The Titan Sub Disaster: Minute by Minute
Duration: 2 x 60'
Play Trailer Play Screener Contact SalesThis high-end and captivating, two-part special examines, minute by minute, the race against time to try and save five people on their doomed dive to the wreck of the Titanic. Revealing significant audio from the frantic global rescue operation that ultimately ended in tragedy… leaving everybody onboard dead.
“More people have gone to space than have dived the Titanic wreck,” Dik Barton (former president of RMS Titanic Inc).
In June 2023, a specialist submersible owned and operated by OceanGate, a leading provider of commercial deep-water expeditions, lost contact with its support vessel one hour and forty-five minutes into a journey to survey the wreck of The Titanic.
It was a story that left the world holding its breath and sparked an international rescue operation gripping public attention across the globe.
Experts capture the hour-by-hour emotional rollercoaster and logistical headaches involved, highlighting the complexities of operating at the ocean's depths and uncovering who and what was to blame for this disaster?
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Episode 1
Five men aboard the Titan submersible descended to the bottom of the ocean in search of the most famous shipwreck in the world, the Titanic. What happened next resulted in an international search effort and headlines across the world.
Titanic, the ‘unsinkable ship,’ which went down on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City in 1912 has long held fascination for people around the world and for a privileged few – visiting the site of the wreck at the bottom of the ocean is in their reach.
On June 18th 2023, communication with the Titan sub was lost as it descended two and a half miles down beneath the waves. With limited oxygen thought to be onboard, the race began to find the missing sub and its crew. On board Titan were five strangers: the youngest, a 19-year-old university student, Suleman Dawood, his father, Shahzada, Titanic expert, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British adventurer, Hamish Harding and the pilot and owner of OceanGate, the company responsible for the expedition, Stockton Rush.
This episode charts the call to action of a global rescue effort, including a deep-sea research team based 2,000 miles away. Pelagic Research Services had one of the only submersibles in the world capable of diving deep enough to reach Titan if it was stuck on the seafloor. Pelagic’s Ed Cassano and Jess Doren detail the monumental task of racing to the dive site.
As the search intensified, the Canadian Air Force detected underwater banging sounds. Could these be from Titan? This episode shares the raw audio recordings of what rescuers heard, which were not released at the time of the search.
With access to rarely seen footage from previous expeditions and interviews with rescue teams and expert first-hand testimony, this episode follows the start of the journey to rescue those on board the Titan.
Episode 2
In this breathtaking conclusion to one of the most intense ocean rescue attempts in history, the fate of the passengers on board the Titan submersible is revealed.
Featuring interviews with international journalists, friends of those on board the sub, and first-hand testimonies from rescue teams who discovered the debris from Titan on the ocean floor, the story that gripped the world reaches its tragic finale following a ‘catastrophic implosion.’
This two-part special asks the questions: why did this expedition go so terribly wrong? And could it have been avoided?
For Channel 5
