“What was that bang?” Wendy Rush, the widow of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, asks while on a support vessel nearby.
Investigators of the OceanGate Titan submersible disaster have discovered chilling footage that appears to show “the moment when all communication was lost.”
On Friday, Discovery released a preview for its upcoming two-part documentary, Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster, in which Wendy Rush, the widow of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, heard a loud bang, which is believed to be the implosion.
In June 2023, after a five-day search for the missing Titan submersible, the Coast Guard and OceanGate Expeditions confirmed the worst: Stockton Rush, as well as passengers Shahzada Dawood, his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, adventurer and billionaire Hamish Harding, Titanic enthusiast and diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet all died aboard the vessel, which went missing shortly after its dive on Father’s Day.
The preview clip featured members of the Coast Guard watching Rush — OceanGate’s Director of Communications — and her team hearing a “bang” coming from the Titan while they were on board a support vessel nearby. (The new footage of Rush and her team was first released by the U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday.)
“Communications continued throughout the descent. There were no transmissions, which indicated trouble or an emergency aboard the Titan,” a man said in a voiceover, in the Discovery preview over footage of USCG members appearing to be in a briefing. “At 10:47:27 a.m. local, the Titan messaged, ‘Dropped two WTS.’ At 10:47:33 a.m. local, the Titan was pinged for the final time. The depth of the Titan was 3,346 meters.”
“The investigation team recently discovered video evidence of the moment all communication was lost,” a message read on screen.
A Coast Guard officer then can be seen bringing out a laptop to show the footage of Rush to two other members.
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“You will hear a noise that is external to the ship — or external to the room, I should say — and you’ll see their reaction to the noise,” the officer said, prefacing the video of Rush.
In the footage of Rush, she can be seen monitoring the Titan as it continues to drop. A loud noise can then be heard, which the Coast Guard officer compared to a “door slamming.”
“What was that bang?” Rush asked in the clip, before she then received a message from the Titan that read, “Drop two weights.”
While reacting to the footage, the USCG officer explained that “dropped two weights” was the “last message” received from the Titan.
“The message actually comes in after they heard the noise of what could possibly have been the implosion noise,” he added.
One of the Coast Guard members noted that Rush appeared to be relieved after receiving the message. The USCG officer revealed why the sound came before the message.
“What we believe is an implosion sound came first before the computer message of ‘dropped two weights’ based upon the speed of actual sound,” he explained. “Sound travels through the water column at 1,500 meters per second, right? And so they were at 3,346 meters below the surface. So that would’ve been, like, two and a half seconds. ‘Dropped two weights’ is the last thing that they stated. Within five seconds is when we lost comms in tracking.”
Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster — which will be released next week — is a two-hour special that “investigates the 2023 OceanGate submersible tragedy, featuring never-before-seen footage, unprecedented access to the United States Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation, and new video from inside the Titan,” according to Discovery, per a press release.
“The special explores how the tragedy unfolded, what warning signs were missed, and the lingering questions around deep-sea exploration and safety,” the synopsis added.
Discovery is not the only platform releasing a documentary about the OceanGate tragedy, however.
On Thursday, Netflix released the trailer for its documentary, titled Titan: The OceanGate Disaster, which will be released on June 11, 2025 — exactly a week before the two-year anniversary of the tragedy.
While Discovery appears to have had access to the USCG investigation, Netflix will be diving into what led to the disaster, focusing on Stockton Rush and his company.
According to the streamer, per a press release, Titan: The OceanGate Disaster “delves into the psyche of billionaire OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and explores his relentless quest to bring oceanic exploration to the masses — at any cost.”
“Through exclusive access to whistleblower testimony, pivotal audio recordings, and footage from the company’s early days, the film provides an unprecedented look at the technical challenges, moral dilemmas, and shockingly poor decisions that culminated in the catastrophic expedition,” the synopsis continued. “Titan examines the doomed underwater endeavor that forced the world to reconsider the price of unchecked ambition in the depths of the ocean.
Discovery’s documentary, Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster, airs on May 28, while Netflix’s doc, Titan: The OceanGate Disaster, drops on June 11.
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