All language subtitles for Drain.the.Oceans.S06E06.20.Million.Time.Bomb.1080p.DSNP.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-FLUX_track4_[eng]

We were anxious
to get out there and

we wanted to find the ship,
to prove that this did occur.

We'd spent six months
to get to this point and

we were running out of time.

The judge needed this evidence

and the stakes were high.

Somebody's life is
in the balance in terms

of whether they're
found innocent or guilty.

This is a murder trial.

It's one
of the biggest criminal cases

in maritime history.

All of these
things were preying on my mind.

The
story of the missing cargo of

Uranium processing
equipment and six dead sailors.

REPORTER 2
Standing trial is businessman,

Udo Proksch, accused
of blowing up the ship.

Udo Proksch
said the pirates took it.

He had several stories,
but without evidence, we,

he couldn't be prosecuted.

Is
Proksch innocent or guilty?

The truth lies far
beneath the waves.

We were searching in
water deeper than the Titanic.

What we doing in that
kind of environment and that

kind of ship with a sitting
judge in a murder trial.

There's never
been anything like it.

.

1985,
Ronald Reagan was in power.

REAGAN
The force is with us.

Microsoft Windows
was about to come out and

Live Aid was born.

And it was an
important time for me as well.

I was about nine months
away from graduating with

my degree as a marine geologist.

I was running out of money.

I didn't have a place to live,
and I wasn't really sure which

direction my life was going.

And then, I remember I
have a very good memory of it.

I was watching TV one day, and
like people all over the world,

I was amazed.

There on the screen, perhaps
the most iconic discovery in

the history of
underwater exploration;

the Titanic.

REPORTER
For weeks now, the world has

marveled at the
submarine pictures of the wreck.

And I thought, cool!

What if I could do that job?

I loved the idea of
operating this equipment,

of being challenged
with a job like that.

I remember
sending out 70, 80 CV's,

and I only got one real hit,

and that was from
Eastport International,

a very small company.

These guys were
doing amazing work.

They were operating
deeper than the Titanic to find

lost objects on the seabed.

And soon after I
joined them, they got one of

the most incredible
missions you could imagine.

To go and find a
ship called the Lucona.

The mystery surrounding
it was extraordinary.

What we knew about Lucona,
was that it was loaded in Italy

in Chioggia, during the
first part of January, 1977.

And then it was gonna be
sailing to the Far East.

The ship was underway
in the Indian Ocean,

about 17 days into the journey,

when something
unimaginable happened.

I saw a
yellow-red fireball about

15 meters high over the deck.

I felt the
shock and looked up.

All I could see was smoke.

The windows had been
blown in by the air pressure.

The ship started to
rapidly lurch to starboard.

I jumped overboard.

The only thing I could see, was
the wheelhouse and the stern.

The ship went down vertically while the
propeller was still rotating.

The first thing was,
what just happened?

That can't be,
that's impossible!

One minute we're on the ship,

and two minutes later
it's completely gone!

I heard the screams
of the first engineer

who went down with it.

I can still hear his scream.

And the others who were lost,

I can still see
them in front of me.

That doesn't go away.

The ship sank
and six people were killed.

The six that did survive were
able to get into a life raft and

were picked up
the following day.

If it wasn't for the
survivors' remarkable story,

this would never
have come to court.

An Austrian man
called Udo Proksch,

was suspected of
blowing up the Lucona,

to defraud an insurance company

out of the
insurance for a cargo.

Proksch had a
series of defenses.

One, remarkably,
that the ship never sank,

that it was actually
captured by pirates and

it was still sailing the seas.

But he had no part of it.

That was his main defense.

My name is Hans Leiningen,

I happened to be the
judge in the Lucona case,

and I thought, well,
nobody blows up ships.

It's idiotic, that's stupid.

Which made me suspicious,
therefore I thought we should

find the wreckage
because if we don't,

there's no proof at all.

So,
Lucona had to be found.

It was up to us.

And if we didn't do that,
there'd be no justice.

This was the first big
deep-water project that

I was gonna be
the project manager.

And so for me personally,
the stakes were high.

And with the trial underway,

it could only be
paused for a short time.

We had just four weeks.

So the real question was,
could we find it?

And if we did find it, could
we bring back this evidence

that it was blown up by a bomb?

We had a team of ten people.

Eight were basically
running the search,

and two were just
working on the ROV and

that was Bill Lawson
and Greg Gibson.

We are basically the eyes
and hands of the investigators,

when it comes down to
deep water investigation.

So we allow them to get into the deep
ocean to get their evidence.

The Lucona
job was different.

Everything was spec'd
out from 7,000 meters.

And, you know,
working at that depth is

a very challenging task.

Don was my direct boss.

If he said blast
through that wall,

you would do it for Don 'cause

he was a very
charismatic leader.

A straight line...

This was the first we
ever had a judge on board.

It was a little different.

And we told the judge,
"We can do this."

We weren't sure how
we were gonna do it,

but we said we could do it.

.

We also
had Gerhard Strasser,

the naval architect on the ship.

David Mearns said,
"If it's there we'll find it."

And I couldn't believe
it because for a search,

I think it was the
deepest at that time.

So the first question we
all faced was where to look.

Because the
Indian Ocean is very large.

Obviously, you go for the
most probable sinking location,

or the last known position.

And to find that, the
survivors' evidence was really,

really important.

From the people
being picked up in the water,

they could back out
currents and wind strengths

and their lifeboat drift.

And then, do a
probability analysis.

Their drift
pattern told them

where the wreckage probably was.

But even still,
that area was huge.

It was an area that was
about 400 square nautical miles.

It's at least
the size of London.

And you're looking for
something that's 75 meters for

a ship of that size.

And it's not intact,
it's blown apart.

So you're looking for
something that's even smaller.

And that made finding
it much, much harder.

He was a man, Udo Proksch,
who'd been accused of blowing up

a ship and killing the crew.

We were all wondering,
who was this guy in the dock?

Was he innocent, or guilty?

My name is Bernd Stracke,

I was an investigative
journalist and court reporter,

covering crime and disasters.

Udo Proksch was
originally from Germany,

a showman, a genius,
a whizz kid,

who could pull off anything.

With incredible networks.

He had friends everywhere,
in every field.

He was smart.

Udo was making a
club to entertain other people,

that was Club 45.

He had many friends in
the higher ranks of justice,

and higher ranks
of political people.

And, uh, that's how he worked.

There were
not only waitresses

running round in
cute white outfits,

but I was also told that
well-known ladies stripped off,

and that was a 'jolly' for major
politicians and business people.

But the main interest from
Proksch was to corrupt people

politicians who he needed
for doing him some favor.

Udo was a fan of camouflage
gear, a fan of firearms.

He was a fan of explosives
and of the military in general.

And for many years he
was a good friend of

Defense Minister Karl Lütgendorf.

Udo played
around with explosives.

The fact that
this was not prevented

is the fault of Karl Lütgendorf.

Once the search
box was determined from

the last known position, then
you search in a series of lines,

a grid of lines.

But that's not easy.

The sonar is on an 8,000,
9,000 meters of cable,

several miles behind the ship.

And at the end of these lines,

you have to make
a great big turn.

You've gotta come
around to the next line over.

So it's line, turn,

line, turn, line, turn.

You don't wanna leave
any gaps, no holidays.

It's just like mowing a lawn.

Back and forth, back
and forth and just looking for

anything that's on the seafloor.

What was the depth?

Echo sounders
reading about 4150 meters or so.

There's the bottom.

You can see it is flat.

We were
breaking a record.

The Titanic was 3,800 meters,
we were searching for Lucona

in depths beyond 4,000 meters.

And less than a handful of ships
had been found in deeper water,

4,000 meters or greater.

And the forces are enormous.

It's deadly in terms of
destroying your equipment

as quick as that.

Days went by, days went by,

days went by and we
hadn't found the wreck.

So after countless hours
of searching, the Lucona team

are still searching.

Did you think you could
find the Lucona at this point?

No.

It was extremely
unlikely that we find it.

It was 4,000 meters deep.

And, you know, that
the Titanic, less deep,

took a long time to find it
and its position was known.

So I thought it was
impossible to find the ship.

So day after day
goes by, and we're now getting

to the point where the
search box is nearly covered.

And I'm thinking, wow, you know,

something's wrong here.

We haven't found it.

So if it's not in
my box, where is it?

This was the
busiest shipping lane between

Asia and Europe in existence.

And there was nothing.
No debris. No wreck.

This is line number two.

No targets yet.

We were trying
to figure out, well,

did we miss it?

We
couldn't see anything.

I thought that's strange, huh?

Maybe the search box was wrong.

The experts took account of
current and wind and so on.

But I could see that the current
was from a different direction.

And then, I realized that it
was a failure of the experts.

And so that makes it even
more unlikely you'll find it.

But, I decided
we had to keep going.

We couldn't stop.

What are we
seeing on QTIPS?

Not much.

And I did this last line,
which was line number five.

It was about
7:00 in the morning.

And we start seeing
small bits of targets,

we call objects targets.

About, uh, 200 meters.

And they're small.

And then we start seeing more.

And then we start
seeing a cluster of them.

Boy, that looks good!

I could see
a shadow behind it.

That tells me something
is sitting off the seabed.

In flat mud, that's unusual.

That's a red flag.

You could tell that
this was of manmade origin.

And we knew that
we had something.

And that was
a great big object, many,

many times bigger
than anything else.

Oh, here's our
first good-looking target.

One large piece, about
26 meters by about 23 meters.

This could be it.

That's it.

But, as good as
a sonar image is to me,

it means very
little in a court of law.

I had to convince
the jury that we have found

the wreckage, the Lucona.

But we only had pixels.

This was really not
enough to tell them that

these pixels must be the Lucona.

The big
question was, is it a ship?

And if it is
a ship, is it Lucona?

It's strange
that Karl Lütgendorf,

the Defense Minister,

responsible for
the Austrian army

and the explosives
that Udo Proksch wanted,

was found shot dead
in his hunting vehicle.

Lütgendorf was
known to be right-handed,

but the gun was in his left hand

and he shot himself
through clenched teeth.

Shooting right through the teeth like that
made no sense to the forensic experts.

There are still
doubts over the case.

Lütgendorf's son is convinced
that his father was murdered.

Journalists
investigating Karl Lütgendorf's

mysterious death, have
uncovered a web of corruption.

And a new book just
published on the Lucona affair,

implicates Udo Proksch, who
now appears to be on the run.

When I went
to the Lucona case,

I thought, well, at that
time Udo Proksch would never

be caught, and he
would never come back.

So I said, well, no problem.

I'll take it.

And this was a big mistake.

Because he did come back.

Udo Proksch's people thought
we would never find the Lucona.

They said just go on and this
will prove that we are innocent.

We had the sonar results
and it looked like a ship.

But it wasn't enough
detail to pick anything out.

The only way you can
get that was photographic or

video evidence of the wreckage.

That was the hard evidence
we had to provide next.

Filming it with the ROV, a
remotely operated vehicle.

We switched over to
the ROV and found out that

the sonar had a problem.

Without the sonar, we
were gonna be almost blind.

A sonar, uh, will allow you
to see objects out at least

100 meters at a,
at a good resolution.

With that inoperative,

you cannot see the
environment you're in.

And one of the worst
things that can happen to you,

is getting the umbilical tied
into the wreckage at depth.

So, it was suicidal,

diving that ROV in
that sort of condition.

But I don't
think we had a choice.

We had to dive.

But we had no idea
whether it would work.

The deep ocean, 4,000 meters,

absolutely pitch black.

Black, black, black.

It is like driving down a
motorway with your eyes closed,

not knowing what
you're gonna hit next.

While you're trying
to collect evidence.

It's mad. Mad.

We didn't see
anything for a long time.

Sometimes there came a,
a small fish, but nothing more.

The seabed had
been absolutely flat,

like a billiard table.

And then the first
thing that you see,

are these great big
mounds of sediments,

like a bomb-crater.

Mounds of seabed
that have been thrown up.

And you see them
first and you say, "Whoa!

Where did that come from?"

And then, all of a
sudden it's there.

The hull of the ship.

And the wreckage appeared.

I really heard
the music of Strauss.

Also Sprach Zarathustra,
bom, bom, bom, bom,

playing in my head.

The
wheelhouse looks perfect,

the ladders look right.

The hatches look right.

But is there anything
out there that just tells us

that this is Lucona?

What's the easiest
way to identify the Lucona?

To see the name L-U-C-O-N-A.

The name on the
stern of the ship.

We are looking to where
the rudder would be and

where the name
would be above it.

And they're all buried.

The ship had impacted so great,
we couldn't see the propeller,

we couldn't see the rudder.

The stern of the ship
was so deeply buried,

the name was just not visible.

It just wasn't there.

So we knew we had to
go look for something else.

Okay, the next
obvious point is the bow.

The name, "Lucona," was
also on the bow of the ship,

but way up at the front.

So we started
maneuvering forward.

Cargo hold number two,
the aft cargo hold, was there.

But then we got up to
the middle part of the ship

where the main mast
and the booms were.

And then there was nothing.

There was no bow.

There was no
cargo hold number one.

There was no anchors,
there was nothing.

It was gone.

We could come up off
the bottom and kind of have

a God's eye view looking down.

And the whole forward of
the bridge superstructure was

pretty much blown to pieces.

That looks like
a blown up ship to me.

It was a big shock.

For me it was.

The front was gone,
you couldn't see the name and

that made it much
more complicated.

It looks like the Lucona,
it's where the Lucona should be.

And so, I was convinced
that we have found it,

but that's not
enough if I am convinced,

as I have to convince the jury.

So, the question was,
could we find something better,

better evidence to identify
the ship by different means?

So we looked around to
find some debris which would

inform us what the ship was.

The
debris field was huge.

It was about a kilometer square,

which equates to
about 100 football fields.

It was enormous!

It was such a huge
area to search and

we had so little time.

We got out
in the debris field,

and we started mapping
out the largest objects.

Flying the
debris field wreckage,

it just kinda rained
down on the seafloor.

And it was some
big chunks of steel.

Lots of sharp edges
that can cut your umbilical.

You could tell the
stress levels were high.

Proksch claimed his cargo was
Uranium processing equipment,

that was insured for
about $20 million US.

And we're going around
the debris field saying,

"Well, does that look like Uranium
processing equipment to you?"

Some of the biggest items
we found on the debris field,

were 20 foot
shipping containers.

They were on their side.

One had its to ripped open.

And when we looked inside,
it was totally different to

what Udo had claimed.

It was all
scrap metal, rusted steel.

This was like rubbish.

The cargo was not
what it was expected to be.

This looked like
equipment that was really kind

of agricultural, not
Uranium processing equipment.

It just didn't make any sense.

We're still not seeing
anything that identifies it.

And we're still searching blind,
and that was the real problem.

Without a working sonar, we
had no chance to really prove

that this was Lucona.

We decided
to go to Sri Lanka.

We would bring the
ROV and repair it.

And then finally, we
were able to get the parts that

we needed and get the sonar fixed and
get it back in the water.

This was our
last chance to find out

whether it's Lucona or not.

Up until this point,
we'd been flying, like,

almost blind.

But now, back at the wreck,
we had a working sonar,

it was a dream.

Because now you
could navigate with safety

around the debris field.

Cable out at 6-5-88.

But could we
identify the ship as Lucona?

We're now
entering the debris field.

Once you
settle out on the bottom,

you do a sonar scan.

And we knew where the targets
were around us with the sonar.

It was night and day difference.

Udo Proksch had a manifest of the
cargo with specific numbers.

We were hoping to find the
same numbers we had on the list.

This will prove that
we have found the Lucona.

I was in the
control room with David.

I asked him,
take a photo of this,

take a photo of this.

And then I realized it
is going to be a problem.

Because we needed to get
very close to see if anything

was written on the cargo.

The type of
ships that we use today,

can stay on station like a rock.

Even with winds and
currents and waves.

And this what you need,
because we're dangling

an ROV 4,000 meters below it.

But we're on a
ship that was different.

It would lose position and it would
drag the ROV off the bottom.

So, we would something,

a fleeting image and
we'd be pulled away.

Oh, look out.

Whoa, that's
what you call ship roll.

So, this was
absolute seat of the pants

cowboy kind of stuff.

We finally control
the accuracy of it.

And, and then we started
seeing something extraordinary.

Identifiable letters
and numbers, stenciled

on the cargo.

B-10.

B-10.

B-10.

XP-13.

XP-13.

XP-13.

XB-19 was in red.

And you could see
they were stenciled.

They were the exact same numbers
as listed on the manifest.

From the numbers
that were on the equipment,

they were able to trace
it back to, uh, Udo Proksch.

Zapata,
that's his company name.

So that's unmistakable.

It was finally proof
of this is the ship, you know,

the Lucona, that
we've been searching for.

It proved for sure
what Udo's real intentions were.

We could see the
steel imprints on it that said

it was mining equipment.

It was just
scrap painted and numbered.

And so he wanted to cheat the,

the insurance company.

That was clear, for sure.

One simple box
had everything on it.

With that alone, you
could basically convict him.

I think we got it.

It's a special moment
when you find a shipwreck.

Even one where there's
loss of life involved.

You've spent six months
for this thing to work.

You've been through
the wringer already.

There was that realization,

and I was able to have
a private moment myself.

There's the team
that found Lucona.

Number one team.

Come on,
give us a smile Gibson.

We'd linked
the ship to Udo Proksch,

but that didn't prove he
had sunk it deliberately.

In fact, it didn't even prove
that he had sunk it at all.

He basically said,

the Russians blew
it up with torpedoes.

That was his story.

And he was
trying to stick to it.

So could,
what we were looking at,

been caused by a torpedo?

Now the question was,
how did the ship blow up?

How did it explode?

One of the defense arguments,
on behalf of Proksch,

was that this was an
arms deal gone wrong.

He claimed,
unbeknownst to him somehow,

there were armaments on the ship
and the Russians were trying to

prevent that ship
from getting to Hong Kong.

So they torpedoed the Lucona.

And then he said,
if it did blow up,

it was because the Russians had
attacked it with a submarine.

But he had no part of it.

For me, it was clear,
we have to find out whether it

was an explosion
from inside or outside.

If it had been the Russians,
it would have been outside.

The thinking was
that a torpedo with a warhead

that explodes on contact,

that would look totally
different than a bomb of TNT,

sitting in the cargo
hold and just exploding.

We had to go find out
the ways that metal was bent,

which was critical in
proving whether the explosion

was internal to the ship,
or external to the ship.

And so we wanted to
get to both sides of the hull on

the middle part of the ship,

and see what the
side plates looked like.

Really forensically examine
it to come up with answers to

the final questions about
what happened to Lucona.

So we started
maneuvering along the side

and going up to the upper deck.

Strasser and the judge, they're
watching over our shoulders.

One of the first
things that you could see,

was paint ripped back.

It's discolored, and you
could see rust is settling in.

The side plates, they
were splayed outward,

almost perfectly on
the starboard side.

You could see that there was
a force from the inside that

pushed that piece of
metal to the outside.

There was no
signs of any torpedoes or

anything else
affecting the explosion.

Something had to be placed
in the middle of the ship,

blew up and blew the sides out.

It was crystal clear.

It blew up from the inside.

The crew would have had almost
no idea what was going on.

They had no chance.

Proksch's lawyers claimed that the
sailors that were

on the Lucona weren't dead.

They'd gotten new identities and were
living out their lives in Barbados.

I went to two of the victims'
families, Roberts and Davis,

and introduced myself.

And they said someone already visited
and promised to make sure that

we surviving relatives, widows and
orphans, get compensation and a pension.

They took every document, photo, and
the identity papers of our father, husband

and said they needed these
for the pension paperwork.

And we were looking forward
to receiving a pension someday.

I'm 100% sure that
these people who came there

to get these documents,
they came from Udo Proksch.

I think they took the documents and
the photographs and the letters

to destroy them and to let
them disappear from the world.

I felt very bad.
And I felt very angry.

I thought that for
justice to be done,

this evidence was critical

for the Lucona
case to be settled.

Now the big
question for the judge,

going back to Vienna to court,

was did he have enough
evidence to convict Udo?

It was a big event.

Many people there.

And then I was asked
as an expert witness,

to show the evidence in court.

This was finally the
moment of truth for the jury to

decide whether Udo
was innocent or guilty.

.

All the evidence was
indicative of the explosion

coming from the inside out.

There was a huge bomb,
placed in cargo hold number one

that blew it up.

The explosion went off
inside the forward cargo hold,

completely destroying
the front of the ship.

But the Lucona sank
even faster, because the bomb

blew a massive hole into
the rear cargo hold as well.

That's why it got flooded.

It was only the bottom of
the ship was still there.

It was like a rudder
pulling the ship down.

And in one minute,
ship was gone.

When you see
things like that on the seabed,

the hard hat,
that's signs of humanity.

Even though we
don't find human remains,

we knew this was basically the
grave site of six individuals.

There was loss of life and
that just reminded everybody,

you know, really struck home.

Well, the procedure
is that after the trial,

everybody made
his final statements.

We'd go back to a room.

The jurors then vote

and need to reach a
verdict on Udo Proksch.

It took them a long
time to come to a result.

They then go to the
judge and say we're ready.

Yeah, they
have said he's guilty.

Proksch was
sitting in front of me.

He turned around and said,

"You know, well done.

I hadn't expected that.

That you would really find it."

The only time I
spoke to Udo Proksch directly,

he told me, I will getkilled by somebody,
and I don't know exactly the date.

I don't know exactly
the way, how they will do it.

But my life will
not continue very long.

Udo Proksch fell
ill with heart disease.

And he was told he
needed a heart operation,

even though the chance of
survival was only fifty percent.

He was
14 years on the run,

but the evidence
that we provided,

as difficult it was to get,
was convincing and conclusive.

But I also knew what
you're trying to achieve,

is justice for these
people who were killed.

They lost their lives
because of the callous and

cruel and absolutely brutal
objectives of some crazy people.

And it's no recompense for
the six lives that were lost,

and the ones who survived,
they are victims as well.