On a past Titan sub dive the pilot lost control when the thrusters malfunctioned, causing it to spin in 360-degree circles less than 1,000 feet from the Titanic
- The Titan submersible had an issue with its thrusters and spun in circles on a dive last year.
- The moment, which was captured by the BBC, occurred less than 1,000 feet from the Titanic.
During a dive to the Titanic shipwreck on OceanGate's Titan submersible last summer, the pilot lost control of the vessel when the thrusters malfunctioned and left the crew unable to do anything but spin in circles.
The ordeal was captured on video that aired during an episode of the BBC's "The Travel Show," which is not viewable outside the UK. A clip from the episode shared by The Daily Mail showed the moment Scott Griffith, who was piloting the submersible, realized he had lost control.
"Am I spinning?" Griffith asked, prompting one of the other passengers to reply, "Yes."
One of the passengers told the BCC that Griffith said, "Oh no, we have a problem."
In the footage, Griffith could be heard telling the submersible passengers that one of the thrusters was thrusting forward while the other was thrusting backward.
"So the only thing I can do right now is a 360," he said.
Renata Rojas, a Mexican diver who was on the Titan at the time, told the BBC: "You know, I was thinking, 'We're not going to make it.' We're literally 300 meters from the Titanic, and although we're in the debris field we can't go anywhere but go in circles."
Rojas said the submersible was less than 1,000 feet from the Titanic, nearly 13,000 feet below sea level.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was communicating with the Titan submersible as it was stuck going in circles and helped to correct its course so the vessel could proceed to the shipwreck, according to the Mail.
Rush was on board the Titan submersible when it lost communication with its support ship during a dive to the Titanic on June 18. Four days later, the US Coast Guard announced that debris from the Titan had been found and indicated that the submersible had catastrophically imploded, killing all five people on board.
Rush and OceanGate have since come under scrutiny for ignoring safety concerns expressed by former employees and experts in the submersible industry.
Others have raised issues with the Titan's thrusters. Josh Gates, the host of the Discovery Channel's "Expedition Unknown," told "The Today Show" that he passed on a dive to the Titanic with OceanGate in 2021 because the submersible "did not perform well" on his dive.
"We had issues with thruster control," he said. "We had issues with the computers aboard, we had issues with comms. I just felt as though the sub needed more time, and it needed more more testing, frankly."