THIS is the chilling moment the doomed Titan sub’s implosion was captured on video from its own support ship.
Footage reveals the sound of the OceanGate’s submersible’s catastrophic failure during its descent to the Titanic wreck in June 2023.
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The haunting video was obtained by the BBC and presented to the US Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation.
It shows Wendy Rush – wife of OceanGate boss Stockton Rush – staring at a computer used to receive messages from the Titan when a deep metallic thud rings out.
Wendy, visibly startled, freezes before glancing up and asking the crew: “What was that bang?”
Seconds later, a message arrives from the sub: “dropped two wts” – a reference to the Titan shedding weights to control its dive.
Read more on the Titanic Sub
But the timing of the message was tragically misleading.
According to investigators, the sub had already imploded.
The sound reached the surface faster than the delayed text, giving the false impression all was well.
All five people onboard were killed instantly when the vessel collapsed under immense pressure at a depth of around 3,300m – just 90 minutes into the £195,000-a-head journey.
The doomed expedition claimed the lives of CEO Stockton Rush, British explorer Hamish Harding, French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman.
A BBC documentary, in which the footage is featured, will also reveal chilling new findings – including that the Titan’s carbon fibre hull began failing a full year before the fatal dive.
Lieutenant Commander Katie Williams from the USCG said: “Delamination at dive 80 was the beginning of the end.
“And everyone that stepped onboard the Titan after dive 80 was risking their life.”
The documentary details how carbon fibre, an unconventional choice for deep-sea vessels, started to separate in 2022.
On that dive, passengers heard a loud bang, but Rush reportedly reassured them it was “the sub shifting in its frame.”
The USCG has since confirmed that noise was a sign the hull was beginning to break apart.
Despite warnings from experts and former OceanGate staff – one calling the sub an “abomination” – Titan continued making dives.
Deep-sea explorer Victor Vescovo admitted: “I specifically told them that it was simply a matter of time before it failed catastrophically.”
Businessman Oisin Fanning, who was onboard for the last two successful dives, said: “If you’re asking a simple question: ‘Would I go again knowing what I know now?’ – the answer is no.”
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The mangled wreckage of the Titan was later recovered from the Atlantic seabed, along with clothing, stickers and business cards.
The USCG has confirmed “presumed human remains” were found and matched to the victims.
Christine Dawood, who lost her husband Shahzada and son Suleman, told the BBC the tragedy had changed her forever.
“I don’t think that anybody who goes through loss and such a trauma can ever be the same.”
The harrowing footage comes as the USCG prepares to release its final report later this year, with legal fallout already beginning.
In April, billionaire heiress Karen Lo launched a £1million lawsuit after her trip aboard Titan was axed.
The Hong Kong businesswoman, worth around £758million, paid £680,000 for the once-in-a-lifetime voyage – only for it to be cancelled after the sub was struck by lightning in 2018.
She was promised priority rebooking, but after the sub imploded in 2023, she demanded her money back.
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Lo is now suing Henry Cookson’s ultra-luxury travel firm, arguing it broke the contract.
The company denies wrongdoing, insisting she declined to use her credit for alternative trips and that the refund policy was clear.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, a 20-second audio clip recorded 900 miles from the implosion site emerged, capturing what experts believe was the actual moment the Titan was crushed.
The eerie recording revealed the “acoustic signature” of the vessel’s final seconds.
Rescue hopes were initially high when Titan vanished from sonar on June 18, 2023.
But days later, its shattered remains were discovered scattered across the ocean floor – an area the size of six football pitches.
The Titan was last heard from at 10.47am with the message: “dropped two wts.”
Six seconds later, it vanished from sonar.
The support ship Polar Prince sent a final message at 10.49am: “lost tracking.”
Communication was never re-established.
OceanGate later issued a statement: “We again offer our deepest condolences to the families of those who died on June 18, 2023… It would be inappropriate to respond further while we await the agencies’ reports.”
The investigation continues.
How the Titan tragedy unfolded
By Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital)
FIVE men plunged beneath the surface of the North Atlantic in a homemade sub in a bid to explore the Titanic wreckage.
Four passengers paid £195,000 each to go on the sub, with the fifth member of the trip being a crew member.
But what was supposed to be a short trip spiralled into days of agony as the doomed Titan vanished without a trace on June 18, 2023.
The daring mission had been months in the making – and almost didn’t happen at the hands of harsh weather conditions in Newfoundland, Canada.
In a now chilling Facebook post, passenger Hamish Harding wrote: “Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023.
“A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow.”
It would be his final Facebook post.
The following morning, he and four others – led by Stockton Rush – began the 12,5000ft descent towards the bottom of the Atlantic.
But as it made its way down into the depths, the vessel lost all contact with its mother ship on the surface, the Polar Prince.
It sparked a frantic four-day search for signs of life, with the hunt gripping the entire world.
There was hope that by some miracle, the crew was alive and desperately waiting to be saved.
But that sparked fears rescue teams faced a race against time as the passengers only had a 96-hour oxygen supply when they set out, which would be quickly dwindling.
Then, when audio of banging sounds was detected under the water, it inspired hope that the victims were trapped and signalling to be rescued.
It heartbreakingly turned out that the banging noises were likely either ocean noises or from other search ships, the US Navy determined.
Countries around the world deployed their resources to aid the search, and within days the Odysseus remote-operated vehicle (ROV) was sent down to where the ghostly wreck of the Titanic sits.
The plan was for the ROV to hook onto the sub and bring it up 10,000ft, where it would meet another ROV before heading to the surface.
But any hopes of a phenomenal rescue were dashed when Odysseus came across a piece of debris from the sub around 1,600ft from the Titanic.
The rescue mission tragically turned into a salvage task, and the heartbroken families of those on board were told the devastating news.
It was confirmed by the US Coast Guard that the sub had suffered a “catastrophic implosion”.
