Breathtaking moment when passengers in the Titan mini-submarine see the Titanic for the first time

This is the breathtaking moment when Titan submarines first caught a glimpse of the shipwrecked Titanic after venturing to the ocean floor.

Passengers were moved to tears and lost for words as they slowly approached the wreckage of the 1912 disaster when the ship’s rotting bow suddenly came into full view.

Footage from the inside of the submarine, filmed as part of a 2022 BBC documentary, shows an emotional group of passengers as they journeyed 2.5 miles (4 km) into the ocean floor.

In pitch darkness, with only a beam of light from the Titan submarine to guide them, footage showed the submarine gliding across the ocean floor as it searched for the ship’s ruins.

After finding some debris, the crew encountered a brightly colored tile, which was a stark contrast to the gloomy darkness of the deep ocean, telling them that they were near the main ruins.

In the documentary, which can only be seen outside the US, Reneta Rojas, a Mexican passenger on the ship, initially complained that she “couldn’t see a wreck anywhere.”

Bewildered and searching for the 900-foot ship, the pilot Scott Griffith slowly steered the sub over the sea floor looking for clues as to where to find the wreck. The camera in front of him shows darkness

“I can see the wreckage on sonar,” Griffith exclaims, as the passengers revel in anticipation.

Rojas and Irishman Oisin Fanning beam with excitement with wide smiles, as they peaked out the porthole window hoping to finally see the wreckage of the Titanic.

Jaden Pan, also on the submarine, asks the two, “How close are we to the Titanic?”

“Very close,” they reply, visibly more hopeful by the minute. Rojas puts her hand to her mouth as she is hit with pure emotion.

‘We’re going in. The bow must be visible from the vantage point.

If you see anything, you have to let me know, okay?” says Griffith.

The claustrophobic cabin becomes completely silent as expectations visibly increase.

“We’re 30 feet from the bow,” Griffith declares, while everyone else remains silent.

Outside the port window, only small creatures can be seen as they are carried away by the ocean current.

“I don’t see it yet, it might be on the right side,” Rojas mumbles.

Griffith asks, “It will be on the right. Do you want me to beat around the bush?’

Rojas can’t contain her excitement now and beams, “Yes, yes, yes, turn, turn, turn.”

The bow is now dimly visible through the darkness and Rojas says excitedly, “We are at the bow, please send that message. Oh my God, you did it.’

The ship creeps closer and closer to the wreck and the bow becomes more visible. The video pans to show the crew staring out the window in awe.

The sheer scale of the ship is now coming into view, as is its age. The rotting wreckage is covered in a mixture of plankton, algae, barnacles and other creatures.

Fanning says from inside Titan, “Doing everything in reverse to get us here is fantastic. Yes,

I really can’t believe it when you see it. It’s so huge,” Fanning says, shaking his head in surprise before tears well up in his eyes.

‘It’s unbelievable. I’m actually lost for words, to be honest. It’s that good.’

The camera focuses on Rojas sitting with a tissue in hand. ‘I’m just crying. We made it. Finally made it,” she says before taking a deep breath.

The cameraman asks her, “How does it feel to get a lifelong dream?”

Rojas exhales. ‘Hard to explain. Difficult to put into words,’ she says, her voice cracking with emotion.

In a post-dive interview, Rojas explained her surprise: “She’s big. To imagine how big she must have been, there must have been 20 feet of wreckage in the sand.

“Even so, what you see is 20 feet high. Amazing to realize you are at Titanic. It’s no longer a myth to me – it’s reality, it’s there. You’re so close you can touch it.’

Fanning also expressed his awe: “When you’re at the bottom and you start to slowly go up and you can see every porthole – some of them are open, which is one of the things people are amazed at, that people have left portholes open.” when all this was going on.

‘And you go up and up and up and it seems endless and the ship was huge. This was a floating palace. You can imagine the people walking up and down in their finery and enjoying the sun, or whatever.

Last month, a year after the documentary aired, five passengers were killed: Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 58-year-old Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman during a dive to the Titanic. .

Earlier in the BBC documentary, Rush can be heard dismissing past concerns about the submarine. He said a crew member told him there was “a really loud bang” when the Titan was on the surface of the ocean on a previous mission.

Rush – who addressed his entire crew in the 2022 documentary – dismissed the concerns, although he agreed it was “not a soothing sound.”

“Almost every deep-sea submarine makes noise at some point,” he said, pointing to Nargeolet and saying he “can confirm” this was normal.

It was in that same documentary where Rush admitted that he “broken some rules to make” the Titan, comparing himself to US General Douglas MacArthur.

“I want to be remembered as an innovator. I think it was General MacArthur who says you are remembered for the rules you break,” he said.

“I broke some rules to make this. I think I broke them with logic and good technique behind me.’

The concerns of staff and employees have surfaced regularly in the days and weeks since the tragedy.