New Netflix documentary on doomed Titan sub drops June 11
Stockton Rush who was behind the controller of the Titan sub when it imploded in June 2023 has been described as a “borderline psychopath”.
Netflix has just dropped the official trailer of Titan: The OceanGate Disaster, which will air in Australia on June 11.
The new documentary will delve into the catastrophic implosion of the Titan submersible, examining the events that lead to the tragic 2023 incident.
OceanGate’s ill-fated tour to the Titanic wreck claimed five lives – the company’s CEO Stockton Rush, British explorer Hamish Harding, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman and French deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The trailer goes hard on testimony from those who knew the expedition company and its billionaire boss, Mr Rush, a US entertepenuer.
They include ex-OceanGate staff members like Tony Nissen, a former engineering director at the firm, Bonnie Carl, a human resources and finance director, and David Lochridge, an operations director who previously said he was fired after raising safety concerns about the sub.
Mr Lochridge says he thought Rush “wanted fame” to “fuel his ego”, while Mr Nissen adds he thought the CEO was “a borderline psychopath”.
Also interviewed was Ms Carl, who recalls her reaction after she said Rush announced she would be the company’s next sub pilot: “Are you nuts? I’m an accountant.”
Meanwhile, one individual says: “There was no way of knowing when Titan was going to fail but it was a mathematical certainty that it would fail.
“Stockton saw an opportunity to restart tourist visits to Titanic, while another interviewee claimed Rush “fully believed in what he was doing would work”.
The tour took place on June 18, 2023 with the sub heading to view the wreck of the Titanic when it went vanished from sonar and failed to resurface from the 12,500ft (3810m) dive in the north Atlantic.
The world became captivated in the search and rescue mission in what was thought to be a race against time to save the crew.
But five days later a piece of debris was found on the ocean floor, confirming everyone’s worst fear – the sub had imploded.
Rob McCallum, who has led seven dives to the Titanic, told The Sun the tragedy was “unavoidable” as OceanGate had been repeatedly warned their 22ft (6.7m) sub was not safe.
Titan was never certified or classed, and Mr McCallum implored Rush to let an independent agency test his vessel.
Mr McCallum said the businessman refused to listen, however, and simply brushed aside warnings.
“I run an expedition company that had delivered over 1500 expeditions – we are not cavalier, we manage risk as far as we can,” he told the publication last year.
“So when OceanGate say things like exploration involves risk, yes it does, but that doesn’t give you carte blanche to ignore obvious danger.”
Rush accused those trying to raise safety concerns of trying to stop innovation.
The engineer, who co-founded OceanGate in 2009, created Titan with an experimental design made up of a carbon-fibre pod with titanium rings bolted on.
Mr McCallum, who founded expedition company EYOS, said carbon fibre material is not fit for submerging so deep underwater.
He warned Rush that the carbon fibre would not withstand such pressure, but Rush allegedly informed him he was “going to carry on regardless”.
During a two-week hearing over the doomed sub in September 2024, the US Coast Guard released footage showing part of the Titan on the ocean floor.
It shows a close-up of wiring hanging out of the tail cone that formed part of the 6.7 metre vessel made from carbon fibre and titanium.
OceanGate’s then chief pilot Mr Lochridge, who was fired after his inspection report laid bare a series of safety risks, spoke about the “appalling faults” with the original model of the doomed sub during the hearing.
He said he was particularly concerned that the hull was made from carbon fibre and was only about five inches thick – and not usual metals like titanium.
“The whole idea of the company was to make money. There was very little in the way of science,” Mr Lochridge claimed.
Mr Nissen also told the hearing he had refused to sign off on a 2019 dive to the wreckage of the Titanic also due to concerns over the Titan’s hull. He was fired later that year.
He said Rush had been unfazed after learning of a potential 2018 lightning strike on the submersible and possible hull problems.
Refusing to believe news of the damage, Rush insisted “it’ll be OK”, Mr Nissen said, according to testimony from the hearing published in The New York Times.
During his testimony, Mr Lochridge walked the panel through photos of the Titan’s hull that showed the layers of carbon fibre coming apart — and even one troubling photo that showed how a flashlight shine could be seen through the thin material.
A cameraman who previously worked with Rush told the New York Post in 2023 that Rush “didn’t want anyone telling him what he couldn’t do” — and this hubristic attitude ultimately drove OceanGate’s fiascos, Mr Lochridge claimed.
In the years after he was dismissed from OceanGate, Lochridge said he would see the company promote missions to the Titanic and wonder if they would end in catastrophe.
“It was inevitable something was going to happen. And it was just when.”
– with the New York Post, The Sun
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