New footage reveals moment of Titan sub implosion amid US Coast Guard investigation

23 May 2025 • Written by Holly Margerrison

2023 Titan submersible implosion: Timeline of events and key things to know

US Coast Guard courtesy of Pelagic Research Services

On 18 June 2023, the Titan submersible – operated by US-based company OceanGate Expeditions – lost contact less than two hours into a deep-sea dive to the Titanic wreck site. On board were five people, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush. Days later, debris from the vessel confirmed it had suffered a catastrophic implosion, killing all five occupants.

Credit: U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters

The victims were:
Stockton Rush, OceanGate CEO and Titan pilot
Hamish Harding, British billionaire and explorer
Paul-Henri Nargeolet, French Titanic expert
Shahzada Dawood, Pakistani-British businessman
Suleman Dawood, Rush's 19-year-old son

BOAT International's live blog on the OceanGate Titan implosion outlines the key events leading up to and following the Titan sub disaster, including when communication was lost, how the wreckage was found and details of the ongoing investigation.

Titan disaster timeline:

Sunday 18 June 2023

08:00: The Titan submersible was launched from its mothership, Polar Prince (previously CCGS Sir Humphrey Gilbert). 09:45: Contact between the mothership and the submersible was lost. The U.S. Navy also noticed “an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion”. 15:00: Titan was scheduled to resurface but did not. 17:40: The U.S. Coast Guard was notified.

Monday 19 June

The search for Titan began.

Tuesday 20 June

Speculation began surrounding sonar detecting “banging” noises in the search area. These are later determined to be natural ocean sounds.

Thursday 22 June

Debris and remains of the sub were found around 500 metres from the bow of the Titanic. Citing this, the Coast Guard announced that the submersible had suffered a “catastrophic implosion.”

Sunday 25 June

The Coast Guard arranged a Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) to determine what happened to the Titan.

Wednesday 28 June

The wreckage of the Titan submersible was found on the ocean floor, approximately 300 meters off the bow of the Titanic, and brought to St. John's, a city on Newfoundland island off Canada's Atlantic coast.

Sunday 2 July

OceanGate announced it is ceasing operations.

Footage reveals moment Titan sub imploded

BBC’s soon-to-air documentary Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster offers unprecedented footage from Titan’s support ship, capturing the moment the sub imploded during its fatal June 2023 dive.

The video, recently obtained by the US Coast Guard (USCG), has been presented as evidence to the USCG Marine Board of Investigation, which has spent the last two years examining the sub’s catastrophic failure. The footage shows Wendy Rush, Stockton’s wife, reacting to the implosion sound – a “door slam” noise – that the USCG confirmed as the moment Titan failed.

The film also reveals that Titan’s carbon fibre hull began to fail a year earlier due to delamination, a critical weakness that experts warned made the vessel unsafe. Despite these warnings, the sub continued to operate until its tragic implosion.

The USCG Marine Board of Investigation has spent two years examining the incident, with a final report expected later this year.

Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster airs on BBC Two at 9pm on Tuesday 27 May and will be available on BBC iPlayer.