Netflix's Titan: The OceanGate Disaster exposes ignored safety protocols and fearful work culture

11 June 2025 • Written by Holly Margerrison and Lucy Dunn

2023 Titan submersible implosion: Timeline of events and key things to know

On 18 June 2023, the Titan submersible – operated by US-based company OceanGate Expeditions – lost contact less than two hours into a deep-sea dive to the Titanic wreck site. On board were five people, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush. Days later, debris from the vessel confirmed it had suffered a catastrophic implosion, killing all five occupants.

US Coast Guard courtesy of Pelagic Research Services

The victims were:

Stockton Rush, OceanGate CEO and Titan pilot
Hamish Harding, British billionaire and explorer
Paul-Henri Nargeolet, French Titanic expert
Shahzada Dawood, Pakistani-British businessman
Suleman Dawood, Shahzada's 19-year-old son

BOAT International's live blog on the OceanGate Titan implosion outlines the key events leading up to and following the Titan sub disaster, including when communication was lost, how the wreckage was found and details of the ongoing investigation.

Credit: U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters

Titan disaster timeline:

Sunday 18 June 2023

08:00: The Titan submersible was launched from its mothership, Polar Prince (previously CCGS Sir Humphrey Gilbert). 09:45: Contact between the mothership and the submersible was lost. The U.S. Navy also noticed “an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion”. 15:00: Titan was scheduled to resurface but did not. 17:40: The U.S. Coast Guard was notified.

Monday 19 June

The search for Titan began.

Tuesday 20 June

Speculation began surrounding sonar detecting “banging” noises in the search area. These are later determined to be natural ocean sounds.

Thursday 22 June

Debris and remains of the sub were found around 500 metres from the bow of the Titanic. Citing this, the Coast Guard announced that the submersible had suffered a “catastrophic implosion.”

Sunday 25 June

The Coast Guard arranged a Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) to determine what happened to the Titan.

Wednesday 28 June

The wreckage of the Titan submersible was found on the ocean floor, approximately 300 meters off the bow of the Titanic, and brought to St. John's, a city on Newfoundland island off Canada's Atlantic coast.

Sunday 2 July

OceanGate announced it is ceasing operations.

Netflix's Titan: The OceanGate Disaster reveals ignored safety warnings and a culture of silence

A comprehensive new Netflix documentary, Titan: The OceanGate Disaster, reveals the many steps OceanGate head Stockton Rush skipped in his single-minded mission to get the Titan project off the ground. The documentary, which spoke to key insiders who worked with Rush, reveals that to avoid scrutiny, the Titan submersible was not flagged by any classification society and rubber-stamped as safe, something which US Coast Guard investigator Capt Jason Neubauer “had not seen in 26 years of investigations.”

Rob McCallum from expedition specialist EYOS, who had initially been talking to OceanGate about coming on board as a partner, left the project early on when Rush told him he “saw no need for third-party oversight.” “He had every contact in the submersible industry telling him not to do this, but once you start going down the path of doing it entirely yourself, you realise you’ve taken the wrong turn right back at the beginning, particularly for Stockton, and you have to admit you are wrong, that’s a big pill to swallow.”

One of Rush’s selling points was that he had the world’s leading submersible expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet behind the project. “PH’s involvement is always going to be a mystery to us,” said McCallum. “He was told a number of different times that he was lending his credentials to something that had a clear and obvious flaw to it.”

The documentary revealed how paying passengers were given the title of “mission specialist,” which McCallum said was used by OceanGate to work around US legislation, providing legal protection in case something went wrong. It also revealed that a scale model of the second hull – built after cracks were discovered in the first – failed its depth tests.

Nevertheless, construction of the second full-scale hull proceeded, ultimately resulting in its catastrophic implosion. After the penultimate Dive 80, when cracks were heard, Titan was brought back and instead of being taken in for investigation, was left on the dock in freezing conditions, a fact that experts warned could further weaken the structure of the carbon fibre.

Titan passengers, crew and (third from left) David Lochridge, (right) Stockton Rush

The documentary also looked in depth at Rush’s absolute conviction that carbon fibre would work, along with his bullish leadership style and fiery temper meant staff were too afraid to speak out and air safety concerns. “People knew that if you challenged the boss on some of these issues, then there was a possibility you would be gone,” said Neubauer. This was seen in the later resignations of OceanGate’s director of marine operations David Lochridge and director of engineering Tony Nissen. As people resigned, teams became more streamlined. According to McCallum, by the end, OceanGate had become a small, insular group whose unwavering belief in their mission had taken on an almost cult-like intensity.

Tony Nissen concluded by saying that the work culture was ultimately the downfall of OceanGate. “It’s not simply the idea that they didn’t follow a set of regulations … It's culture that causes this to happen. It is culture that killed the people.”