Reporter after “Titanic” submarine accident: “This is how it will end for you” Fukushima cooling water: controversial discharge into the sea is getting closer

In September 2000, American Michael Guillen would become the first reporter to cover the “Titanic”. “I was terrified of the water, but as a reporter I couldn’t say no to an invitation like that,” Guillen told Sky News.

The former ABC science editor now reports on the dive, which was not without its problems. The first thing he noticed when they reached the wreckage was the ship’s giant propeller. It was so big that the submarine was only the size of a mosquito by comparison. The propeller was very shiny. Apparently it was chrome plated and thus not as corroded as the rest of the ship.

“As I watched the impressive propeller, I noticed that our boat was accelerating. I thought that was strange,” he continues. “I thought we should slow down.” Only afterwards did the crew find out that they had become entangled in an underwater current, which occurs time and time again in such deep waters.

“We hit the propeller blades and got stuck behind the propeller,” says Guillen. They felt the collision and saw large parts of the wreck fall down. “That’s when we knew we were in trouble.” Trapped behind the propeller, Guillen feared that the situation in the boat could get out of hand: “Would someone – the pilot or my dive buddy – panic?”

Before the dive, they heard a story from a man who had been caught in a similar situation. In a panic, he had opened the door of the submarine, hoping to save himself. But the pressure down there is so enormous, Guillen says now. The water jet is as sharp as a razor blade, even though the water only penetrates through a small crack. The man tempted his own death.

As a scientist, Guillen saw himself as a professional problem solver, figuring out how to get out of danger while the pilot tried to get the boat to safety. But even then his courage failed him. He will never forget the voice in his head, says Guillen. All he thought was, “This is how it will end for you.”

As a correspondent, Guillen has been to the North and South Poles, to other places in the world where he has been in danger, but he has always survived. In the submarine, he finally thought of his wife and “that I should never see her again”.

After just over an hour, however, the pilot managed to free the submarine from the propeller. Guillen explains that it took another two and a half hours for the boat to surface. “It was an experience I will never forget in my life.”

The dramatic search for the “Titan” visibly took the former reporter. He tearfully said in an interview with Sky News that he gets sick when he thinks about the occupation. It is now clear: the occupants of the “Titan” are dead – the diving pod apparently imploded on the way to the “Titanic”.

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