really, what we have here
is not an accident.
It's a potential crime.
-[Whalen] Yes, sir.
-[Williams] Yes.
Okay.
[Whalen] He knew
the risks he was taking
with carbon-fiber hull
and with the Titan.
But he didn't tell
anybody else about
those risks
because he had
to make the money.
It's inescapable.
There is no letting
Stockton off the hook
at the end of this.
How did the people
that had access
to the information
that the general public
didn't have until after
the disaster,
how did those people
not only not stop him,
but keep giving him money?
That's the question
that keeps me up at night.
[Dawood] I'm not
looking for blaming.
We all know
who the culprit is.
Well, it's not changing
anything, does it?
The culprit died
with them, right?
So...
who am I to blame?
[Stockton] There are
a group of people,
I don't know
how many there are,
that say you shouldn't
visit the Titanic
because it's a grave site.
Um, in my mind,
I think that's just absurd.
The fact of the matter is
the best way
to honor those who died
is to draw attention to it,
to make people think about it.
I think it's very important
to keep the Titanic alive.
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Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster (2025)
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