Shocking details revealed about missing tourist sub visiting Titanic shipwreck

An “experimental” submersible that vanished with five people on board including a billionaire was controlled by an old-school “gaming controller”.

A tourist submersible that vanished less than two hours into a dive to see Titanic’s wreckage was an “experimental” vessel steered by a video game controller.

The sub Titan went missing with five people aboard on a dive to the Titanic’s wreckage in the North Atlantic on Sunday morning, local time – sparking a desperate search by the US and Canadian coast guard.

It is a rare expedition that American technology and science writer David Pogue knows better than most.

The CBS News correspondent signed a rather confronting document to secure his place on the sub operated by OceanGate Expeditions in July last year.

“Not gonna lie; I was a little nervous, especially given the paperwork, which read, ‘This experimental vessel has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, emotional trauma, or death,’” he wrote in a piece published in November detailing the unique experience.

David Pogue signing the paperwork to go aboard OceanGate's submersible, Titan. Picture: CBS Sunday Morning

Pogue was seen in disbelief in his television report as OceanGate chief executive Stockton Rush showed him the game controller that “runs the whole thing”.

Rush assured Pogue the pressure vessel was safe and unlike other aspects of the operation, was “not MacGyver at all”.

He said they had worked with Boeing, NASA and the University of Washington on that part.

“Everything else can fail, your thrusters can go, your lights can go. You’re still going to be safe,” Rush told Pogue.

In an earlier interview, one of the company’s submersible pilots Kenneth Hauge admitted the controller was based on a Logitech video game controller.

“If you can play a video game you can drive with, er, some instruction,” he told the Herald in 2021.

“It’s pretty intuitive.”

Investment firm CEO Shrenik Baldota - who was on that 2022 voyage - told CBS: “We were lost. We were lost for two and a half hours.”

The submarine that went missing while taking people on tours to see the Titanic used a cheap Logitech controller and other off the shelf parts.

pic.twitter.com/b4K9YefdWQ

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) June 20, 2023

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush shows Pogue the game controller that “runs the whole thing”. Picture: CBS Sunday Morning

CBS journalist’s nightmare dive to the Titanic

The actual dive getting down to the Titanic shipwreck was full of hiccups.

Pogue reported that the dive was initially postponed due to the size of the waves and a consolation dive to the Continental Shelf was also scrubbed at 37 feet under as something went wrong with the platform the sub detaches from at about 30 feet.

Days later they tried to reach the Titanic again.

Pogue explained there was no GPS underwater, so the surface ship is tasked with guiding the sub to the shipwreck by sending text messages.

“But on this dive, communications somehow broke down. The sub never found the wreck,” Pogue explained.

On a third attempt on their last day at sea, they had a successful dive where they saw the Titanic at the bottom of the ocean.

Not only does the Titan not have GPS underwater, the hatch is bolted shut from the outside.

And according to Pogue there is no other way out.

He explained to BBC on Tuesday, there was no escape pod and the sub needed to get to the surface.

“It’s get to the surface or die,” he said.

He understood the sub had seven different ways to resurface and that it was “really concerning” none of these had worked so far.

Titanic expedition leader, @gmichaelharris, says more people have been to outer space than the depth of the ocean that the missing Titanic tour submarine is. He says there’s nothing the Navy can do right now and things aren’t looking good. pic.twitter.com/JHdSSZOe3Q

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) June 20, 2023

‘Dire situation’

The vessel has a range of 96 hours for a crew of five, and US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said Monday afternoon, local time, he believed it still had 70 or more hours of remaining oxygen.

Former US Coast Guardsman John Mixson said it was a “dire situation”.

“It’s hard to say, whenever you just lose total communications in a situation like that, what actually happened until you find the vessel,” Mr Mixson told Fox News. “This isn’t a common occurrence at all.”

“Obviously, something very rapid and very tragic took place.”

He added that there was still hope to locate survivors given at this point it was still a search and rescue mission.

Titan is 6.5-metres long and can dive to a maximum depth of 4,000 metres. Picture: OceanGate

Among those on board the Titan is British billionaire Hamish Harding, chief executive of Action Aviation in Dubai.

“I am proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate Expeditions for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic,” he wrote on social media.

“Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023,” the 58-year-old added.

British billionaire Hamish Harding is on board the Titan, which vanished on Sunday morning. Picture: Getty Images

Tickets for the expedition cost $USD250,000 ($367,000) per person.

In a statement quoted by CBS News and other media outlets, OceanGate Expeditions said: “Our entire focus is on the crew members in the submersible and their families.”

Search and rescue mission

The US Coast Guard has launched two C-130 planes to survey the surface, while Canada has deployed aircraft “which utilizes sonar technology with buoys,” Chief Petty Officer Robert Simpson told AFP.

He said that “after the expected time of return” for the submersible, the OceanGate ship “conducted an initial search and were unable to find anything or any sign of the submarine and they contacted the Coast Guard.”

OceanGate said in its statement it was “deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to re-establish contact with the submersible.”

Without having studied the craft itself, Alistair Greig, professor of marine engineering at University College London, suggested two possible theories based on images of the vessel published by the press.

He said if it had an electrical or communications problem, it could have surfaced and remained floating, “waiting to be found.”

“Another scenario is the pressure hull was compromised — a leak,” he said in a statement. “Then the prognosis is not good.”

While the submersible may still be intact during its dive, “there are very few vessels” able to go to the depth to which the Titan might have travelled.

– with AFP