'Simpsons' producer Mike Reiss recalls technical issues during his OceanGate Titanic trip

Mike Reiss, an executive producer of "The Simpsons," is opening up about his past voyages with OceanGate, all of which he said were plagued with technical issues.

In an interview with ABC News Wednesday, Reiss said he's done four voyages with the company, including one to the site of the Titanic ship wreckage. An OceanGate submersible making the same trip went missing this week, and, on Thursday, authorities declared all five people aboard dead.

"It's always in the back of your head that this is dangerous, and any small problem will turn into a major catastrophe," Reiss said, adding all four of his OceanGate trips had communication issues.

"That seems to be just something baked into the system," he continued. "I don't blame OceanGate, but I blame deep water for that."

Reiss also recalled that passengers set to embark on an OceanGate voyage had to sign a waiver mentioning the possibility of death "three times on the first page."

"Sometimes you do things knowing these risks and hoping for the best," he said.

On his trip to the Titanic, Reiss said the submersible landed 500 yards away from the wreckage, but "our compass was acting up, and we didn't know in what direction it was." He said they eventually found the Titanic and were able to take pictures.

"We didn't get the great Titanic experience," he said. "We got the Instagram experience. We were just there long enough to take photos of the anchor and the porthole and the railing."

Related: Former Titan submersible passengers share their experiences with vessel as search continues

Reiss said he expects more catastrophic tourist incidents like this to happen, especially as voyages to space become more common.

"It should be a wakeup call for everyone that, yes, things can go wrong. There aren't that many deep sea submarine dives but we're seeing an age of space tourism, and it's the exact same thing," he said. "Things will go wrong. There will be an incident like this at some point when you're sending tourists into space, and it'll slow things down a little and will give people pause."

It's OK to grieve. The Titanic submersible passengers have died.

Reiss added he hopes the incident doesn't halt the exploration offered by OceanGate and similar companies.

"I love what the company is doing," he said. "They have such spirit that I hope it doesn't just kill this kind of exploration forever, because it's a wonderful thing."

In the midst of the search for the OceanGate submersible that went missing on a voyage to the Titanic, a clip from a 1998 "Simpsons" episode surfaced on social media. In the clip, Homer embarks in a submarine to the bottom of the ocean, where he finds ship wreckage and a treasure chest but gets his submarine caught on coral.

"That’s my show," Reiss told The New York Post in an article published Thursday. "Even I forgot about that."

It's 'most people's biggest fear': The missing Titanic sub and why we can't look away

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Simpsons' producer Mike Reiss recalls tech issues on his Titanic trip