The OceanGate Titan submersible underwater. | Image: OceanGate
On June 18th, 2023, a small sub called the Titan was lost about an hour and forty-five minutes into its voyage carrying five people on a tourist visit to the wreckage of the Titanic. After days of searching in the North Atlantic, the Coast Guard confirmed it found debris showing the sub suffered a “catastrophic implosion.”
The US Coast Guard had been searching beneath the ocean floor with remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs) while sonar — from planes overhead, buoys on the surface, and expedition ships — pinged the bottom of the ocean looking for signs of the sub.
However, on June 22nd, the Coast Guard reported an ROV found debris from the Titan about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic. This led search crews to believe that the sub imploded shortly after its departure, killing all five passengers.
The sub carried 58-year-old British billionaire Hamish Harding, who flew on a Blue Origin suborbital flight in June 2022, Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood, a 77-year-old French explorer named Paul-Henry Nargeolet, and the CEO of OceanGate, Stockton Rush, who was 61 years old.
The Titan was a small, five-person submersible that is designed to reach depths of 4,000 meters “for site survey and inspection, research and data collection, film and media production, and deep sea testing of hardware and software,” according to its operator OceanGate.
On the inside, it was little more than a tube with a single viewport, a small toilet, touchscreens for viewing sonar and controlling the sub, as well as a screen for viewing the external 8K camera’s feed. The “experimental vessel” was also controlled by a Logitech game controller. Eight-day trips, including the submersible dive to the Titanic, cost a reported $250,000 per seat.
The NOAA has released audio of the Titan sub’s implosion.
OceanGate’s ill-fated Titan sub relied on a hand-typed Excel spreadsheet
New image of Titan submersible wreck released by US Coast Guard
A movie about the failed Titan submersible is already in the works
Crews have begun recovering debris from the Titan submersible.
Mr. Beast’s Titan sub blue bubble mystery solved.
CBS published an extended look at the Titan submersible.
MrBeast says he was invited to join the disastrous June OceanGate Titan trip.
The Titan submersible’s hull was apparently made of expired carbon fiber.
Text messages show OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush hard-selling Vegas billionaire Jay Bloom.
A submarine expert tried to warn OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush his sub was flawed.
James Cameron’s perspective on the Titan implosion as a member of the “submergence community.”
The US Navy thinks it heard the Titan’s implosion.
James Cameron compares the Titan to the Titanic.
Titan submersible suffered ‘catastrophic implosion’
A “debris field” has been found near the Titanic shipwreck.
The missing Titanic sub seems to be having an impact on this horror game’s sales.
Crews searching for the Titan submersible heard a “banging” sound early Tuesday.
The missing Titanic tour sub is steered with a simple Logitech gamepad
