June 2023 United States Coast Guards still frames from videos provided by Pelgic Research Services, Titan Submersible on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean reflects the remains of the center. Photo Credit: US Coast Guard Video Courtesy Pelgic Research Services through AP
On June 18 this year, the second anniversary of the Titan disaster will be marked, an event that killed all the five on a craft made to search for deep sea. Titan, an experimental submersible, was designed to take passengers almost to the sea level for a $ 250,000 per person to see the debris of the Titanic ship.
Those killed in the incident were Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush, billionaire Hamish Harding, businessman Shahzada Dawood, his university-going son Suleman Dawood and Titanic researcher Paul-Henry Nerglette. Their disappearance and deaths, due to a implications, mesmerize people around the world.
Now, a documentary called ‘Titan: The Oceangate Disaster’ has been released on Netflix on 11 June. Directed by Mark Monroe, the documentary presents a new perspective on the disaster, exposing the end of the campaign, resulting in a deadly combination for professionals, and a holiday for the CEO, and pursuing fame.
The 12-time trailer of the documentary suggests that Titan’s failure was an foregoing conclusion from the beginning. It criticizes the psychology and personality of the company’s CEO Stockton Rush, who was operating crafts at the time of transplantation.
New evidence
Regarding transplantation, experts were divided. Some claimed that the people inside the submersible knew about the deadly malfunction and spent their last seconds in terror, while others said that they all died before feeling that anything was wrong.
Why is there no consensus? Due to the unconventional design of Titan, which led to the lack of significant reporting or logging tools, which generally include more regulated companies in their crafts; According to a journalist, Titan did not even have a detective beacon.
The documentary is estimated to reveal more information about minutes before the transplant, the conclusions of the latter investigation, and more data on the exact cause of the transplantation. It should also provide valuable insight that both Daredevil entrepreneurs and courageous should be taken away.
experimental design
In the dialect to popularize Titanic tourism, Titan’s company Oceangate claimed its (now faulty) website that it could support “human exploration of the deep ocean” to a depth of 4000 meters “. However, Oceangate was far from being a recognized or regulated travel company. Its experimental Titan submersible used “off-the-shelf” components to make parts easier and cheaper. Additionally, specific components of its experimental design may not have actually been certified to face a depth of 4,000 meters.
Titan was made of carbon fiber and titanium, and external aid was required to open. It was so small that all five passengers could sit inside only. It was operated with the help of a modified gaming controller and guidance texts sent from the surface; Netflix’s documentary shows an interviewer that Oceangate’s CEO announced that a company accountant would pilot its next mission.
In addition, Titan faced wear and tears as a result of every dive, and its maintenance was not even a scar, according to many sources. Its unconventional use of carbon fiber and titanium has also come under a scanner as NASA and Boeing removed himself from Oceangate, reducing his participation in Titan’s development.
Regulatory gap
The company clashes with several experts and a former employee over its safety standards. Journalists and previous visitors expressed concern about Shri Rush’s Satan-Me-Care approach to search for deep sea.
Titicing the tragedy, former Oceangate’s former Operations Director, David Lochridge strongly criticized the company’s approach to science. He was sued by Oceangate before Titan Employer. He also criticized the Vocational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for not immediately following his complaint, which he felt that he could prevent the loss of life.
But these incidents did not make any real waves until after the transplant on 18 June 2023.
Despise for safety
In short, the Titan transplant has set back the progress of years with respect to deep sea discovery. Oceangate aims to make Titanic tourism more accessible to rich customers by blurring the line between passengers and professional crew members. But it seems that after Titan, debris travel on the Atlantic Ocean floor will be limited to experts and regulated companies.
Mr. Rush’s valor with security is a matter of record as he once said in the CBS interview that security was a “pure waste”. The Netflix documentary will probably go into how this attitude shaped his work with Titan, which ended in the dark in the last journey of submersible.
Published – June 11, 2025 08:03 am IST
