A look inside the horrifyingly claustrophobic missing Titanic submarine

Experts fear the vessel could have imploded

1 year ago

The world has been wide-eyed in horror and wonder ever since a huge search operation launched in the mid Atlantic ocean after a tourist submarine went missing on route to the Titanic shipwreck on Sunday. OceanGate, the company behind the £195,000 ticket eight-day long tour, said five people were on board the expedition travelling 12,500ft below sea level. Experts now fear the vessel could have ‘imploded’ due to the pressure.

Submarine expeditions are terrifying. The tiny vessel plummets down to the depths of the ocean and you have to sign a literal death waiver on your life to be allowed in one: “They mention death three times on page one so it’s never far from your mind…You all know what you’re getting into,” a former passenger told BBC Breakfast.

So, in case you’re wondering what it’s really like on board the missing Titanic submarine, here’s a look inside the bizarre vessel, which millionaires risk their lives to travel inside:

What is the Titanic submarine and who goes on it?

Credit: OceanGate Expeditions

It’s basically a billionaires idea of a fun day out

OceanGate Expedition’s Titan submarine has taken everyone from millionaires to doctors, artists, researchers, biologists and divers down to the Titanic shipwreck over the past three years. The expedition lasts eight days and leaves from Newfoundland in Canada, with a maximum of six people on board the 400-nautical-mile journey.

On board each trip is the pilot, a “content expert” and three paying passengers. On this occasion, the missing vessels paying passengers are the British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani-born London businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman.

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Credit: OceanGate

You get to see the Titanic shipwreck if you pay £195,000 and risk your life

“Follow in Jacques Cousteau’s footsteps and become an underwater explorer — beginning with a dive to the wreck of the RMS Titanic,” the OceanGate website says of the death wish trip. “This is your chance to step outside of everyday life and discover something truly extraordinary. Become one of the few to see the Titanic with your own eyes.”

“Once the submersible is launched, you will begin to see alienlike lifeforms whizz by the viewport as you sink deeper and deeper into the ocean,” it continues. “The descent takes approximately two hours but it feels like the blink of an eye.”

What’s it like inside?

Credit: OceanGate

The submarine is basically the size of a mini van – with five people inside

Even from looking at it with the naked eye you can tell: The Titanic submarine is small. “You really become part of the vehicle and everybody gets to know everyone pretty well,” CEO and founder of OceanGate, Stockton Rush, told CBC last year, while the OceanGate website says the voyage is perfect if “money isn’t an object and you don’t mind close quarters”.

In exact measurements, the submarine is 22ft-long and has a dome window at the front, which lets guests look out and see the Titanic wreckage and other views. Behind guests are the pilot’s controls and there’s a small toilet at the front of the dome, which (according to the OceanGate website) is the “best seat in the house”.

Credit: OceanGate

The submarine’s doors can only be opened from the outside

The Titanic submarine has 96 hours of air and is designed to resurface automatically if anything goes wrong and keep contact with a surface vessel throughout the trip using Elon Musk’s Starlink network. But after an hour and 45 minutes of the latest expedition, the submarine lost all contact. However, experts have since said they can hear “tapping sounds” from the vessel with sonar technology, which is terrifying.

Additionally, the submarine’s doors can only be opened from the outside. So, even if the vessel has resurfaced, the people trapped inside are still running out of oxygen with every hour that goes by.

It’s driven with a literal $30 video game controller

As if this deep dive into the depths of the ocean doesn’t seem risky enough, it’s been revealed by OceanGate that the Titan submarine is drive with a seriously outdated video game controller: The Logitech G F710, which is currently available on Amazon for $30 with a 4.2/5 rating. Yikes.

The PlayStation controller being used to pilot the Titan submersible appears to be a @Logitech Gamepad F710, available at Amazon for $30.

I wonder if Logitech would recommend using their products to pilot a homemade submarine to the wreckage of the Titanic. pic.twitter.com/FjnZSWzsyn

— TomHoefWrites (@TomHoefWrites) June 20, 2023

Do you have to be trained to go on? What’s the risk?

Credit: OceanGate

You need no training to go on the OceanGate expeditions

Terrifyingly, you don’t have to have any previous diving experience to go on the Titanic submarine expedition. According to OceanGate, the submarine had 96-hour’s worth of oxygen supply, which wold last until Thursday morning in theory. However, according to OceanGate’s trip operator advisor, David Concannon, this could run out quicker depending on the breathing rate of the tourist passengers without diving experience.

“If it has gone down to the seabed and can’t get back up under its own power, options are very limited,” Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London told the Guardian. “While the submersible might still be intact, if it is beyond the continental shelf, there are very few vessels that can get that deep, and certainly not divers.”