BBC docu footage captures sound of 2023 OceanGate fatal imploding

New footage from the support ship of the ill-fated OceanGate’s Titan submersible has revealed the exact moment the vessel imploded during a June 2023 descent to the Titanic wreck, killing all five passengers instantly. The implosion occurred about 90 minutes into the dive, at a depth of roughly 3,300 meters. Onboard were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, explorer Hamish Harding, French diver Paul Henri Nargeolet, businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his son Suleman Dawood.

The footage—obtained by the US Coast Guard (USCG) and shown in the BBC documentary Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster—shows Wendy Rush, wife of Stockton Rush and an OceanGate director, reacting on the support ship to a loud sound, asking, “What was that bang?” The USCG has confirmed this noise marked the moment of the sub’s catastrophic implosion.

According to the BBC, the USCG Marine Board of Investigation, which has been examining the incident for nearly two years, has presented the footage as part of its inquiry. The investigation uncovered that the sub’s carbon fibre hull—a highly unconventional material for deep-sea vessels—began failing as early as a year before the fatal dive.

Their article points out that carbon fibre, though strong, is unreliable under the immense pressure of deep-sea environments due to its tendency to delaminate, or separate into layers. According to the USCG, delamination began during Titan’s 80th dive in 2022, when passengers heard a loud bang while returning to the surface. At the time, Stockton Rush dismissed it as structural shifting, but data later showed it was the initial sign of hull failure.

Lt. Cmdr. Katie Williams of the USCG stated, “Delamination at dive 80 was the beginning of the end,” adding that every subsequent dive risked passengers' lives. After the 80th dive, Titan made three more trips in 2022—two to the Titanic and one to a nearby reef—before the hull finally gave way during the June 2023 mission.

According to the BBC, experts had long warned about the dangers of Titan’s design. Some former OceanGate employees and independent specialists had labelled the vessel an “abomination” and predicted disaster. A major concern was that Titan had never undergone an independent safety certification process. Instead, its design relied heavily on untested materials and engineering assumptions.

Deep-sea explorer Victor Vescovo, who is featured in the documentary, voiced strong opposition to the sub. He said he had warned potential passengers and Rush himself, comparing trips in the sub to playing “Russian roulette.”

The wreckage of Titan was later found scattered across the Atlantic seabed. The USCG plans to release a final report later this year, aiming to detail the causes of the disaster and issue recommendations to prevent future tragedies.

By Nazrin Sadigova