Exploration
Executive producer Arnie Gelbart on making the documentary that uncovers new insights into what happened when the Titan submersible imploded near the Titanic wreck site
The ocean’s depths have always held secrets — from the wreck of the Titanic to the stories that continue to unfold around it. In the summer of 2023, those depths took five lives when the Titan submersible famously imploded, making headlines around the world.
OceanGate, the American company behind the Titan, had been offering submersible tours to the famous wreck since 2021. But on June 18, 2023, the company’s deep-sea expedition ended in disaster. The sub lost contact during its descent, sparking a global rescue effort that would ultimately uncover wreckage, instead of survivors. All five passengers died: OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his 19-year-old son Sulaiman Dawood, and French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet. The incident drew widespread media attention and divided the public, with some questioning the wisdom — and privilege — of undertaking such a high-cost adventure.
Now a new film is taking viewers beneath the surface — literally and figuratively — to answer the question: what happened? Directed by filmmaker Pamela Gordon, and commissioned by BBC, CBC, and Discovery US, the documentary follows the investigation into the vessel’s catastrophic implosion just 500 metres from the Titanic wreck site. Canadian Geographic spoke with executive producer Arnie Gelbart about how the documentary came together — the investigation, the new insights and the haunting human story at its core.
On how the film was made
We actually had been working with Stockton Rush since 2017, so we knew him quite well. At the very beginning, when we knew that he was building this very special submersible, we approached him to do a four-part series where we would use the submersible to revisit the Titanic story and use the submersible to see what the Titanic looks like today. He was also building for us a little ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) that was going to go inside the body of the Titanic. That was the original project, but we were concerned from the beginning that he wasn’t getting certification and there were also insurance issues. At some point in 2023 we were actually going to do more filming with him but we couldn’t get the production together, so we didn’t go. Then, the accident happened and given our long history with him and with the company, we were able to quickly turn around and do an in-depth documentary about the whole history leading to this tragic accident. We had footage from the earlier relationship with OceanGate, so we could use it in telling the story. Long before the accident, we had also approached the U.S. Coast Guard on other questions, so we had a kind of privileged relationship with them, which made the making of our film more credible and more interesting.
On the heart of the story
A story at the heart of the story is Stockton Rush. He’s almost a character from Greek mythology. He had a load of hubris. Even though some people doubted his solution of using carbon fiber [to make the submersible], he was sure he was right and he wouldn’t listen to anyone else. But he was also Icarus. He [Icarus] was told, “if you’re going to use wax to create your wings, don’t get too close to the sun because the wax will melt and you’ll die.” Which is what happens to Icarus and also happens to Stockton Rush.
On interviewing the families of victims
[Christine Dawood, who lost her husband and son] was reticent to talk about it. Her husband, who wanted to do this, also wanted to give his son this great, unique pleasure. So she lost her 19 year old son at the same time. Both her husband and her son. She’s still living through that grief and feeling that it was a terrible loss for her personally, but also a loss for the five people who died because of this fatal flaw and Stockton Rush who was so convinced that he was right — that the thing was invincible — and then caused the death of himself and four other people.
On capturing the voices behind the story
It was very hard to get people who worked for OceanGate to speak, because when they joined the company, they had to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). A lot of them are still worried today that the company could come after them, so there were a number of people we wanted to talk to who could not talk. Some of them, like Antonella Wilby, agreed, because it was very traumatic for people who were on the ship at the moment that Titan imploded. She felt that it was important to tell her part of the story — and that she saw that there was a problem, that there were noises coming from the ship, but nobody would listen to her. So, some people took the risk of going against the NDA. Also, once they appeared in front of the U.S. Coast Guard Commission, it became public record, so they felt they couldn’t be sued.
On unfolding the truth beneath the surface
It’s one of these rare stories that everybody knows because it was such a worldwide event when it happened. People who really knew, including the U.S. Navy, knew an hour or a minute after it happened because of the loud bang, and they have sensors all over the North Atlantic. So they suddenly heard this very loud bang and they knew something had happened. It was likely to be an implosion and it was likely that the people were dead.
On OceanGate’s ties to Canada and unsolved mysteries
The company was transferring all its assets to Vancouver and to St. John’s. The winter before the accident the submersible was stored in St. John’s outside. Although the temperature in St. John’s is mildish, things freeze. So you have this very delicate ship, which may have water filtered in somewhere, and then you put it in a place where it thaws and it freezes. There’s a kind of omertà [code of silence] around all of the Canadian authorities in St. John’s about the possible involvement of Canadian elements in the story. Also, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) has done its own investigation, which we could not get hold of. [The TSB says its investigation is ongoing and a final report has not been completed or released. — Ed.] The support ships were two Canadian ships: Horizon Arctic and Polar Prince, based in Halifax and St. John’s. There was actually Canadian government involvement in terms of financing OceanGate that we haven’t been able to totally clarify. We know that some Canadian loan was made which allowed them to pay off their ships because when the accident happened, Stockton Rush owed over a million dollars to the ship owners for the transport and that money got paid off through some kind of Canada industrial loan system. Again, it’s a mystery that remains to be solved.
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