A new BBC documentary about the OceanGate Titan Sub disaster has revealed the shocking response an engineer was given when she pointed out a loud cracking noise during a test run.
The BBC doc, called Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster, covers the shocking incident in which the Titan submersible went missing on a journey to visit the wreckage of the Titanic at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean.
The submersible imploded 90 minutes into its descent to visit the historical site, however, this was not confirmed for four days after it was reported missing, when a piece of debris belonging to the sub was found on the ocean floor.
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Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster received unprecedented access to the US Coast Guard’s ongoing investigation into the incident, including interviews with an engineer who'd revealed that she had pointed out several flaws with the design of the sub.
'Loud cracking noise' during Titan sub test run
The documentary recalls a test run, Dive 80, of the Titan sub in which it went down and viewed the wreckage of the Titanic.
Taking two hours to return to the surface, one of the OceanGate employees interviewed recalls hearing a loud ‘crack’, saying it ‘sounded like the ship breaking apart’.
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Antonella Wilby, a contractor who worked for OceanGate describes being concerned and shocked when hearing this.
She claims to have spoken to a member of the ‘Arctic Horizon’, a search and rescue vehicle which was on the surface, who said they had heard it from above water.
Footage then shows late OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush stating that during tests ‘almost every’ deep diving sub will make a noise at some point.
Wilby recalls also being shocked at Rush’s seemingly unbothered reaction to the bang, with him describing it as being incredibly common.
She said: “My initial reaction was ‘hold on’, if you heard your car make that noise you’d probably go ‘wait a second we need to see what happened here’.”
Response to the cracking noise by OceanGate
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Lieutenant Commander Katie Williams, from the US Coast Guard, shows data of the test run, saying the loud bang’s acoustic sensor data should have led to an ‘all stop, do not continue’ to make sure the hull was still safe.
Whilst Wilby stated she felt this was cause to stop and investigate the issue, something which was proven correct by the companies data showing the carbon fibre hull had changed, she was apparently ignored.
Speaking in the doc, Williams called this test run the ‘beginning of the end’ and said anyone who got in the sub after this was risking their lives.
Wilby spoke during the coast guard hearing into the implosion, stating she had gone to OceanGate’s Director of Administration, Amber Bay, and telling her that she was ‘really concerned’ they would continue diving in the sub.
She claimed Bay’s response was: “Yes, people are concerned about you too, you don’t have an explorer mindset.”
The engineer then described telling the Head of Engineering, Phil Brooks, of her concerns who told her that they would check the sub after the next test dive.
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Wilby was shocked by this and says she quit as a result of this exchange. The Titan sub carried another three sets of passengers following dive 80.
Amber Bay denied this series of events in the epilogue to the doc, saying she had reported her concerns to ‘OceanGate’s Director of Engineering, Director of Operations, or to Stockton Rush’.
Brooks claims that he had no recollection of Wilby expressing concern to him about the hull.
Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.
Topics: Titan Submersible, Titanic, TV and Film, TV, Documentaries
Michael Slavin