Breathtaking moment passengers inside Titan mini sub catch sight of the Titanic for the first time as ship’s decaying bow comes into view just metres away as debris of broken sink with taps intact and coloured tiles is strewn on ocean floor
- Passengers teared up and were lost for words as they approached the wreckage
- The group were in darkness, with only the sub’s beam of light to guide them
This is the breathtaking moment Titan sub passengers caught a glimpse of the shipwrecked Titanic for the first time after venturing down to the ocean floor.
Passengers were reduced to tears and lost for words as they slowly approached the wreckage of the 1911 disaster when the ship’s decaying bow suddenly came into full view.
Footage from inside the submersible, filmed as part of a 2022 BBC documentary, shows an emotional group of passengers as they traveled 2.5 miles down into the ocean bed.
In pitch darkness, with only a beam of light from the Titan sub to guide them, footage showed the sub gliding over the ocean floor as it started its search for the ship’s ruins.
After finding smatterings of debris, the crew came across a brightly coloured tile, providing a stark contrast to the bleak darkness of the deep ocean, and telling them that they were near the main ruins.
The enormous scale of the ship is now in view, as well as its age. The decaying wreckage is covered in algae, barnacles, and other creatures
The crew came across a brightly coloured tile, providing stark contrast to the bleak darkness of the deep ocean
In the documentary, which is only available to view outside the US, Reneta Rojas, a Mexican passenger on the vessel initially complained that she couldn’t ‘see any wreckage anywhere.’
READ MORE: Heart-stopping moment Titan mini sub starts spinning 360 degrees when ‘pilot’ loses control during Titanic trip
Perplexed and in search of the 900ft-long ship, the pilot Scott Griffith slowly steered the sub over the sea bed in search of any clues as to where they can locate the wreck. The camera ahead of him shows darkness
‘I see the wreck on sonar,’ Griffith exclaims, as anticipation builds for the passengers.
Rojas and Irishman Oisin Fanning gleam with excitement with wide smiles, peaking out of the porthole window in hoping to of finally see the Titanic wreckage.
Jaden Pan, also on the sub, asks the two: ‘How close are we to the Titanic?
‘Very close,’ they respond, becoming visibly more hopeful by the minute. Rojas puts her hand over her mouth as she is struck with sheer emotion.
‘We’re going in. The bow should be visible right out of the viewpoint. If you guys see anything, you’ve got to let me know, ok?,’ Griffith says.
The claustrophobic cabin becomes completely silent as the anticipations visibly builds.
‘We are 10 metres away from the bow,’ Griffith declares, with everyone else still staying quiet.
Outside of the port window, only tiny creatures can be seen as they are carried with the ocean current.
‘I don’t see it yet, it might be on the right,’ Rojas murmurs.
Griffith asks: ‘It’s going to be on the right. You want me to rotate round to it?’
Passengers prepare to embark on the voyage down 2.5 miles to the Titanic on the ocean bed, inside OceanGate’s Titan sub
The claustrophobic cabin becomes completely silent as the anticipations visibly builds
Now unable to contain her excitement, Rojas beams: ‘Yes, yes, yes, rotate, rotate, rotate.’
The bow is now faintly visible through the darkness and Rojas says excitedly: ‘We are at the bow, please send that message. Oh my god you did it.’
The vessel continues to creep towards to wreckage and the bow becomes more visible. The video pans round to show the crew staring out of the window in awe.
The enormous scale of the ship is now in view, as well as its age. The decaying wreckage is covered in a mixture of plankton, algae, barnacles, and other creatures.
Fanning says from inside Titan: ‘Doing everything in reverse to make us get here is fantastic. Yeah,
I can’t believe it in real-life when you see it. It’s so enormous,’ Fanning says, as he shakes his head in amazement before tears well in his eyes.
‘It’s incredible. I’m lost for words actually, to be honest. It’s that good.’
The camera turns to Rojas who is sitting with a tissue in hand. ‘I’m just crying. We’ve made it. Finally made it,’ she says before taking a deep breath.
The camera man asks her: ‘How does it feel to get a lifelong dream?’
Rojas exhales. ‘Hard to explain. Hard to put in words,’ she says as her voice cracks with emotion.’
In an interview after the dive, Rojas explained her amazement: ‘She’s big. To imagine how big she must have been: there must have been 20ft of wreck inside the sand.
‘Even like that, what you’re seeing is 20ft high. Amazing to realised that you’re at Titanic. It’s no longer a myth for me – it’s reality, it’s right there. You’re so close to it that you can actually touch it.’
Fanning also put into words his awe: ‘When you got to the bottom and you start slowly going up and you can see every porthole – some of them are open which is one of the things that people are amazed at, that people left portholes open when all this was going on.
Passengers take pictures out of the port windowof the Titan vessel as they approach the Titanic ruins
The crew are unable to contain her excitement as they are able to inspect the enormous ship
In pitch darkness, with only a beam of light from the Titan sub to guide them, footage showed the sub gliding over the ocean floor as it stated its search for the ship’s ruins
The vessel continues to creep towards to wreckage and the bow becomes more visible. The video pans round to show the crew staring out of the window in awe
‘And you’re going up and up and up and it seems endless and the ship was huge. This was a floating palace. You can imagine the people in their finery walking up and down and taking in the sun, or whatever.
Last month, a year after the documentary aired, five passengers: Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood, 58, and his 19-year-old son Suleman were killed during a dive to the Titanic.
Earlier in the BBC documentary, Rush can be heard dismissing past concerns about the submersible. He said a crew member had told him there was ‘a really loud bang’ while the Titan was at the ocean’s surface on a previous mission.
Rush – addressing his entire crew in the 2022 documentary – dismissed the concerns, even though he agreed that it was ‘not a soothing sound’.
‘Almost every deep-sea sub makes a noise at some point,’ he said pointing to Nargeolet saying that he ‘can attest’ that this was normal.
It was in that same documentary where Rush admitted that he ‘had broken some rules to make’ the Titan and compared himself to US General Douglas MacArthur in doing so.
‘I’d like to be remembered as an innovator. I think it was General MacArthur who says you’re remembered by the rules you break,’ he said.
‘I’ve broken some rules to make this. I think I’ve broken them with logic and good engineering behind me.’
Concerns from associates and employees have been revealed frequently in the days and weeks since the tragedy.
Source: Read Full Article