‘This is not a thrill ride for tourists, it’s much more’: Six-minute OceanGate promo video released WEEKS before Titanic sub disaster promised thrill-seekers a journey ‘that Jules Verne could only imagine’
- The Titan submersible made its final voyage on June 18 with five people on board
- The promo video, which stressed the ‘safety’ of the vessel, was posted on April 4
A six-minute OceanGate promo video released weeks before the Titanic sub disaster promised thrill-seekers a journey ‘that Jules Verne could only imagine’.
Five people, including the company’s CEO, were killed when the submersible imploded on June 18 on its way to the shipwreck – 12,500ft below the Atlantic Ocean.
The video, posted 10 weeks before the disaster on April 4, eerily references the ‘safety’ of the vessel multiple times throughout the video.
The narrator says: ‘A once in a lifetime opportunity to be a specially trained crew member safely diving to the Titanic wreckage. Get ready for what Jules Verne could only imagine – a 12,500 journey to the bottom of the sea. This is not a thrill ride for tourists, it’s much more.’
Featured in the clip is NASA astronaut Dr Scott Parazynksi, who says: ‘It’s very well engineered and very safe, and the team is very focused on safety first.’
A six-minute OceanGate promo video released weeks before the Titanic sub disaster promised thrill-seekers a journey ‘that Jules Verne could only imagine’
The clip also features OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush (second from right), who died alongside businessman Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet, when the sub imploded
It shows everything that goes into the submersible mission, including the surface vessel
Equestrian Kelly Parsons, who also speaks in the video promoting the ‘experience’, adds: ‘The communication is really key I think, knowing that they never lost communication.’
The submersible set off from Newfoundland on the morning of Sunday June 18, for what should have been a two-hour dive to the Titanic shipwreck.
However, communications between the sub and the surface vessel were lost one hour and 45 minutes after starting its descent and it failed to resurface as it was meant to at 3pm.
The clip also features OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who died alongside businessman Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet, when the sub imploded.
The video shows several scenes of people at the base drinking alcohol and laughing together, while being trained for the ‘risky’ mission.
Software security expert Aaron Newman, who is one of the few featured in the video to highlight its risks, says: ‘This is not a ride at Disney, there is a lot of risk involved and there’s a lot of challenges.’
The narrator also explains how an ‘extensive safety check’ is done after each dive to prepare for the next.
Featured in the clip is NASA astronaut Dr Scott Parazynksi, who says: ‘It’s very well engineered and very safe, and the team is very focused on safety first’
The narrator says: ‘A once in a lifetime opportunity to be a specially trained crew member safely diving to the Titanic wreckage’
The video shows several scenes of people at the base drinking alcohol and laughing together, while being trained for the ‘risky’ mission
People behind the scenes monitoring the mission are seen, as those undertaking the dive go through days of ‘training’
Part of the video shows people using their phone to capture sights outside of the sub, of what appears to be part of the shipwreck
In another part of the video, a woman is seen doing the famous Titanic pose at the end of a vessel
It comes after Shahzada, 58, and Suleman were pictured smiling arm in arm before they boarded the submersible on the £200,000 ($250,000) per person trip.
His devastated wife Christine revealed how the pair spent their final moments before the Titan imploded listening to their favourite music in total darkness to conserve power while watching bioluminescent creatures in the deep.
Mrs Dawood described how she and daughter Alina, 17, were on board the submersible’s mothership, Polar Prince, and waved her husband and son off on the adventure that fell over Father’s Day weekend in June.
She said three months earlier, OceanGate chief executive Stockton Rush and his wife Wendy had flown from the US to meet the Dawoods in London to convince the family it would be safe to travel to the wreck of the Titanic in his mini-sub despite concerns about its safety.
Mr Rush, who believed going to the depths of the Atlantic in the Titan was ‘safer than crossing the street’, met with the family at a café close to Waterloo in February to personally to talk to them about the design and safety of the submersible.
Mrs Dawood told the New York Times: ‘That engineering side, we just had no idea. I mean, you sit in a plane without knowing how the engine works.’
Just 12 weeks later the British-based family led by Mr Dawood, an heir to one of Pakistan’s most successful business dynasties, set off on the doomed trip.
Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman, 19, are seen just before they boarded the Titan submersible on June 18 – hours later the trip would end in tragedy
The British-based father and son were incredibly excited to be embarking on the trip, said Christine Dawood
Stockton Rush, the 61-year-old chief executive of OceanGate, was at the controls
The Titan submersible is seen being towed out to sea on board its raft before it descended
They flew to Toronto on June 14 but their flight to St John’s to join the expedition was cancelled so they had an extra day to explore the city. Their flight the following day was then delayed and they feared they might not make it to the Titan at all.
‘We were actually quite worried, like, oh my god, what if they cancel that flight as well? In hindsight, obviously, I wish they did’, Mrs Dawood said.
The Titan began its dive to the Titanic wreckage at 8am on June 18. At 9.45am, contact was lost.
It is now known the US Navy registered the sound of an implosion at that point. Five days later, debris from the sub was found on the sea bed, 1,600 feet from the Titanic.
Those on board were likely to have been killed instantly, without any idea what was happening.
Mrs Dawood said that they arrived on the mothership at the harbour in St John’s, Newfoundland, in the middle of the night of June 15, and set sail for the dive site.
She said there were briefings at 7am and 7pm, with scientific talks and discussion about the wreckage and the expedition.
Those preparing to make the descent were told to wear thick socks and a hat as it could get cold at the depths, and stick to a ‘low-residue diet’ the day before the dive, including to not drink any coffee the morning beforehand.
There was no toilet on board, and only a bottle or camp-style toilet behind a curtain.
The passengers were told to load up their favourite music onto their phones, to play via a Bluetooth speaker – although Rush banned country music.
He also warned them that the descent would be in pitch black because the headlights were turned off to save battery power for when they made it down to the sea bed.
They were told they would likely see bioluminescent creatures, however.
Shahzada Dawood, 48, (pictured with his wife Christine) was a UK-based board member of the Prince’s Trust charity
Five people were onboard, including British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding and Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who was just 19
French Navy veteran Paul Henry Nargeolet (left) was in the sub along with Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate Expeditions
The submersible, Titan, is pictured descending. It was the only five-person sub capable of reaching the Titanic
Mrs Dawood said her husband was so excited he was ‘like a vibrating toddler’ in the run-up to the trip.
She said they became fascinated with the Titanic after visiting an exhibition in Singapore in 2012, the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking.
In 2019, the family visited Greenland and was intrigued by the glaciers that sheathed into icebergs.
She found an advert for OceanGate, and originally she intended to make the trip with her husband.
Their journey was delayed due to the pandemic, however, and by the time they were able to make it, Suleman was old enough to go instead of her.
The teenager took a Rubik’s Cube with him, with the hope of breaking the world record for completing it under water.
Mrs Dawood said that her husband lapped up the on-board stories of Mr Nargeolet, one of the world’s foremost Titanic experts.
She said the Frenchman gave a presentation about his 37 previous dives to the wreck and told the group a story about how he had once been ‘stuck down there for three days and the sub was out of communication.’
She said her husband turned to her and said: ‘Oh, my god, this is so cool.’
Dawood and his son were heirs to the great Dawood business dynasty and amongst the richest people in Pakistan – although they lived in Surrey, England
The five were hoping to see the 111-year-old remains of the Titanic
OceanGate began offering trips to the wreckage in 2021
She added: ‘He was lapping everything up. He had this big glow on his face talking about all this nerdy stuff.’
On the morning of June 18, the passengers had to be on deck at 5am.
Mrs Dawood said she was impressed by the professionalism of those on board.
‘It was like a well-oiled operation — you could see they had done this before many times,’ she said.
The Dawoods had their OceanGate flight suits as well as waterproof trousers, an orange waterproof jacket, steel-toed boots, life vests and helmets.
They stopped to be weighed, as required, and posed for a photo.
‘I’m looking quite fat,’ said Mr Dawood. ‘I’m boiling up already.’
Suleman went down the stairs to get into the motorized raft that would shuttle the passengers to the floating platform on which Titan was tied.
Mr Dawood found getting to the platform less easy.
‘He needed an extra hand to go down the stairs in all this gear because the boots were very clunky,’ she said.
OceanGate’s submersible was designed by the company to travel almost 13,000ft below sea level to the wreck of the Titanic – but ‘has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, emotional trauma, or death’
‘And Alina and I were like, “Oh, God, I hope that he doesn’t fall into the water.”‘
All five climbed into the sub, and divers closed the hatch. Someone with a ratchet tightened all the bolts.
Crews manoeuvred the Titan underwater and released it from the platform.
‘It was a good morning,’ she said.
Later that morning, Mrs Dawood overheard someone saying that contact with Titan had been lost.
She went to the bridge, where a team had been monitoring the descent, and was told not to worry because communications could be unreliable.
She was told that, if there was an issue, the mission would abort and the sub would jettison weights on board and ascend to the surface.
Someone then told her they did not know where the Titan was.
‘I was also looking out on the ocean, in case I could maybe see them surfacing,’ she said.
She was on board the mothership when the news came, five days later, that the debris from the sub had been found.
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