On June 18, the OceanGate Titan submersible disappeared with five individuals on board. Shortly after diving towards the Titanic wreckage, the submersible vanished. The US Coast Guard later confirmed that the vessel had experienced a devastating implosion.
Now, newly surfaced footage from a BBC documentary shows a distressing incident involving the Titan submersible, where it spun uncontrollably after the pilot lost command. The documentary chronicles a mission conducted by the sub in 2022. As the five passengers approached the Titanic wreck, pilot Scott Griffith alerted the team to an imminent issue, stating that the submersible was spiraling beyond his control.
The footage, captured by the BBC Travel Show, reveals the anguished reaction of the crew upon hearing Mr. Griffith’s distressing news about Titan’s malfunctioning thrusters. Fortunately, the crew managed to reprogram the controller, allowing Titan to redirect its course towards the Titanic and successfully resume the mission.
“Scott is like, ‘Oh no, we have a problem’,” one of the passengers is quoted as saying in the documentary.
“I was thinking we’re not going to make it,” says another passenger, a woman, in the short clip uploaded on BBC Select’s YouTube channel.
On the surface of the ocean, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush assisted Mr. Griffith, as reported by Sky News.
Surprisingly, Mr. Rush proposed a simple solution.
“Tell him to hold it the other way,” he said.
The CEO suggested that tilting the controller 90 degrees clockwise would allow the submersible to move forward again.
The footage gained significant attention following a New Yorker report in 2018, which claimed that OceanGate employees were concerned about the sub’s reliability and Mr. Stockton’s “ego.”
On June 18, the OceanGate vessel went missing, carrying British explorer Hamish Harding, diving company CEO Stockton Rush, French submersible pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his son Suleman. Four days later, the US Coast Guard confirmed that the Titan submersible had experienced a catastrophic implosion, resulting in the unfortunate loss of all five individuals.
Watch the footage below form the BBC documentary:
