Inside Titan sub: Past passengers recall 'suicide mission' to visit Titanic wreck
MANILA, Philippines — Chris Brown, the British adventurer and not the American singer, already made a downpayment to join the Titan submersible voyage now missing in the Atlantic on its way to see the wreckage of the Titanic.
Like his friend, British billionaire Hamish Harding, one of the five passengers in the missing sub, Brown is a thrill seeker. The 61-year-old digital marketing tycoon, however, pulled out from the voyage after finding out that the sub was just using controls “based on computer game-style controllers,” he said in an interview.
Apart from the modified Logitech gaming console, complete with thumbsticks and four colored buttons that the operator maneuvers to control the sub, Brown expressed concern over the experimental sub’s other substandard materials and technology.
“I found out they used old scaffolding poles for the sub’s ballast — and its controls were based on computer game-style controllers… If you’re trying to build your own submarine you could probably use old scaffold poles. But this was a commercial craft,” Brown said.
“Eventually I emailed them and said, ‘I’m no longer able to go on this thing’. I asked for a refund after being less than convinced.”
Josh Gates
American explorer Josh Gates, host of the Discovery Channel series “Expedition: Unknown,” echoed Brown’s concerns over the Titan’s sub’s safety measures.
“To those asking, Titan did not perform well on my dive,” he revealed in a Twitter post.
In a previous post, he shared that he had “the unique opportunity to dive” while inside the sub and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of its operator, OceanGate, Stockton Rush, who is also among the five passengers of the missing tourist submersible.
I had the unique opportunity to dive in the @Oceangate #Titan sub with Stockton at the helm in preparation for its maiden mission to Titanic. I pray for a positive outcome to the rescue efforts of those aboard, including fellow @ExplorersClub member Hamish Harding. pic.twitter.com/z6jjLf6tO6
— Josh Gates (@joshuagates) June 21, 2023
“I had the unique in the Oceangate Titan sub with Stockton at the helm in preparation for its maiden mission to Titanic. I pray for a positive outcome to the rescue efforts of those aboard, including fellow ExplorersClub member Hamish Harding,” Gates tweeted with a photo of him and Rush inside the Titan.
Rush’s own wife, Wendy, went to dive to see the Titanic wreckage three times with OceanGate in the past two years. Wendy, the company’s communications director, is the great-great-granddaughter of Macy’s co-owner Isidor Straus and his wife Ida, died on board the Titanic and were depicted in the James Cameron 1997 film as the elederly couple lying while hugging in bed in their first-class cabin while the water rises to engulf them.
According to Gates, his safety concerns during his dive with the Titan made him say “no” to another bigger expedition aboard the craft.
“Ultimately, I walked away from a huge opportunity to film Titanic due to my safety concerns w/ the platform. There's more to the history and design of Titan that has not been made public - much of it concerning,” he said in his tweet.
To those asking, #Titan did not perform well on my dive. Ultimately, I walked away from a huge opportunity to film Titanic due to my safety concerns w/ the @OceanGate platform. There's more to the history and design of Titan that has not been made public - much of it concerning.
— Josh Gates (@joshuagates) June 21, 2023
Mike Reiss
Reiss, one of the writers of hit animated TV series “The Simpsons,” shared that he had a “constant trepidation” during his Titan dive nearly a year ago.
“I kissed my wife goodbye, thinking that was the last time I might ever see her,” he told CNN.
Like other passengers, Reiss signed a waiver saying that the journey might end in catastrophe like death. He, however, still went through it because he found the submersible’s design to be “reassuring.” He even fell asleep two-and-half-hours down to Titanic’s site.
Despite the sub’s technical issues, Reiss went to dive with the Titan for four times.
“I took four different dives with the company and communication was lost at least briefly every single time,” he recalled. “One dive we took, as soon as communication went out, we went right back to the surface. I was going to see a U-boat just off the shore of New York.”
Despite fears for his life while onboard, Reiss defended OceanGate and said that the US-based company is in it not just for money or for thrill: “They’re not hot dogs. They’re not daredevils. They take this very seriously.”
Aaron Newman
Newman, an OceanGate investor, said in an interview that he felt “very safe” as a 2021 Titan passenger.
"They were a professional crew, they did a lot of training around safety and the backup systems around dropping weights, so I felt very safe," Newman told TODAY.
He, however, acknowledged that taking the dive was not a walk in the park.
"But ... this is not a Disney ride, right? We're going places that very few people have been, and this is inventing things. So there are risks, right? And we know that, but all these people accepted that."
He described the journey as "basically going to another planet."
"You're getting in this craft — you're bolted in. It's a tube that's comfortable, but not spacious," he narrated. "And at the surface, when you first get in, it gets very hot and stuffy and so you're laying down and you have a little packed lunch with you and a little bit of water, but you're planning for the day to be there."
According to him, by the time the sub reaches the wreckage, it was so cold and pitch black. There were no light sources other than what’s in the vessel.
"By the time you hit the bottom, the water down there is below what standard freezing temperature is," he said, estimating the water some 12,500 feet below the sea’s surface to be at 29 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
"That's going to conduct right through that metal, so it was cold when we were at the bottom. You had to layer up — we had wool hats on and were doing everything to stay warm at that bottom."
Arthur Loibl
Loibl, a 60-year-old German adventurer, called his Titan submersible experience two years ago a “suicide mission.”
Speaking with German media outlet Bild, Loibl said he was “incredibly lucky” to survive.
Prior to the Titanic, Loibl had traveled to the north and south poles and has flown over Russia aboard a MiG-29 fighter jet, but nothing beats the Titanic experience, he said.
Booking via an English company into organizing special “safaris,” Loibl paid 100,000 Euros (about P6.2 million) for his set on the Titan.
Apart from Rush, he dove with the sub’s pilot, French navigator Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who has been dubbed “Mr. Titanic” for being the global leader in Titanic underwater studies. Nargeolet is also now among those missing together with Rush and their billionaire passengers.
Loibl, nevertheless, recalled that after the first submersible they tried did not work, the second dive attempt had to be abandoned. Parts of the sub fell off, while the voyage was delayed for five hours because of electrical problems.
“The first submarine didn't work, then a dive at 1,600 meters had to be abandoned. My mission was the 5th, but we also went into the water five hours late due to electrical problems.”
Before the sub was launched, Loibl said the stabilization tube’s bracket, which balances the vessel as it dives deeper into the ocean, fell off but “was reattached with zip ties.”
“That didn't worry me,” he said.
The conditions inside the craft, nonetheless, is quite worrying: the 22-foot long sub only had 2.5 meters of interior space, had no seats and only had a single toilet with a pull-in black curtain. By about 3,200 feet, everything is pitch black as sunlight can no longer get through.
“You need strong nerves, you mustn't be claustrophobic and you have to be able to sit cross-legged for 10 hours,” Loibl said. “It must be hell down there…”
But upon reaching the Titanic, all of Loibl’s worries seemed to have sank together with the ocean liner. He circumnavigated the wreck aboard the Titan twice and even touched down on its deck before making the return trip back to the surface.
“To those questioning why people would dive to Titanic: the ship has fascinated the world since the night she sank,” Gates tweeted.
“It's a time capsule to another era of our history. It takes courage to make a trip like this. Admiration and prayers for the passengers aboard OceanGate Titan.”
