Journalist who traveled on the Titanic submarine a year ago: “We were lost for more than two hours”

The expedition that disappeared in the Atlantic on the Titan submarine is not the first to travel to the depths of the ocean inspect the wreck of the Titanic. In these hours of quest against time for five crew, the testimony of a journalist who had already experienced an incident on this submarine was published. His name is David Pogue and works for CBS. The journalist recalled how on his social networks this Monday the same submarine disappeared last summer for more than two hours.

You may remember that @OceanGateExped floor on #Titanic he got lost for a few hours and LAST summer, when I was on a boat… Here’s the relevant part of that story. https://t.co/7FhcMs0oeH pic.twitter.com/ClaNg5nzj8

— David Pogue (@Pogue) June 19, 2023

“I remind you that the Titanic submarine was also lost for a few hours last summer, when it was on board…” he says in a tweet on his personal account.

Eight months ago, CBS Sunday Morning broadcast a program focused on this experience. The space began by pointing out that they participated in an exclusive experience which very few people could access. “Correspondent David Pogue joins the happy Titanic enthusiasts will pay a small fortune travel on OceanGate’s underwater vehicle, equipped with 4K video cameras, visit a luxury ship wreck 13,000 feet below the North Atlantic, weather permitting.”

He OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, is one of the interlocutors of the program who boasts that they have developed a new type of travel. “We have clients who are Titanic enthusiasts. Other they mortgaged their house to do it and we have people who don’t think twice despite the price. We even had a passenger who won the lottery,” he says.

The CBS show accepted an invitation to dive into Titan with that exclusive group. The team recounts how the journey was to the point where they would find the remains of a historic shipwreck. The passengers were on the ship that took them to that area for eight days. During this time, the program profiles passengers. One of them assures that she has been waiting for 30 years to see the remains of the ship that are in the depths. «dreams are priceless. Some people want a Ferrari; others are buying a house… I want to see Titanic».

The program also describes what kind of submarine it is – “it looks like a van from the inside” – and the pilot shows the journalist the much commented on command control of the ship, equivalent to that of a video game console. You are also surprised that it has a button in the style of an elevator or even a ceiling light. The journalist explains to the camera that the crew members have to sign an agreement releasing the company from any liability in case of any physical damage or even death during the dive.

immersion

After a few days on board, those responsible for the expedition inform their exclusive passengers that they have to postpone the experience due to bad sea conditions. Before the final trip, tourists take a test on board. — On the sixth day, the weather improved. David Pogue explains that this is when diving began, “and that was the last piece of good newsPogue explains.

“There is no GPS inside the submarine. He is guided by a ship on the surface that sends him SMS messages. After this explanation of the journey, the journalist assures that at one point something went wrong and communication between the ship and the submarine was lost. They never made it to the wreck of the Titanic. – We were lost for two and a half hours. What did OceanGate do then? He offers to repeat the trip.

Defense of experience

“People say it’s a lot of money, 250 thousand dollarsbut we’re spending over a million dollars on fuel,” says OceanGate’s CEO.

After the first failed dive, the group tries again to reach the remains of the historic shipwreck. “This last chance we had good weather and a lot of luck,” explains the reporter as the program shows what the Titanic looks like from a submarine. In the pictures, you can see a close-up of the ship’s hull or a plaque commemorating the victims left behind by other expeditions.

“Titanic tourism has its opponents”, the voice explains as the group is seen opening a bottle of champagne and returning to the surface. “These expeditions are not harmful to the wreck,” says a company expert. Moreover, he insists that they are valuable for history. “There will come a time when the remains of the Titanic will not exist.”

In the pictures of the interior of the submarine, the crew members are excited. Hugs and more hugs as the next dive is announced. They refer to the one from 2023, the one that just disappeared with five people on board.

This is the Titan submarine

“Manned submarines for commercial projects, scientific research and exploration.” This is how the company sells Ocean Gate its services under the ocean. This company is responsible for a submarine trip to see the remains of the Titanic that disappeared in the Atlantic.

Their main mission is not tourism, but from 2021 they travel to document how the remains of the ship were found, and even analyze the flora and fauna found in the environment. They even offer film production or evidence hardware and software in deep water His business is to know and inspect unexplored areas of the seabed.

They added the possibility of taking passengers to that excursion into the depths. The journey is an incredible seven days $250,000 per passenger.

The Titan is a Cyclops-class manned submarine designed to carry five people to depths of 4,000 meters. The company boasts that, due to its characteristics, it has better underwater mobility “than any other deep-submersible submarine”. Its systems “provide an unparalleled safety function that assesses the integrity of the helmet on every dive.”

Titan it also has an integrated launch and recovery platform and is easy to operate in a variety of sea conditions using a “local boat sized appropriately for the project”. In addition, we must add to this that it has an innovative real-time health analysis monitoring system. That is, it provides data from “the pilot in sufficient time to stop the descent and safely return to the surface.”