New Details on Titan Submarine Implosion Revealed

Two years ago, the implosion of the Titan submarine took place. However, the full image of the causes of the implosion is still being investigated.

Yesterday, new evidence released by the US Coast Guard revealed the final moments of the deep-sea voyage. 

The implosion took the lives of five people aboard. 

This footage captures the moment the disaster made itself known.

On the morning of June 18, 2023, Wendy Rush, OceanGate’s director and wife of Stockton Rush, sat before monitors on the support ship Polar Prince, joined by mission specialist Gary Foss. 

They were tracking the Titan as it descended into the North Atlantic, toward the wreck of the RMS Titanic. 

At precisely 9:17 a.m. Eastern Time, as the submersible reached 3,300 meters, a muffled thump echoed through the control room.

“What was that bang?” Wendy asked, the tension in her voice unmistakable, captured in footage now made public by the Marine Board of Investigation on May 22, 2025.

Investigators believed that the thump was the sound of Titan’s implosion finally reaching the ocean’s surface—an eerie acoustic signature of a vessel that had, in all likelihood, already been lost. Moments later, a text came through from the submersible: “Dropped two weights.” It was a standard message—jettisoning ballast to alter buoyancy—but it would become one of Titan’s final transmissions.

Shortly after that brief flicker of hope, the digital silence resumed. Contact was lost.

Model reconstructions reviewed by investigators confirm what the world had feared in the days following the disappearance: the Titan had imploded approximately 90 minutes into its descent, killing all five occupants instantly. 

Among them were Stockton Rush; British billionaire Hamish Harding; French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman.

Thirty minutes prior to the implosion, there had been signs of malfunction. As the Titan reached 2,178 meters, the surface team asked if the vessel was still visible on navigation. 

The reply was cryptic: “Yes, lost system and chat settings.” At 2,288 meters, a final message came in: “All good here.” Then—nothing.

In a statement released on June 22, 2023, OceanGate acknowledged the loss:

“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time.”

For Wendy Rush, the tragedy was layered with personal loss. A leader in her own right within OceanGate, she had dedicated years to supporting missions that pushed the boundaries of marine exploration. Now, her husband's legacy is tangled with a tragedy that continues to echo in boardrooms, courtrooms, and family homes.