CBS Story On OceanGate’s Missing Titanic Sub Goes Viral After Reporter David Pogue Got Jitters Over Its “Jerry-Rigged” Design

Jake Kanter
·2 min read
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A six-month-old CBS report on OceanGate’s Titanic tourism submarine is going viral on social media after reporter David Pogue raised safety concerns about the now-missing vessel.

Pogue visited OceanGate’s operations last year and was submerged in the $1M submarine, named Titan, which vanished off the coast of Canada on Sunday. It was carrying a pilot and four passengers, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.

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Before boarding the sub, Pogue was given a tour of the vessel, during which he commented on its “improvised design.” This included lighting from Camping World and an unofficial PlayStation controller used to drive the submarine.

RELATED: Quickie Titanic Sub Documentary Set On British TV Just Hours After Air Onboard The Craft Is Expected To Run Out

“It seems like this submersible has some elements of MacGyvery jerry-rigged-ness. You are putting construction pipes as ballast,” Pogue said to Rush in an interview.

“I don’t know if I would use that description,” Rush replied. He added that the OceanGate worked with Boeing and Nasa on the pressure vessel. “Everything else can fail. Your thrusters can go, your lights can go, you’re still going to be safe.”

Pogue said he was nervous before boarding and revealed some of the contents of the waiver form he was required to sign. This described the submarine as an “experimental submersible vessel that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma or death.”

A clip of Pogue reading the waiver has been viewed 9M times on Twitter.

On a test dive with Pogue inside, the submersible platform that lowers Titan into the water failed when its floats came loose. A later dive, with CBS cameras still following Titan, the submarine lost contact with its launch ship. “We were lost for two-and-a-half hours,” said a passenger, who paid $250,000 for a ticket. A third dive was successful and the submarine found the Titanic shipwreck.

Here’s the full CBS report:

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