Chilling moment doomed Titan sub disappears into the bottom of the sea in ominous test dive before implosion tragedy

THIS IS the horrifying moment the doomed Titan submarine was plunged into darkness during an ominous test dive.

The sub would later implode in a tragedy that stunned the world – and left its five passengers dead.

AP

Titan used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic[/caption]

Reuters

Salvaged pieces of the Titan submersible from OceanGate Expeditions are returned[/caption]

BBC

Petros Mathioudakis was on the 2019 dive[/caption]

BBC

Stockton Rush sat on Titan Submersible[/caption]

Brit Hamish Harding, 58, father and son duo Shahzada, 48, and Suleman Dawood, 19, and French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, would sadly die in the June 2023 disaster.

Then OceanGate Expeditions Chief Executive Stockton Rush, 61 also perished on the fateful voyage.

Rush had previously taken the sub down to sea off the Bahamas during testing four years earlier.

Passengers on this trip have outlined how the sub ran into trouble during in a forthcoming documentary on BBC Two next Tuesday at 9pm.

In a terrifying moment, they are said to have heard a noise “like a gunshot”, after which the exterior lights went off.

The sub then lost full vertical thrust availability when one of its battery banks failed.

One passenger claimed the vessel was “within a few percentage points of implosion” during the April 2019 trip.

Submersibles expert Karl Stanley told the documentary: “I did not even come close to appreciating the real danger.

“I was the one that was like ‘hey, capture this moment’. I was happy to be there.”

Underwater electronics technician Petros Mathioudakis was also on the dive.

He said: “I was aware that this was extremely risky. And Stockton was very clear.

“He said do you have a wife, and I said ‘no’. Do you have kids? And I said ‘no’. And he said OK, you’re in.”

Describing the terrifying moment, he added: “The first time the carbon fibre made a noise in that hull, it was extremely loud – it was like a gunshot.

“Any noise would have been loud – that was loud.

“Everyone stops talking for a little bit and ‘OK, I think we’re OK’, you know.”

Along with the loud noises, the sub’s lights went dark – with a video from onboard showing the nerve-shredding conditions.

Stanley said: “The supposed goal of the trip was to test it to the exact depth of the Titanic. They got 96% of the way there.

“The cracking sounds were continuing, so at some point collectively we came to a decision of ‘well, that’s good enough.”

Despite warnings from experts and former OceanGate staff, Titan continued to make dives.

Deep-sea explorer Victor Vescovo said: “I specifically told them that it was simply a matter of time before it failed catastrophically.”

Another clip from the day of the tragedy shows Wendy Rush – Stockton Rush‘s wife – looking at a computer used to receive messages from the Titan when a deep metallic thud rings out.

All five people onboard were killed instantly when the vessel collapsed under immense pressure at around 3,300m of depth.

BBC

Despite warnings from experts and former OceanGate staff, Titan continued to make dives[/caption]

AP

Remains of the Titan submersible[/caption]