Channel 5 explores The Titan Sub Disaster in new documentary

It was a story that left the world holding its breath. The search for the Titan sub sparked an international rescue operation and gripped public attention across the globe.

In a new exclusive two-part documentary, Channel 5 will examine, minute by minute, the race against time to try and save five people on their doomed dive to the wreck of the Titanic.

In a world first, the TV series reveals exclusive audio from the frantic global rescue operation that ultimately ended in tragedy, leaving everybody onboard dead. But why did this extraordinary expedition go so terribly wrong?

The Titan Sub Disaster: Minute by Minute airs across two episodes on Wednesday, 6 March and Thursday, 7 March at 9PM on Channel 5.

In the first episode, five men aboard the Titan submersible descend to the bottom of the ocean in search of the most famous shipwreck in the world: the Titanic. What happens next results in an international search effort and headlines across the world.

Titanic, the “unsinkable” ship which went down on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City in 1912 has long held a fascination for many, and for a privileged few visiting the site of the wreck at the bottom of ocean is within their reach.

On the 18th of June 2023, communication with the Titan sub is lost as it descends two and a half miles down beneath the waves. With limited oxygen thought to be onboard, the race is on to find the missing sub and its crew.

On board Titan are five people: the youngest, a 19-year-old university student, Suleman Dawood, his father Shahzada, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British adventurer Hamish Harding and the pilot and owner of OceanGate, the company responsible for the expedition, Stockton Rush.

This film charts the call to action of a global rescue effort, including a deep-sea research team based 2000 miles away. Pelagic Research Services have one of the only submersibles in the world capable of diving deep enough to reach Titan if it’s stuck on the seafloor. Pelagic’s Ed Cassano and Jess Doren detail the monumental task of racing to the dive site.

As the search intensifies, the Canadian Air Force detects underwater banging sounds. Could these be from Titan? In a world exclusive, this film shares the raw audio recordings of what rescuers heard.

With access to rarely seen footage from previous expeditions and exclusive interviews with rescue teams and expert first-hand testimony, this episode follows the start of the journey to rescue those on board the Titan.

In episode two, the fate of the passengers on board the Titan submersible is revealed.

With interviews with journalists covering the story here and abroad and first-hand testimony from rescue teams, the story that gripped the world reaches its terrible finale.

As deep-dive rescue teams finally reach the site in the North Atlantic Ocean where Titan went missing, the documentary details the agonising search for the sub that resulted in tragedy. Featuring interviews with experts whose own submersible discovered debris on the ocean floor and then recovered the shattered pieces of Titan.