The imploded mini-submarine

Two years ago Titan submarine tragedy, now becomes a Netflix docuseries

Shocking series with never-before-seen material re-enacts the drama of the submarine that was supposed to reach the Titanic: five died, the youngest aged 19

by Enrico Marro

18 June 2025

Il relitto del Titan sui fondali marini, a 200 metri da quello del Titanic.

3' min read

Key points

The Titan Curse
The Last Mission
Submarine implosion
The Netflix series

3' min read

The five of them died instantly in the depths, just a stone's throw from the wreck of the Titanic they wanted to explore.

It was 18 June 2023: two years later, Netflix remembers the minisubmarine tragedy with 'Titan: The OceanGate Disaster', a111-minute docuseries packed withunpublished material that Anglo-Saxon critics have already described as 'shocking'.

The Titan's Curse

Let's refresh our memory. It is 16 June 2023 when the Polar Prince, a former icebreaker of the Canadian Navy, sets sail from the port of Saint John on the Canadian island of Newfoundland.

On board is the Titan, ready for what would be its last mission: a Cyclops class mini-submarine made of carbon fibre and titanium, designed and built by OceanGate to carry five people to the maximum depth of four thousand metres.

6.7 metres long, 2.8 metres wide and 2.5 metres high, it is powered by four Innerspace 1002 electric motors (two vertical and two horizontal), capable of propelling it at a speed of three knots. It ispiloted with a Logitech F710 gamepad, a modified video game controller.

The Last Mission

The objective of Titan's latest mission is to explore the wreck of the Titanic.

After sailing 640 kilometres, the Polar Prince arrives near the exact spot where the remains of the liner that sank in 1912 are located.On 18 June, the Titan dives.

On board are five people: Stockton Rush, 61, founder of OceanGate; Hamish Harding, 58, holder of three Guinness World Records (one for the exploration of the Mariana Trench); Paul-Henry Nargeolet known as "Mr Titanic", 77, a former French Navy diver and director of research for the company that owns the rights to the Titanic, who was the protagonist in 1987 of the first expedition to visit the remains of the ocean liner; Shahzada Dawood, 48, vice-president of the Pakistani conglomerate Engro Corporation, specialising in the production of fertilisers, together with her 19-year-old son Suleman.

The submarine implosion

In its operational history that began in 2018, the Titan has already made some eighty dives. And even that 18 June two years ago, everything is running smoothly, with regular radio contact from the mini-sub to the mothership every 15 minutes.

But after an hour and three quarters, the Titan suddenly cuts off communication.

On board the Polar Prince, the technicians listening heard a loud bang, then nothing: Rush's wife smilingly asked 'What was that bang?

Therace against time begins to rescue the mini-submarine. The multiple aircraft are deployed: the Polar Prince, an aquatic drone, four Boeing C-17 Globemaster IIIs, two Lockheed C-130 Hercules, a Lockheed P-3 Orion and a Boeing P-8 Poseidon (with a total cost of $6.5 million).

But it was only four days after the disappearance of the mini-submarine, on 22 June, that a remotely piloted submersible spotted some Titan debris about two hundred metres from the Titanic's remains (here is the video of the discovery).

The OceanGate's jewel had imploded suddenly just a stone's throw from the ill-fated liner, killing its five occupants instantly.

The Netflix series

Featuring previously unreleased material,the Netflix docuseries chronicles the birth and operational life of the Titan focusing on thecontroversial personality of the company's founder, Stockton Rush, who was deaf to the warnings of chief engineer David Lochridge, a submarine pilot and director of operations of the now defunct OceanGate.

Lochridge had denounced the dangers of a hull built of carbon fibre, a material that degrades over time, resulting in his dismissal from Rush in early 2018, right in the first months of the mini-submarine's life. The docuseries recounts in intimate detail the relationships between the two and the tragic fate the Titan met two years ago.