- Kathryn Armstrong
- BBC News
CBS reporter David Pogue recounts his experience aboard the tourist submarine Titan.
A journalist who was on board the now-lost Titanic tourist submarine said it was impossible for the passengers to escape without outside help.
The submarine disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday (06/18), so a massive search and rescue operation took place.
Corresponding SCS, David Pogue, share their experiences when he joined the submarine to explore the wreckage of the Titanic last year.
He said it would be difficult for rescuers to find the sub in time.
Pogue told the BBC the passengers were in the main capsule which was sealed with bolts attached from the outside and had to be removed by the crew outside the submarine.
The sub, he said, believed to be OceanGate’s Titan submarine, has seven functions to bring it to the surface, but it is ‘deeply concerning’ that none of the seven functions have been successful so far.
However, Pogue said the sub’s ability to surface would be irrelevant if the sub was trapped or leaking out to sea.
“There are no supports, no escape pods,” he said.
“This sub must return to the surface or die.”
Rescuers are racing against time to find the missing submarine, which normally has four days of oxygen supply for a crew of five, according to the US Maritime Safety Agency.
Government agencies, the US and Canadian navies, and commercial shipping companies participated in the search operation.
The Titanic wreck is located approximately 700 kilometers south of St John’s Newfoundland. However, his rescue mission is directed from Boston, Massachusetts.
image sources, CBS News
The missing submarine would be the Oceangate Titan submarine
The rescue mission was complicated by the fact that the GPS did not work underwater, nor did the radio, so there was currently “no way” to communicate with the submarine.
“When the support ship was directly above the sub, they were able to text each other. It was clear they weren’t getting any response,” Pogue said, adding that the sub was missing. for three hours on the expedition he was on last year.
He was initially hesitant to board the submarine because some of its components seemed “not specifically designed, sort of improvised from existing components”.
“You steer this submarine with an Xbox gamepad, and the ballast is an old construction pipe.”
Pogue said he was later convinced by Titan inventor and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush that his carbon fiber master pod was co-designed with NASA and the University of Washington and was ” solid as a rock”.
In a report on Monday, OceanGate said its “primary objective [adalah] on submariners and their families”.
OceanGate added that it was “deeply grateful” for the “extensive assistance” that government agencies and companies involved in this deep-sea operation had provided.
The Titanic, which was the largest ship of its time, struck an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912. Of the 2,200 passengers and crew on board, more than 1,500 died.
Its remains have been widely explored since its discovery in 1985.
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