Titanic Tourist Submarine Disaster: Netflix Documentary Reveals Chilling Details
A new Netflix documentary, Titan: The OceanGate Disaster, has shed light on the catastrophic implosion of the Titan submarine, which resulted in the deaths of all five passengers on board. The submersible, operated by OceanGate, was on a tourist expedition to view the wreck of the Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, when it went missing on June 18, 2023.
According to the documentary, which was obtained from The Independent, the vessel’s hull disintegrated due to the unbearable weight of the Atlantic Ocean, with audible popping sounds signalling the catastrophic failure. The incident has been widely reported as a tragic accident, but the documentary reveals a more complex story of safety concerns, ignored warnings, and a culture of recklessness.
Filmmaker Mark Monroe, who directed the documentary, told The Independent that he was drawn to the project after being horrified by the viral nature of the coverage surrounding the submarine’s disappearance. "I was, just as a casual observer of news, kind of horrified at the whole idea," he said. "I don’t subscribe to any aspect of social media. I think it’s a bad thing. So it became this kind of focal point for some of my anger over social media, in the way that the story became so swept up in everyone’s reaction to it."
Monroe’s film features an interview with David Lochridge, an ex-Royal Navy diver who was OceanGate’s chief pilot and director of marine operations until he was sacked in 2018. Lochridge paints a damning picture of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who went down with the submersible on its final voyage. According to Lochridge, Rush was driven by a desire for fame and fortune, and was willing to flout regulations and ignore safety concerns to achieve his goals.
One of the most alarming moments in the film comes when Lochridge describes a chaotic dive to the Andrea Doria shipwreck off the Massachusetts coast, during which Rush ventured too close to the wreck and the craft became surrounded by debris. The incident damaged the relationship between Lochridge and Rush, and ultimately led to Lochridge’s departure from OceanGate.
The documentary also reveals that Rush repeatedly ignored safety concerns and warnings from his team, including Lochridge’s findings on the submersible’s hull. Despite these warnings, Rush decided not to have the submersible certified to industry standards by an independent body, believing that classification experts did not understand his technology.
Monroe’s film compares Rush’s approach to that of tech CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg, who famously said "Move fast and break things." However, as Monroe notes, there are rules of physics, engineering, and nature that do apply, and ignoring them can have catastrophic consequences.
The documentary features interviews with the families of those who lost their lives on the Titan submarine, including British aviation billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, and renowned Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Monroe’s film is a critique of a culture that believes the rules don’t apply, and a warning about the dangers of prioritizing ambition over safety. As he notes, "There is an ambition in our culture led by a lot of Silicon Valley types that you can do things differently. You can change the way the world works. The rules don’t apply to you. But as I like to say, there are rules of physics, there are rules of engineering, there are rules of nature, and those do apply to us."
‘Titan: The OceanGate Disaster’ is out now on Netflix.
