Warning: This article includes SPOILERS for Titan: The OceanGate Disaster!
Netflix’sTitan: The OceanGate Disasterincludes many shocking reveals, showing the reckless choices of Stockton Rush and the danger of the Titan submersible. Back in 2023, the world was taken by storm by the news that a manned submarine traveling down to the Titanic lost all contact. Only four days later, the Coast Guard confirmed thatOceanGate’s Titan implodedon the day it disappeared.
Two years later, Netflix has brought to light the events going on behind the scenes at OceanGate leading up to the incident, including thelack of sufficient testing on the Titanand the numerous warnings about how dangerous it was. Each shocking reveal inTitan: The OceanGate Disastermakes the situation even worse, leaving us to wonder how this was allowed in the first place.
10Stockton Rush (Allegedly) Said He Would “Buy A Congressman” To Get Out Of Trouble
Stockton Rush Came From Generational Wealth
Most individuals familiar with the 2023 OceanGate incident know that Stockton Rush cut corners. However, Titan: The OceanGate Disaster shows that Rush knew he was actively making dangerous choices, rather than simply being careless. His smugness about breaking the rules is highlighted the most when Matthew McCoy testified at a Coast Guard Hearing thatStockton Rush actively sought to get around the rules with his money.
Rush said the Titan would be flagged in the Bahamas and leave from a Canadian dock so they wouldn’t have to follow US rules. Then, Rush allegedly said he would “buy a congressman” if they got into trouble with the US Coast Guard. It’s easy to understand why people blame him for what happened when presented with this kind of pompousness and flagrant disregard for safety.
9OceanGate Retaliated Against A Whistleblower
David Lochridge Tried To Raise Concerns About The Safety Of The Titan
After the OceanGate Titan implosion, news came out about a whistleblower losing their job. As such, it’s not a completely new reveal. However, theTitan: The OceanGate Disasterdoes expand the available information and allows the whistleblower – David Lochridge, the former director of marine operations at OceanGate – to speak about how the situation escalated to that point.
As the one who would operate the dive, David Lochridge wouldn’t sign off because of the numerous issues he saw. After raising his concerns many times, he wrote them out in a document. The next day, he was pulled into a meeting where he was berated for writing the report. Then, Stockton Rush fired him. Lochridge reported the retaliatory action to OSHA, and OceanGate sued him for it which resulted in a countersuit. After a back and forth legal battle, Lochridge dropped the complaint.
8Passengers On Titan Were Called “Mission Specialists” To Get Around US Law
Crew Members Don’t Have As Many Protections As Passengers
Rob McCallum, a former expedition leader, shared insight into the reason why Stockton Rush was so against calling the paying customers “passengers” or “tourists.” Although he sanctimoniously boasted about them being explorers, his real motivation was getting around the rules. McCallum explains in Titan: The OceanGate Disaster that Rush insisted that all the passengers were called “mission specialists” at all times. This allowed them to get around US legislation because the rule of operating are different when it comes to crew and paying passengers.
While McCallum didn’t go into more specifics in the documentary, he explained what he meant in an interview withThe New Yorker. He stated:
Under U.S. regulations, you can kill crew. You do get in a little bit of trouble, in the eyes of the law. But, if you kill a passenger, you’re in big trouble. And so everyone was classified as a ‘mission specialist.’
Ultimately, this shows a more insidious side to Stockton Rush’s OceanGate company. Rush had enough belief that the passengers and tourists might die that he used a crew member term for them.
7Wendy Rush Was Related To Two Famous Titanic Passengers
Wendy Rush Is The Great-Great-Granddaughter Of Ida & Isidor Straus
Most of the shocking reveals inTitan: The OceanGate Disasterare infuriating to learn about. However, the documentary did drop one relatively anodyne fact. Wendy Rush, the wife of Stockton Rush, has a unique connection to the Titanic. She is the great-great-granddaughter of Ida and Isidor Straus. They are dubbed the real love story of the Titanic.
Despite being first-class passengers,Ida and Isidor decided to stay on the sinking boat together so that others could get saved. Their story was so moving that James Cameron paid homage to them by including them as a couple laying in a bed together when adapting thetrue story of theTitanic.
6Multiple OceanGate Employees Spoke Up About Their Concerns
Stockton Rush Was Well Aware Of The Dangers Of The Titan
The question that immediately came to mind when I heard about the terrible quality of OceanGate’s Titan back in 2023 was whether anyone spoke up about the problems. Titan: The OceanGate Disaster included the shocking reveal that not only did David Lochridge, the whistleblower, speak up but a ton of employees made their concerns known about the safety of the hull.
Emily Hammermeister, the former assistant to the lead engineer who rose to the position of project manager, explained that she and others were met with resistance when they expressed concerns. Many were fired quickly after raising concerns. When forced with the ultimatum of bolting people inside the Titan’s hull or leaving the company, she put in her two-week’s notice.
5The Waiver For The Titan Mentioned Death Many Times
The OceanGate Waiver Disclosed The Risk Of Death
Titan: The OceanGate Disaster provided viewers with a glimpse at the four-page Waiver and Release of Liability Agreement. The writing makes it very clear that the submersible is experimental and could cause anything from mental trauma to death. They highlighted three instances of the contract mentioning “death,” but it’s actually much more than that.
Number of times mentioned
9
3
10
1
Risks
14
Business Insiderobtained a full copy of the waiver, and it uses the word “death” nine times, three of which are on the first page. The contract gives examples of how a passenger could die. It also mentions that the submersible only had 13 successful dives, making the success rate extremely low. Ultimately, that’s a shocking amount of transparency for a company that took so many risks and cut so many corners.
InTitan: The OceanGate Disaster, Bonnie Carl, the former finance director of OceanGate, alleged that the Titan’s new lead pilot, despite her lack of experience or qualifications for the job. If this is true, it’s just another item on the seemingly neverending checklist that displays of the lack of concern Stockton Rush had for safety.
Rush presented it as good news because the media would enjoy that a female lead pilot was driving the Titan. Obviously, Carl thought he was absolutely out of his mind to think that was a good idea, and she quit the company.
3OceanGate Didn’t Successfully Test The Model To Titanic Depth Before Making The Hull
The OceanGate Third Scale Model Failed At 3000 Meters
After the Titan’s hull cracked, the team decided to rebuild it with a new design. They made the model for the new hull and tested it. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as planned. The third scale model of the Titan’s hull imploded at just 3000 meters, which is not far enough to reach the Titanic.
Despite this, they went immediately from the failed test to making the full-scale hull. This was a breaking point for Emily Hammermeister, who only stayed because she thought they cared about improving the safety of the vessel. The ultimatum came very shortly after the failed test.
Tony Nissen Thought The Titan Was Too Dangerous
Although they worked on the Titan, many of the engineers had little to no confidence in the vessel. This is best displayed by the testimony of Tony Nissen, the Director of Engineering, during the Coast Guard investigation. He asserts that Stockton Rush asked him to go into the Titan for a test dive, but he refused to go inside the vessel for a dive.
Theoretically, if anyone should have had confidence in a submersible’s efficacy, it would be the head of engineering. However, Nissen was right to refuse to go aboard such a dangerous vessel. Unfortunately, Nissen’s hesitance didn’t stop Rush from bringing others aboard the Titan.
1An Incident On Dive 80 Damaged The Submersible
The Acoustic Sensors Measured More Breakage In The Hull
One of the most shocking reveals in Titan: The OceanGate Disaster is the fact that the company knew the hull of the Titan was damaged but didn’t do anything about it. During Dive 80, the acoustic sensors recorded a loud bang. That was a turning point for the already dangerous submersible, the Titan.
Every subsequent dive had more frequent readings indicating fibers breaking in the composite carbon fiber hull. Despite this, Stockton Rush didn’t stop doing dives or take any steps to repair the vessel. It’s horrifying to know that Rush had such little regard for the safety of others, but it’s good thatTitan: The OceanGate Disasterhas brought so much awareness to everything going on behind the scenes.
