In April 1912, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the ocean, taking with it the lives of more than 1,500 passengers and crew. The Titanic’s fate instantly became iconic thanks to James Cameron‘s 1997 movie, and the ship’s legend has endured to the present, where another tragedy may be currently unfolding. On Sunday, June 18, OceanGate Expeditions’ submersible vehicle went missing while on an underwater tour of the Titanic’s wreckage. And as rescue efforts are underway, a CBS News report from November 2022 has gone viral because it features the same vessel that is now lost beneath the waves.
In the video, CBS reporter David Pogue went on an OceanGate expedition and interviewed the company’s CEO, Stockton Rush, who is one of the five individuals who is missing on the ship. In the clips, Pogue appears to be alarmed by just how low-tech Rush’s submersible vehicle is, especially when he learned that a video game controller was used to drive it. And as noted by Pogue, before he could take part in the voyage, he had to sign a document that stated that the “experimental submersible vessel … has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma or death.”
OceanGate’s Titanic expeditions are not for the faint of heart, or for casual tourists. According to the report, each passenger paid $250,000 for a spot in the vehicle. And even then, not all of them were able to take the full dive due to harsh ocean conditions and technical failures. It was only on the last day that Pogue’s group successfully managed to make the dive and visit the wreckage of the Titanic.
In addition to Rush, the other passengers on the submersible vehicle are billionaire Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a Pakistani businessman named Shahzada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son, Sulaiman Dawood. The only good news at the moment is that the vehicle reportedly has up to four days of air. However, that leaves rescuers with only two days to find the sub.
According to Deadline, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Canadian Coast Guard are leading the effort to find the missing sub. But for now, there is no further word on its status.
