‘Within 5-10 minutes you're in pitch dark’: Former passengers recall unsettling experiences aboard Titan submersible

As a massive search operation is underway to locate a submersible that went missing with five people onboard, several former passengers have opened up about their experiences of boarding the Titan in the past. The submersible began its journey on Sunday morning, June 18. About one hour and 45 minutes into its descent, the vessel lost contact with the Polar Prince, the support ship that transported it to the site.

David Pogue travelled on the vessel in November last year while on assignment for CBS Sunday Morning. The correspondent has now described the Titan as a "minivan without seats."

"There's not much you can do if something goes wrong," he said, speaking with NPR. He also noted there are multiple ways for the Titan to return to the surface, which will all work "even if the power is out and even if everyone on board is passed out."

"My trip was not smooth. We made it 37 feet down and then they ran into a mechanical problem and we had to abort the dive," he added. "I was devastated, and crushed, and did not see it coming. But I have since learned that these dives rarely go to plan."

David claimed he had to sign waivers "that would curl your toes," and called them "basically a list of eight paragraphs describing ways that you could be permanently disabled or killed." OceanGate is “not a tourist company,” David said, but for "rich adrenaline junkie adventurers who thrive on the risk.” "But for them, you know, the risk is the life," he added.

‘The Simpsons’ writer Mike Reiss and his wife boarded the Titan last year to visit the Titanic wreckage. He told KIRO 7 that seeing the famed ship was something he "wasn't overwhelmed or underwhelmed by" because it was "a real struggle" to even reach the wreck.

"Our time was very, very short because on top of the danger of being two and a half miles down, there was a hurricane coming in at sea level, about to hit our boat. We really had this tight window," he said.

"You sort of land at the bottom of the ocean and then go 'All right, where's the Titanic? We know it’s around here somewhere.' ... it felt a little touristy,” he added.

The five passengers aboard the Titan submersible have been identified as OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French diver Paul Henry Nargeolet, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman.

Mike said, “I am sure that the world is very worried and that kind of thing, but something to know having gone through it is that you know going in how very dangerous this is ... we're all part of this ongoing experiment. They're doing research and inventing the technology as they go.”

"So, before you even go on you sign this long, long waiver that mentions possible death three times on the first page. So ... you know what you're getting into," he added. "In fact, when I stepped onto the sub, part of my mind was going, 'Welp, this could be the end.'"

Aaron Newman, an OceanGate investor and former passenger in 2021, told TODAY that the vessel was "comfortable but not spacious.” "Within 5-10 minutes you're in pitch dark, complete dark. You have lights from the submersible that you can see outside and internally. Without those, your light is gone at any depth below 100 meters," he said.

"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. But ... this is not a Disney ride, right?" he concluded. “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.”