The Biggest Revelations From Netflix's 'Titan: The OceanGate Disaster'
It was billed as a once-in-a-lifetime adventure: a deep-sea dive to the Titanic shipwreck 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) below sea level aboard a sleek, experimental sub made out of carbon fiber—a material never used prior for submersibles. CBS's David Pogue, who went on a dive with OceanGate in July 2022, said he was told that the company boasted to have a robust safety culture with a 'rule of three,' in that if even three 'little things' went wrong, missions would be scrapped.
But what unfolded was a slow-moving disaster years in the making. As OceanGate's former engineering director Tony Nissen says in Netflix's new documentary Titan: The OceanGate Disaster, it wasn't 'that we didn't follow a set of regulations' that led to the imposition, but that it was the company 'culture.' That might sound like a startling admission, but it's only one of many revelations being shared by former OceanGate employees in this documentary among others amid the ongoing investigation by the U.S. Coast Guard and other governing bodies.
Here's an overview of some of the most important things viewers learned in the Netflix documentary about the Titan, OceanGate, and its founder, the late Stockton Rush.
For a ship to be classed means it has been reviewed and certified by an independent maritime classification society to meet established structural and safety standards. This process ensures the vessel's design, construction, and maintenance adhere to international guidelines for seaworthiness.
After the first hull on Titan was completed, Rob McCallum, founding partner and operator of EYOS Expeditions, says in the documentary that Rush told the crew in 2018 while at lunch near the company's headquarters that he saw no need for classification or third-party oversight. (McCallum was consulting given his experience on deep sea tours.) McCallum says he stood up and resigned on the spot. 'I said, 'I'm sorry I can't be a part of this conversation, nor can I be associated with OceanGate or this vehicle in any way,' and I left,' McCallum says. 'He had every contact in the submersible industry telling him not to do this.'
In 2016, an OceanGate submersible piloted by Rush became stuck beneath the wreck of the Andrea Doria off the coast of Massachusetts. Despite warnings from OceanGate's then-director of marine operations, David Lochridge, about the dangers of approaching the deteriorating site, Rush moved too close and wedged the Cyclops 1, another one of the company's submersibles, into the bow. Accounts vary on what happened next. Some reports claim Rush panicked and threw the controller at Lochridge to take over. The documentary includes the most footage ever shown of the incident: Rush, indeed, looks flustered. Lochridge very clearly and calmly is able to regain control of the sub and steer it back to the surface. That said, it still cannot be confirmed if the controller was thrown or not, as camera angles inside the sub are limited due to its size.
After the 'classed' incident, Rush assigned Lochridge to write a safety report on the Titan. Lochridge raised concerns about the carbon fiber hull and the lack of non-destructive testing. He was then summoned to a meeting the following day with Stockton, finance and administration director Bonnie Carl, quality assurance director Scott Griffith, and Nissen. Curiously, the meeting was recorded, and the audio playback was shared in the documentary. Lochridge was fired, and bizarrely, Rush tried to replace him with Carl, positioning her as the company's first female pilot, even though Carl herself points out she was an accountant. She says in the documentary she knew 'at that moment, she couldn't work at the company anymore' and decided to leave.
Lochridge filed a whistleblower complaint with OSHA, alleging retaliation under the Seaman's Protection Act. OceanGate responded with a lawsuit, accusing him of breaching a non-disclosure agreement and misusing proprietary information. Lochridge countersued, claiming wrongful termination for raising safety concerns. He later said the legal battle became too draining for him and his wife to continue. At a U.S. Coast Guard hearing, he removed his glasses to wipe his eyes while describing the ordeal.
At the end of the 2022 diving season, OceanGate left the Titan on an exposed dock in St. John's, Newfoundland for the winter—without shelter, garage, or even a tarp beyond a small blue one for the porthole. Nissen said he warned Rush the sub could not withstand sub-zero temperatures or the carbon fiber would begin to fracture. In the documentary interviews as well as testimony in front of the U.S. Coast Guard investigative panel, former employees said the company didn't have the budget to ship the sub back to Washington. No explanation was offered for why even a rental garage or temporary cover couldn't be provided.
The Netflix documentary highlights that several missions were attempted beforehand in June 2023, including one featuring YouTuber Scuba Jake. On that second-to-last dive, the sub briefly submerged before losing communications and aborting the mission after just a few feet under water. Jake has since shared his experience both in the documentary and to his social media accounts, but he noted on his Instagram page that he took several months away for his mental health after the implosion.
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Doomed 'Titan' Sub Founder Could Have Been Charged If He'd Survived Final Dive, Investigator Says (Exclusive)
The implosion of the Titan submersible in June 2023, which killed five people, stands out to Coast Guard investigator Jason Neubauer as unique for several reasons After a lengthy probe, USCG officials are preparing a final report and Neubauer says OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush would have been criminally responsible if he lived Authorities did not, however, speak with Rush's widow, Wendy, who has avoided public attentionJason Neubauer has been involved with hundreds of U.S. Coast Guard investigations involving marine accidents, tragedies and worse. Still, the implosion of the Titan submersible in June 2023, which killed five people, stands out to him as unique for several reasons. 'I've never seen one where the vessel was never registered,' Neubauer, who is leading the USCG probe of the Titan disaster, tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story. The lack of registration (or 'flagging') with a country was one of the indicators that the sub, created by the Washington-based exploration company OceanGate, was seeking to skirt regulatory scrutiny and safety laws. As Neubauer puts it, 'the reason you would do it is to stay off the radar with your intentions.' Similarly, OceanGate didn't have the Titan 'classed' — or certified by an outside body — and its paying passengers were listed as 'mission specialists' on dives, which Neubauer calls a 'mask' to get around the law. OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush, 61, had long been open about his dreams of building a novel kind of submersible to allow more people to reach deepwater artifacts like the wreck of the Titanic. To that end, Titan's hull was made of carbon fiber rather than titanium or steel and it was designed in a cylindrical shape, not a sphere. Titan Both of those decisions went against the prevailing understanding of the best way for submersibles to withstand immense pressure while traversing the ocean. But for a time, Rush seemed to have been successful — even as internal warnings mounted that his sub would ultimately fail. Neubauer notes that the Titan's own monitoring system documented how the hull was making increasing amounts of noise, indicating the material was being damaged. The sub was also left out in the Canadian winter, in a parking lot, even covered with snow, during the off-season. Then while diving down to the Titanic two years ago, the Titan imploded while Rush was piloting. Four other people — Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet — were killed as well. 'It was incredible that the Titan made it to Titanic … many times. It really was technologically impressive that it was able to do that,' Neubauer says. 'The problem is it just wasn't doing it safely.' The sub, says Neubauer, was 'waiting to be an accident.' Since the implosion, the Coast Guard has been conducting an extensive investigation — including a public hearing last year — and with what Neubauer calls 'the most data' he's ever seen collected for a probe like this. A final report is expected soon, as early as this month. One conclusion Neubauer feels comfortable making is that if Rush had survived, he could've faced charges for seaman's manslaughter. He says no one else at OceanGate was responsible, including Rush's widow, Wendy, who worked at the company at the time and was on board a support ship monitoring the final, doomed dive. She has avoided the spotlight since the tragedy and Neubauer says Coast Guard officials didn't interview her. 'We felt like we could get the information we needed from other witnesses. And I've been in contact with her through her attorney,' he says, 'but I haven't been tracking where she is.' (PEOPLE has been unable to reach her for comment.) Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 'I think we know the story,' Neubauer says. 'We know what happened. We have some ideas how to prevent it from occurring again.' In its own statement, OceanGate tells PEOPLE: 'We again offer our deepest condolences to the families of those who died on June 18, 2023, and to all those impacted by the tragedy.' 'After the tragedy occurred, OceanGate permanently wound down its operations,' the now-defunct company says, 'and focused its resources on fully cooperating with the investigations being.' Read the original article on People
USA Today
6 hours ago
- USA Today
Who died in the OceanGate Titan submersible disaster? A look at the victims
Who died in the OceanGate Titan submersible disaster? A look at the victims OceanGate, in a statement at the time, had described the victims as "true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world's oceans." Show Caption Hide Caption Newly released footage captures sound of Titan submersible imploding Newly released video appeared to capture the sound of the Titan submersible imploding on its way to visit the Titanic wreck in June 2023. On the second anniversary of the ill-fated Titan submersible, the tragic incident is back in the spotlight, courtesy of a Netflix documentary that takes an in-depth look at the implosion that left five men dead. "Titan: The OceanGate Disaster" dropped on Netflix on June 11, just seven days before the two-year marker, and it "examines OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, his quest to become the next billionaire innovator and the doomed underwater endeavor that forced the world to reconsider the price of ambition in the depths of the ocean," according to the new feature-length documentary's synopsis. The Titanic-visiting vehicle imploded two miles below sea level on June 18, 2023, about one hour and 45 minutes into the voyage. Its wreckage was found on the ocean floor about 330 yards off the bow of the Titanic. All five people aboard were killed. The Coast Guard is still investigating the cause of the implosion and is expected to release a final report. A series of hearings were held in 2024 as part of the investigation, and a lawsuit has been filed by the family of French maritime and Titanic expert, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, claiming all five passengers probably experienced "terror and anguish" in their final moments. OceanGate, in a statement at the time, had described the victims as "true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world's oceans." As the Netflix documentary premieres, here's what to know about the victims of the submersible. Stockton Rush Stockton Rush, 61, was the CEO of OceanGate, which he founded in 2009 and oversaw financial and engineering strategies, according to the company's website, which was taken down in the wake of the fatal implosion, USA TODAY previously reported. Rush was the pilot of the Titan submersible at the time of the disaster. He was also the co-founder of OceanGate Foundation, a non-profit organization, "which aims to catalyze emerging marine technology to further discoveries in marine science, history, and archaeology," according to the company's website. Rush, who held degrees from Princeton University and the University of California, Berkeley, had an adventurous spirit, per his obituary in the New York Times. He also told Fast Company in 2017 that he "wanted to be the first person on Mars.' Rush was a member of a prominent family in San Francisco and a descendant of two signers of the Declaration of Independence, according to SFGate. The outlet reported that he was working as an aerospace engineer for McDonnell Douglas when he married his wife, Wendy, in 1986. His wife is the descendant of retailing magnate Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida, two of the wealthiest people to die aboard the Titanic, according to the New York Times. Who was Stockton Rush? OceanGate CEO focus of Titan implosion documentary Hamish Harding Hamish Harding, a British billionaire explorer who was chairman of Action Aviation, a global sales company in business aviation. Harding, 58, was a flying enthusiast who had been to space and held three Guinness World Records related to his explorations by plane and into the deep ocean. Harding's family, in a statement, described him as a dedicated father of two and a 'living legend' who loved to explore and push the boundaries of what was possible. The businessman also went on many adventures with his son, Giles, who at 12 became the youngest person to make a trip to the South Pole. Harding is survived by his wife, Linda Harding, with whom he had four children, according to The Independent. Paul-Henry Nargeolet Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77, a French maritime and Titanic expert, was director of Underwater Research for E/M Group and RMS Titanic, Inc. He successfully dived in a submersible to the site of the Titanic wreckage 37 times and "supervised the recovery of 5,000 artifacts," according to EMGroup's website, which also says he's "widely considered the leading authority on the wreck site." A French Navy veteran who served as a submarine pilot, mine-clearing diver and deep-sea diver, Nargeolet is survived by his wife, Anne Sarraz-Bournet; two daughters, a son, a stepson and four grandsons, according to his New York Times obituary. His wife, Michele Marsh, an Emmy Award-winning newscaster in New York, died in 2017 of complications from breast cancer, per the outlet. Shahzada Dawood Shahzada Dawood, 48, hailed from one of Pakistan's wealthiest families and served on the board of trustees for the Dawood Foundation, an education nonprofit based in Pakistan, according to the World Economic Forum. He was also on the board of the SETI Institute, a non-profit research organization, as well as serving as vice chairman on the board of Pakistani Engro Corporation. Dawood is survived by a daughter, Alina, and his wife, Christine. Suleman Dawood Shahzada Dawood's son, Suleman Dawood, 19, loved science fiction, solving Rubik's Cubes and playing volleyball, the New York Times reported. He was a business student at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and had planned to join his father in working for Engro after graduating from college, his obituary read, per 'The relationship between Shahzada and Suleman was a joy to behold; they were each other's greatest supporters and cherished a shared passion for adventure and exploration of all the world had to offer them,' the Dawood family said in a statement, per the New York Times. Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, Isabelle Butera, Javier Zarracina, Janet Loehrke, Grace Hauck, Kayla Jimenez / USA TODAY Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@ and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
‘Absolutely shocking': Netflix documentary examines how the Titan sub disaster happened
If you were sentient in the summer of 2023, you probably remember the feverish speculation, vicarious horror, snap consternation and armchair sleuthing after the disappearance of the submersible called Titan during a commercial voyage to the wreck of the Titanic. The Titan sub disaster was inescapable for weeks as the story evolved from critical rescue mission – the best-case scenario being a mechanical failure deep in the North Atlantic with 96 hours of oxygen for the five passengers, which you better believe became a countdown clock on cable news – to tragic recovery operation. Related: 'Incredibly disturbing': docuseries goes inside jaw-dropping LA mortuary scandal The sub, it turned out, had imploded at 3,300 meters beneath the surface, 90 minutes into a dive that was supposed to reach 3,800 meters deep. All five passengers – British explorer Hamish Harding, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet and submersible owner Stockton Rush – were killed instantly. Even as the search for the sub, whose wreckage was eventually returned to land, continued in earnest, concerning reports about the safety record at OceanGate, the company which operated the vehicle, began to emerge: that a whistleblower had declared implosion of the sub's trademark carbon fiber hull a mathematical certainty years earlier. That Rush, the company's founder and CEO, pursued commercial voyages anyway, eluding any type of third-party certification. For the majority of the public, the story ended along those lines: a preventable tragedy, another sin of human hubris at arguably the most famous shrine to the folly of human hubris in history. That is not wrong; according to the new Netflix documentary Titan: The OceanGate Disaster, the sub's implosion was virtually guaranteed by its design. 'I'm convinced, based on the research and the discussions that I've had, that the submersible Titan could have imploded at any time,' said the film's director, Mark Monroe. In fact, it was 'absolutely shocking' that Titan made as many successful dives – 80 attempts, 13 to Titanic depth, between 2021 and 2022 – as it did. But for those who either worked at OceanGate, were tasked with the investigation or loved someone lost on board, the story is much more complicated, and concerning, than a design flaw. Another film would proceed through an exact timeline of Titan's final mission on 18 June, 2023; include footage of the wreckage or diagrams of its descent coordinated to text messages sent to its surface-level team; play the audio of its implosion, recorded 900 miles away by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration device; or allow viewers to see Rush's wife Wendy hear the implosion, whose sound reached its support ship, Polar Prince, before their last text message, allowing them to mistakenly assume the sub was fine. The Netflix film, made by the veteran production company Story Syndicate, doesn't do any of that, eschewing a Seconds from Disaster-type narrative and instead focusing on the nearly decade-long procession toward disaster, through numerous decisions prizing flashy ambition over safety. 'It's scarier, in a way, to understand the decision-making over the 10-year period that led to that moment,' said Monroe. 'I feel pretty strongly if the civilians' – the paying customers OceanGate called 'mission specialists' to skirt around commercial maritime safety regulations – 'had seen the decisions made along the way, they would have been a lot more reticent to get into that submersible. And I think that was not clear, or made clear, to the public.' With access to company footage, data, files and several former employees and whistleblowers, the 111-minute documentary paints a fuller picture of a company with idealistic ambition and plenty of scientific backing – at least at first. Founded outside Seattle in 2009 by Rush, an entrepreneur with a rich family and an engineering degree, OceanGate attracted talent from the fields of engineering, diving and marine exploration with its ambition to revolutionize deep sea travel for the masses. The question of how to make deep subs, usually made of very heavy titanium steel, lighter and nimbler – and thus commercially viable – was an appealing puzzle to an array of scientists, deep-sea divers and exploration enthusiasts. It's what drew David Lochridge, a highly experienced submersible pilot, to uproot his family and move to Everett, Washington, to become OceanGate's operations director. In the film, Lochridge explains that he didn't initially understand, on a technical level, OceanGate's answer to the lightweight, deep-sea sub conundrum: carbon fiber, a lightweight but high-strength composite material of tightly pack carbon threads cemented with resin, used in everything from sports cars to deluxe skis. But in time, the material's problems became clear. For one, carbon fiber had never been tested at extreme depths, and thus had no reliable safety record. And two, its integrity naturally degrades with repeated use. 'There is a fatigue aspect to carbon fiber – once you use it, it won't be as good the next time you use it, by increments,' Monroe explained. The documentary includes ample footage from OceanGate's years-long test phase, as various carbon fiber designs failed in experiments simulating high pressure. Nevertheless, Rush persisted, dismissing safety concerns from engineers on staff and continuing to insist to credulous media that commercial ventures to the Titanic were soon within reach. Lochridge and others attest to Rush's hardheaded approach, at times openly hostile to any intra-company dissent. He openly admired Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, expressing a desire to, as one employee recalled, be a 'big swinging dick'. In that vein, Rush claimed to be working with Boeing, Nasa and the University of Washington, though no formal partnerships existed. (In fact, a Boeing engineer involved in Titan's early designs emailed Rush in March 2012: 'We think you are at high risk of a significant failure at or before you reach 4,000 meters. We do not think you have any safety margin.') Rush also elected to withhold any OceanGate craft from third-party safety inspections, the industry standard for submersibles. That decision proved to be a breaking point for several employees; Lochridge was fired after he inspected Titan himself, and said in a written report to Rush that he had no confidence in the submersible. The documentary includes remarkable audio of a 2018 senior staff meeting in which Rush fires Lochridge and quashes his concerns as a discrepancy of vision – 'I don't want anybody in this company who is uncomfortable with what we're doing. We're doing weird shit here and I am definitely out of the mold. There's no question. I am doing things that are completely non-standard.' 'There is a danger in the kind of cult of personality, particularly the tech bro, 'move fast and break things,'' Monroe said. 'When other people's lives are in the balance, I think we should all take a step back and be careful about that. It's one thing to put unmanned spacecraft into space, but you're taking money to provide an expedition.' One has to wonder, given all the dissent, given the fact that the sub would produce loud cracking sounds with each descent (which Rush called, unscientifically, the carbon fiber 'seasoning' with use) – did the CEO actually believe it was safe? 'I'm not in Stockton's mind, so I don't know,' said Monroe. But he took into account Rush's public personality as a maverick, the media tailwinds in his favor. 'When you say you're going to go to Titanic in a new submersible that no one's ever done before, and the sound of your own voice resonates year after year while you're trying to figure out how to do it, I think there's a pressure that builds, that suggests 'I have to do this.'' What is clear, from numerous interviews, was that 'if you went against the boss, there were going to be repercussions.' Lochridge knows this well; after he filed a whistleblower complaint with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha), OceanGate sued him for improperly disclosing confidential information to regulators. The legal costs, and Osha's protracted investigation, forced him to withdraw his complaint, ending what could have been the one regulatory oversight on the company. OceanGate continued apace; the film lingers only briefly on the dive in 2022 which seemed to damage the sub, even according to the company's own 'real-time monitoring system'. Titan imploded on its next dive to Titanic depths a year later, after several aborted attempts due to inclement weather. Though the 'delamination' of the carbon fiber hull is the presumed cause, the US Coast Guard's official written report, including recommendations for the prevention of a similar tragedy, has yet to be publicly released. 'I don't know what those recommendations could be,' said Monroe, 'but you would think they would have to do with how to run an experimental submersible when offering it to the public.' Such as, perhaps, oversight, or a healthier sense of skepticism when the only safety assurances come from the company itself. Rush 'believed in the ethos of move fast and break things. Rules don't apply when you want to change the way things work,' said Monroe. 'That's dangerous when other people's lives are at stake. There are certain rules that do apply, like the rules of physics, the rules of science – these rules do apply to all of us.' Titan: The OceanGate Disaster is now available on Netflix
