The Dark Truth About OceanGate (Documentary)

is this a new era of ocean exploration

where are we in in opening that Frontier

I think we are at the dawn because

people are appreciate it they understand

the importance of the ocean the future

of mankind I like to say is underwater

every time I dive I see something I've

never seen before that no human has

probably ever seen before for the last

110 years the Titanic has sat at the

bottom of the Atlantic Ocean her Secrets

waiting for a time when man could safely

navigate the depths of 13,000 ft 12

years been working to do this you were

so excited about being able to make this

happen and now that you've done it how

do you feel the same anticipation of

what comes next strange Story coming in

uh and fears are growing by the minute a

submersible vessel which takes people to

see the wreck of the Titanic has gone

missing in the Atlantic Ocean and may

only have about 96 hours of oxygen on

board for survival search Crews racing

against time to find that missing

submersible there is no excuse for what

what happened here should tighten it

been in the

water the ocean is a mysterious and

unexplored place it holds captivating

underwater Landscapes that seem from

outer space shipwrecks that haven't been

seen for centuries and a treasure Trove

of undiscovered plants and creatures in

fact the deep sea is so unexplored that

only 5% of the global oceans have been

seen by Humanity despite our

achievements in space exploration

walking on the moon establishing orbital

stations and even mapping distant

planets the mysteries of our own planets

deep Waters elude us however driven by

an unwavering determination to explore

the unknown one man would defy the

depths and plunge into the abyss but all

of this starts here in the bustling city

of San Francisco on March 31st 1962 when

Stockton Rush was born little did his

family know that this child's Journey

would lead him to become one of the most

controversial and Innovative individuals

the underwater industry had ever seen

raised in a family of means with roots

tracing back to the signers of the

Declaration of Independence Rush had the

world at his fingertips from an early

age he dreamed of exploring the star to

be the first human to set foot on Mars

and gaze upon the wonders of the cosmos

but fate had a different path in store

for him in 1980 at the age of only 18 he

was told that his visual Acuity would

disqualify him from becoming a military

Aviator and ever being an

astronaut but Rush didn't give up and

decided to make a complete 180 instead

of traveling to space he shifted his

Focus to EXP exploring the deep seas

around 2005 he began his search to buy

submarine however this turned out to be

an almost impossible task there were

only around 100 privately owned

underwater crafts in the entire world

and only a handful of them were being

sold but then in 2009 everything would

change the goal was where do you want to

go in the in the ocean what is the most

known site in the ocean and it's clearly

the Titanic during that year rush and

guos sonlin would go on to found Ocean

Gate and they even managed to line up a

deal to buy their first submersible from

Pete Hoffman the deal went through and

Russia's company bought the underwater

craft called antipodes for

$295,000 but the antipodes could only

dive 1,000 ft deep and this was far from

what rush wanted to do his dream was to

go to the deepest points to innovate in

the deep sea mining industry and help

uncover the mysteries of the ocean floor

there are only a handful of sub things

about five Subs most are owned by

governments run by research institutions

uh there is no private access to the

deep ocean and yet there's all this life

to be discovered since buying such a

powerful underwater craft was pretty

much impossible he had to shift from

purchasing the submersibles to improving

existing crafts or straight up building

his own initially we didn't think we

were going to build our own Subs we

thought we were going to get somebody

else to build our subs the industry

standard just wouldn't allow for them to

build what we felt we needed uh and what

we thought Humanity needed to explore

the ocean in

2013 Ocean Gate would change forever the

company finally pivoted from buying

submersibles to designing their own and

in March of

2015 they revealed their first modified

submersible the cyclon was a steel hold

fan submersible that had been modified

to include a wireless controller but it

was only able to dive down to

1,640 Ft and because of the length you

can have a camera in there taking an

image of both scientists working as well

as doing interviews at depth which is

very unique when you don't get that on

other submersibles that don't have the

ability to take five people at once at

death and even though it was a step in

the right direction it was still a far

cry from the depths that Rush aimed for

this meant that quickly after the

Cyclops was revealed plans for a more

powerful submersible were

drafted carbon fiber is three times

better on a strength to buoyancy basis

than titanium and yet no one had done

that and there are uh certifying or

semi- certifying agencies the uh

pressure vessels for human occupation

committee that uh handles hyperbaric

chambers and submarines you have the

subsafe program in the uh in the Navy

these programs are uh over the top in

their rules and regulations but they had

nothing with carbon fiber so we had to

go out and uh and work on that and one

of the things I learned is you know when

you're outside the box it's really hard

to tell how far outside the box you

really are Rush wanted to use carbon

fiber composits to build the underwater

craft as this would allow for a less

expensive and more customizable design

however carbon fiber is a highly

controversial material when it comes to

underwater crafts carbon fiber composits

are used very very successfully

for internal pressure pressure vessels

like let's say a SCUBA tank and you can

get two or three times multiple of what

you could get out of steel or aluminum

for uh for that type of pressure bottle

but for something that's seeing external

pressure all of the advantages of

composite materials go away and all the

disadvantages come into play so if

you're using a uniform material like

steel or uh Titanium or ceramic or

acrylic um you can do computer model

modeling with a high degree of of

accuracy and confidence the second you

start doing carbon composite or or any

kind of composite materials you're

introducing two materials that are in in

contact with each other the filament

itself and then the epoxy Matrix that it

that it sits within and at that point

you have degradation failure so we

always understood that this was the

wrong material for submersible Halls

because with each pressure cycle you can

have Progressive damage in the case of

Ocean Gate they wanted to make an entire

Hall out of carbon fiber with only the

left and right extremes being made from

titanium a decision that had the entire

underwater industry worried even rob

mallum a consultant who worked with rush

and was able to review the development

claimed that there were not one but

multiple points of failure in the

development of the submersible however

when Rush was questioned about his

decisions he said I'd like to be

remembered as an innovator um I think it

was General MacArthur said you're

remembered for the rules you break and

you know I've broken some rules to make

this I think that broken them with with

logic and good engineering behind me the

carbon fiber and titanium there's a rule

you don't do that well I

did in

2018 Ocean Gate revealed the world's

first carbon fiber submersible and named

it Cyclops 2 the vehicle was the first

of its kind equipped with a carbon fiber

composite Hall systems for easy and

intuitive control via a PlayStation like

controller and a new acoustic system to

detect any cracking of the new Hall in

addition to this they claimed that the

craft had been created and tested with

the help of NASA Boeing and the

University of

Washington everything seemed perfect but

was this really the

truth absolutely not a NASA spoke spers

said that

NASA did not conduct testing and

Manufacturing via its Workforce or

facilities unquote a Boeing spokesperson

also said that Boeing quote was not a

partner on the Titan and did not design

or build it lastly the University of

Washington stated that the Applied

Physics laboratory had no involvement in

quote design engineering or testing of

the Titan submersible however this isn't

completely true and there are several

documents linking them to Ocean Gates

Titan in one of their cooperation PDFs

they explicitly talk about Titan's

carbon fiber Hull and state quote the

first test of a scale model of the

Cyclops filament wound carbon fiber Hull

designed and manufactured by Spencer

composits in collaboration with

Oceangate and APL U furthermore Ocean

Gate hired several interns from from the

University to help with the development

of their acoustic Safety Systems so the

University of Washington might be lying

about their involvement to avoid

possible lawsuits or to save their

reputation as a whole the situation

eventually boiled over when David

Lockridge an ex-director of marine

operations at Ocean Gate wrote a report

claiming that the submersible was unfit

to be used because it needed more

testing lockage inspected every as every

major component of the sub and found

that glue was coming away from the

scenes of the ballast bags you had

mounting bolts threatening to rupture

things ceiling faces that had errant

plunge holes o-ring grooves that

deviated from standard parameters

everything that could go wrong was sort

of going wrong there were snagging

hazards there were important components

attached with zip ties flammable

flooring um and intern interior vinyl

wrapping would emit highly toxic gases

upon ignition but the number one concern

for lockage was that the actual core of

this submarine the pressure boundary

which is what keeps people alive at

3,800 M where Titanic is where the

external water pressure is about 6,000

lb per square inch is made of carbon

fiber which is not used at in deep ocean

submers so he examined that a section of

it and found that it was filled with um

with you know little little holes he he

held a it was delaminating these layers

it was porous he held a light behind it

and found that the light was streaming

through and he refused to sign off on

the dive and Stockton Rush said that

because you refuse to sign off on this

man testing you cannot do your job as

director ofun operations and so he fired

him on the spot after word of these

events spread Robert mallum the

consultant who previously worked with

Rush privately reached out to him saying

that he was putting the entire industry

at risk but Rush's answer was none other

than quote since guamo and I have

started Ocean Gate we have have heard

the baseless cries of quote you're going

to kill someone unquote way too often I

take this as a serious personal insult

unquote but all of these narcissistic

business decisions malpractices and lies

would eventually catch up to the company

in a disastrous fashion June 18th

2023 early in the morning rush and his

team got ready to do another dive to the

Titanic on board the Titan was Rush

himself British businessman and

adventurer HH Harding Titanic expert

Paul HRI naral and Pakistani businessman

shazada dawood and his 19-year-old son

Suliman all of whom had signed a waiver

that claimed the submersible was an

experimental craft including eight death

Clauses and even stated that most of the

Dives don't even reach the Titanic at

around 8:00 a.m. the Titan set off from

its mother ship the polar Prince heading

for the remains of the Titanic at some

12,500 ft below the surface of the ocean

at 9:47 a.m. the 21t submersible lost

contact with its mother ship and since

the submersible had no GPS the craft was

only Guided by text messages from the

surface ship which indicated where and

when the submersible should resurface

the scheduled resurface time was 3:00

p.m.

the polar Prince crew was nervously

awaiting the ascent of the Titan however

as the minutes went by nothing happened

no messages were received and the craft

was nowhere to be seen something bad had

happened but nobody was sure about what

exactly was going on in the depths of

the sea concerns now about oxygen

supplies according to the operator Ocean

Gate it's equipped with three oxygen

systems including some scuba tanks under

the floor panels and it's built to

provide oxygen for its five occupants

for around 96 hours and that would in

theory last until Thursday morning the

situation was becoming more and more

intense by the minute with the US and

Canadian Coast Guard Crews scouring the

ocean's surface with helicopters and

planes using Sonar to listen for sounds

far below the water and asking nearby

commercial ships to assist in the search

the location of the search is

approximately 9900 Mi uh east of Cape

Cod uh in a water depth of uh roughly

13,000 ft it is a a challenge to conduct

a uh search in that remote area but we

are deploying all available assets June

20th search Crews attempting to locate a

submarine missing off the coast of New

Finland in Canada have reportedly heard

banging sounds near the wreck of the

Titanic the banging from inside the sub

were at 30 minute intervals and went on

for could be heard four hours later so

obviously someone in the sub presumably

has been banging every half hour if they

are alive and um and okay you know that

the fear and Desperation must be just

something unimaginable but um it's

certainly very hopeful news and and uh

we we continue to to hope for an amazing

outcome here a Canadian P3 aircraft

detected underwater noises however at

the same time another aircraft

discovered what seemed like a surfaced

craft but the authorities couldn't send

teams to both locations they eventually

opted to investigate the underwater

noises and relocated all of their

resources to the location of these

sounds and it seemed that a successful

rescue was still possible this is still

an active search and rescue mission that

hope has not been lost that every effort

is still being made to locate that

submersible and if possible to enact

some sort of rescue at this point the

submersible was running low on oxygen

and it seemed as if the crew was doomed

every possible tool was being used to

save the crew the US and Canada moved in

Military and Commercial assets and even

a research ship with an underwater robot

was dispatched by the French government

but nothing was going as planned and the

hours slowly went by

operating at these depths there's a very

thin margin of of chance when something

goes wrong to be saved uh you've got a

couple of issues had if this submersible

has gone to the bottom you just don't

have an oxygen issue you have a heat

issue because of the temperature below

the surface 13,000 ft down it's almost

freezing down there uh you would have an

issue where the crew may not last long

enough because of the lack of heat let

alone water and food retired Navy

Captain David marquay stated that if

they were alive quote they're freezing

cold they're probably all huddled

together trying to conserve their body

heat the time that the crew spent in the

Titan would have been a hellish anxiety

inducing period where minutes seemed

like hours and hours like days all of

this while looking into the dark

nothingness that is the Deep Sea World

the good news is that we haven't had bad

news you know they haven't found

wreckage they haven't found debris

um and there are now finally there are

drones there on site um at the bottom

looking for them so uh there's still

good news the banging noises that we've

heard was was very positive news uh but

it's really somber to think about what

it must be like down there in that

submarine for those men you did receive

a text message from your friend just

before he left on the dive what that

message say diving to the Titanic

shortly it was an exclamation point he

was very excited about it um uh it's

said weather permitting the weather's

been bad there as I'm sure those in New

Finland know um and uh that was it it

was pretty quick to the point he was

just about to get in the submarine to go

down so uh it was something he and the

whole crew were very excited to do uh

it's a realizing the dream of a lifetime

to see this historic uh place and so he

was just

excited an ROV or remote operated

vehicle from The Vessel Horizon

Arctic discovered the tail cone of the

Titan

submersible approximately 1600 ft from

the bow of the Titanic on the sea

Flor the ROV

subsequently found additional

debris in

consultation with experts from within

the unified command the debris is

consistent with the catastrophic loss of

the pressure

chamber upon this

determination we immediately notified

the

families on behalf of the United States

Coast Guard and the entire unified

command I offer my deepest condolences

to the families because the hole was

made from carbon fiber composits which

had been put under repeated amounts of

stress without the proper maintenance

the hull of the submersible most likely

experienced what is known as

delamination this is the process of

splitting or separating of the composite

material that holds the different

materials together once this occurs it

disrupts the bond that holds the fibers

together resulting in a wider region of

Separation within the material and

repeated instances of delamination

especially in deep underwater conditions

would undoubtedly compromise the

material structure Cal Integrity

furthermore if these unwanted changes

accumulate and aren't addressed they

will inevitably lead to a critical split

or crack in the material a scratch a

Nick or a gouge or a hole is going to

cause a stress concentration especially

if it's going to be used under hundreds

of feet of water with people inside of

it it's not what we consider rocket

science to inspect it it's

non-destructive inspection using

ultrasound which is the same kind of

ultrasound that they use in the medical

industry to see what's going on inside

your body Crest estimates an ultrasound

inspection of the Titan would have cost

about

$20,000 cost effective he says

especially if passengers are paying

hundreds of thousands of dollars for a

ride to the Bottom of the Sea

non-destructive inspection is not a

rarity in the world of composits it's

what we do all the time the pressure

that is exerted at the depths at which

the Titan was diving are around 380

times the pressure of the atmosphere

that we feel above sea level level at

these pressure levels even the slightest

separating of the composite material in

the hle can cause tiny changes to it

structure and once this occurs the

entire structure of the hole would be

compromised however these micro splits

can be prevented to a certain degree and

when it comes to underwater Vehicles

this is usually done with autoclaves

these are pressurized vessels that

Compact and Harden the materials used in

the hall via a process known as curing

this is an essential part of the

construction of any underwater vehicle

the next step to prevent these micro

splits is by extensive fatigue testing

where the submersible is subjected to

various types of load simulations this

is done to identify any potential weak

points design flaws or material

limitations that could lead to fatigue

failure over time I'm thrusting and

nothing's happening am I spinning yes I

am yes looks like it now you're going

north

oh my

God when I'm thrusting forward one of

the thrusters is thrusting backwards

right

now this the only thing I can do right

now is a 360 hey Jerome uh stockt in on

Wendy's phone just call it back if you

get a chance we got a question uh on the

dive right now looking to see if there's

a way to remap the uh PS3 controller

should Titan have been in the

water as an experimental vehicle we're

always trying to push the boundaries of

technology to make it more affordable

and more accessible for scientists but

in this case taking paying passengers to

the Titanic on the submersible that was

probably not fully tested was probably

unwise and here lies the big issue with

the company Ocean Gate didn't conduct

enough fatigue testing of the

submersible because it would have taken

too long in addition to this they made

the first Hull in

2017 and then rebuilt the vehicle in

2020 because because it was showing

signs of cycle fatigue this meant that

the dives from 2018 and 2019 were taking

such a toll on the submersible that even

Ocean Gate thought it wasn't safe

anymore so even though Ocean Gate knew

roughly how many Dives they could do

before the Titan got close to reaching

cycle fatigue the craft was still being

pushed to its limits in mid

223 and this is inexplicable Ocean Gate

had to know that the craft was about to

give out but for whatever reason they

were pushing it to its limits again

almost as if they wanted to squeeze

every penny out of the vehicle before

they rebuilt it in late

2023 the reason for the call today John

is something just came across my B John

it is perhaps the best thing I've seen

in the last 6 months if you have 60

seconds I'd like to share the idea with

you

Rush was known to try and convince

people to go on his craft with Patrick

Ley president of Triton submarines

claiming that he used predatory behavior

to try and convince people to go on his

craft financier Jay Bloom has a similar

story Stockton you I think his his heart

was in the right place and he he really

was passionate about his project and he

believed everything he was saying but uh

one of the things that concerned me was

he told me he was flying in to see me

and he was landing at North Las Vegas

Airport which is an odd selection most

people that come in privately come into

either McCarron which is now Harry Reed

International or they come into

Henderson executive and uh I asked him

why and he said he was coming in on a a

two-seater experimental plane that he

built and I started to think about he's

coming in on a two-seater experimental

plane to pitch me out to go on a

5-seater experimental sub that he built

down to the ocean floor to see the

Titanic and it was just it was it was

was uh he has a different risk appetite

than I do Bloom also stated that Rush

said that the submersible trip would be

quote safer than crossing the street

unquote but thankfully for the bloom

family they declined because they saw a

lot of red flags in Ocean Gate's videos

Jay gave up their seats on the Titan for

this trip another father and son did

take those seats they went on the Titan

and as we know uh sadly and tragically

lost their lives when you first learned

the Titan was missing uh and then those

days they were hoping for rescue you're

imagining like everybody else that but

for you it's different that it could

have been you down there right gasping

for air then you find out it imploded um

and you keep seeing images of the father

and son who did take your seats what

went through your

mind well um it it's it's a very uh

surreal experience in the beginning you

know you know you're supposed to be on

on that uh you had the opportunity to be

on that on that sub and um uh you see

you see all this it's everywhere

everywhere we looked and the most

haunting thing about it is when you look

at at the news and open my laptop on

social media on television it's it was

everywhere and they'd show pictures of

of the the people who lost their lives

and all I could see when I saw that

father and son was myself and my son

that could have been Us in that picture

and Sean I mean obviously uh the the

other young man there he was 19 you're

20 right I mean it it it it is Eerie the

the parallels Russia's Behavior