A former passenger of the lost Titanic submersible has come forward, revealing that his crew also experienced a period of disappearance during a previous expedition.
The search for OceanGate’s Titan vessel is currently underway after it vanished on June 18 while descending two miles beneath the Atlantic Ocean to explore the wreckage of the Titanic. At this time, sadly, the oxygen on board the vessel is estimated to be empty.
The submersible carried five passengers, each of whom paid $250,000 to be part of the expedition, including British billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman, and OceanGate founder Stockton Rush.
Unlike traditional GPS systems, the Titan submersible relies on a text message-based navigation system called USBL (ultra-short baseline) from the surface.
It is worth noting that a separate crew experienced a similar situation last year.
Passenger Shrenik Baldota recounted the previous expedition, stating, “We were lost. We were lost for two-and-a-half hours.”
CBS reporter David Pogue, who was also on board during that incident, took to Twitter, mentioning the current emergency and recalling the previous episode: “You may remember that the @OceanGateExped sub to the #Titanic got lost for a few hours LAST summer, too, when I was aboard.”
In an interview with the BBC, Pogue emphasized the critical nature of the situation, stating that if the vessel is not located or unable to resurface, the crew will perish. Describing the layout of the submersible, he explained, “There’s no backup, there’s no escape pod – it’s get to the surface or die.”
Pogue provided further details about the interior of the pod, highlighting its unique features. “The main center section looks like a shiny white tube about minivan length. It’s made of five-inch thick carbon fiber, which no one has ever used in a submersible before,” he explained. The submersible features small silver domes at each end, with a 22-inch round window made of seven-inch thick plexiglass at the front end, offering a view of the Titanic upon reaching the ocean floor. Pogue added, “If you have to go to the bathroom, you can crawl into the window end of the sub and hang up a black cloth for privacy. There’s a one-foot-square box on the floor that contains Ziploc bags.”
Despite the advanced technology, the submersible’s controls are operated using a game controller, with a couple of touchscreen PC monitors available on the floor for display purposes.
The US Coast Guard provided an update on the rescue mission, stating that, so far, search efforts have not yielded any results.
