OceanGate’s Titan Disaster Explained: How The Submersible Imploded

Review

The 2025 Netflix documentary Titan: The OceanGate Disaster delves deep into the 2023 disaster of OceanGate’s Titan, exploring questions like why the submersible imploded and who’s to blame. With the popularity of the true story of the Titanic sinking, it was only a matter of time before submersible companies started offering to carry passengers down to the wreckage, which sits at 3,810 meters (12,500 feet).

The company OceanGate decided that they’d cater to these individuals by making the Titan, a 22-foot-long vessel made of composite carbon fiber and titanium domes at each end. Each ticket cost a quarter of a million dollars, making the trip extremely pricey. Unfortunately, it was also dangerous. After just 88 dives, the plan ended in disaster when the submersible imploded, an event that’s explored in depth in the Netflix documentary Titan: The OceanGate Disaster.

OceanGate's Titan Submersible Imploded Near The Site Of The Titanic Wreckage On June 18, 2023

The Titan Only Made It To 3,300 Meters Before Imploding

On June 18, 2023, OceanGate’s Titan embarked on Dive 88. Before this, the Titan took 87 dives, and only 13 successfully reached the depth of the Titanic. By all measures, the trip to the Titanic wreckage would be incredibly unsafe and reckless. Unfortunately, the submersible imploded at just 3,300 meters (10,826.8 feet), 500 meters short of the destination. The initial timeline of the OceanGate disaster, as provided by USA Today, was this:

However, a later video obtained by the U.S. Coast Guard shows the moment that the Titan is believed to have imploded. Wendy Rush monitored the dive from the support boat. In the video, she hears a bang and asks about it just before 10:47 am. Moments later, she receives a text that says the Titan dropped two weights. Because the text came after the bang, everyone assumed that the weights caused the sound. However, the Coast Guard told BBC that the text was sent before the implosion, and it simply took longer to arrive than the sound.

Many individuals, including the makers of Titan: The OceanGate Disaster, believe that the dives should have been shut down long before Dive 88 ended in tragedy.

Without the knowledge that the Titan had imploded, an intense search began with hopes that they could rescue the submersible before oxygen ran out. Four days later, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed that the submersible imploded on the same day it launched. The Titan was 3,300 meters deep when the disaster happened. When the Titan’s wreckage was finally discovered, it was approximately 500 meters (1,600 feet) from the bow of the Titanic.

How Many People Were Killed During The Titan Submersible Disaster

Five People Died Aboard OceanGate's Titan

The Titan submersible was built to carry five passengers, two of whom would be responsible for navigating them down to the Titanic wreckage. The individuals aboard Dive 88 included OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French Titanic expert and diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding, British-Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood, and his son Suleman Dawood. All five died when the submersible imploded.

Josh Dean, a journalist specializing in deep-sea exploration, confirmed to PEOPLE that the passengers wouldn’t have had time to react to an implosion because they would have died instantly. Dean explains, “I’ve often heard it described as happening faster than the brain can process what’s happening.”

What Caused OceanGate's Titan Submersible To Implode During The Dive

The Cause Is Undetermined But Will Likely Change In The Future

In the two years since the OceanGate Titan implosion, many theories have come out about the exact cause of the incident. The exact cause is still deemed “indeterminate” but connected to structural failure of some kind. Unfortunately, that’s an incredibly vague way to say that something went wrong with the structure of the sub.

In the meantime, the consensus among many experts is that the submarine’s hull was the most likely cause. For example, a study conducted by the University of Houston and published in the National Academy of Sciences (via AS) found that microscopic imperfections in the composite carbon fiber hull, caused by past journeys, likely contributed to the implosion. Similarly, according to Newsweek, a National Transportation Safety Board engineer explained during an investigation hearing that the Titan showed flaws in the pressure hull, including wrinkles, porosity, and voids.

That being said, in his expert testimony during the Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation hearing, Bart Kemper of Kemper Engineering suggested that it could be due to:

• Carbon fiber breakage
• The hull failing because of a manufacturing error
• A failure of the hull from exposure damage
• The failure of the glue ring that connected the hull
• The failure of the acrylic window

The exact answer might never be known, but the officially accepted reason will likely be revealed when the Coast Guard releases their final report on the investigation. This, sadly, could take a while. When speaking to Tudum, Titan: The OceanGate Disaster director, Mark Monroe, revealed that the investigation report’s release is on hold because it can’t go public until the Coast Guard Commandant signs off on it.

How Long It Took To Recover The Titan Submersible Wreckage

The Wreckage Was Recovered From The Ocean Floor In Two Trips

Although the Coast Guard concluded that the Titan had imploded just four days after the incident, the recovery of the Titan took time. The first round of retrievals occurred on June 28, 2023 at the hands of the Coast Guard. The evidence, which included parts of the submersible and human remains, was transported to the US port where the Marine Board of Investigation conducted further testing. The second round of recovery occurred on October 4, 2023, when the Coast Guard retrieved the rest of the vessel (via Newsweek).

Why OceanGate's Titan Disaster Is So Controversial

OceanGate Had Many Red Flags Leading Up To The Disaster

During the testing phase of OceanGate’s Titan submersible, so many red flags came up about the safety of the vessel and the potential for disaster. Wired received internal documents, emails, and photographs confirming that little regard for safety was present throughout the testing phase. Former employees even mention retaliation for speaking up about concerns. According to Business Insider, the Titan’s lead engineer flat-out refused to go on a test dive, which is a pretty bad sign. He was later fired in June 2019 for stopping a dive to the Titanic.

Whistleblower David Lochridge, who worked as director of marine operations, also brought concerns to the attention of OceanGate in a report called “OceanGate Cyclops 2 Quality Control Inspection Report,” even refusing to sign off on testing. He was subsequently fired. The Marine Technology Society’s manned submersibles committee also objected to OceanGate’s blasé attitude when it comes to safety regulations and testing.

On top of all that, the Titan had six incidents while diving before the implosion, according to Business Insider. The sub made cracking sounds during a 2019 dive. The Titan lost communication in all four of the dives Mike Reiss had taken. Another time, the propulsion system failed, leaving passengers stuck underwater for over two hours. In a different dive, passengers had to rock the Titan from side to side so that it would release the weights. In 2022, the sub got lost underwater for many hours. Finally, in another 2022 dive, the sub lost control and spun in circles.

Because of all these contributing factors and more, lawsuits against OceanGate and investigations into what happened are still ongoing. Many individuals, including the makers of Titan: The OceanGate Disaster, believe that the dives should have been shut down long before Dive 88 ended in tragedy. Ultimately, that perspective is extremely understandable.

Sources: USA Today, BBC, PEOPLE, AS, Newsweek, Tudum, Coast Guard, and Business Insider