Footage Netflix have shared from inside the Titan submersible has left viewers horrified, revealing exactly how dangerous the sub which claimed the lives of five people really was.
Netflix’s newest documentary, Titan: The Oceangate Submersible Disaster, examines what ultimately led to the 2018 disaster in which Oceangate’s CEO, Stockton Rush, also died when attempting to visit the wreck of the RMS Titanic.
The doc features a number of shocking moments, with exclusive footage even showing how Rush had fired one of his senior divers, David Lochridge, for raising health and safety concerns about the submersible.
One particular aspect of the documentary series has taken fans aback however as they hear a ‘popping sound’ at various points in the documentary from footage within the Titan submersible.
Advert
This is present in footage, shown below, where Stockton Rush takes the submersible by himself to test it underwater.
The late CEO comments on the ‘attention-getting’ pops, seeming taken aback by them.
But later in the documentary, however, Rush informs passengers of the vessel to simply ‘ignore’ any pops, insisting the sub was safe.
Fans took to Reddit to discuss the documentary, with many expressing their utter shock at hearing the noises from inside the sub.
One commented saying: “The Netflix [Titan Sub] doc is the best yet. Those cracks & pops. My gosh,” while another said: “My gosh. I've been following the Titan story since the sub went missing."
They continued: “Those cracking sounds though. How could anyone think that death trap was safe? The data showing how bad it got with each dive and still he went ahead.
“The meeting with Lochridge where Stockton fired David was hair raising to say the least.”
The cracking and pops are explained in the documentary to be due to the decision made by Stockton to outfit the submersible with a carbon fibre hull.
This is incredibly uncommon for subs, however, former senior employees of Oceangate claim this is to make the business more financially viable.
Carbon fibre is a cheaper material than alternatives, therefore making it more likely that they would be able to outfit a larger fleet of subs to allow more passengers to travel to see the Titanic.
The ‘popping’ sounds happen when the sub is under great pressure and was made due to tiny minuscule fibres snapping.
Reddit users last year found footage of Rush talking about the popping noises in the sub and how they were ‘common’, leading one commenter to say: “This just emphasizes how stupid it was to make it out of carbon fibre.”
Another said: “This thing should’ve had test crash dummies for a thousand dives before taking precious human cargo.”
The sub is shown failing multiple tests during the documentary, with Boeing doing tests on the sub to see the distance it could drop to.
Directly below the Titanic, where Rush was set to drop, Boeing put a skull and bones over this depth.
The Oceangate CEO dropped his contract with Boeing and went ahead with the manned missions despite not receiving classification for the submersible.
Topics: Netflix, Titan Submersible, Film, TV and Film, Documentaries
Michael Slavin