David Pogue First Raised Concerns About Missing Titanic Submarine’s Safety on ‘CBS This Morning’ 6 Months Ago

By Radhamely De Leon
Published June 20, 2023, 12:13 p.m. ET

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As rescue efforts are ramping up to locate the OceanGate submersible that went missing on Sunday (June 18), a CBS News report from November 2022 is going viral for raising safety concerns about the sub.

As documented in the CBS Sunday Morning report, journalist David Pogue joined OceanGate on an expedition to the North Atlantic, where OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was planning to take a group of Titanic enthusiasts on the Titan submersible to visit the site of the sunken ship, which rests 2.4 miles below the sea.

“If all went well, I myself will be spending about 12 hours sealed inside on a dive to the Titanic,” Pogue said in his report. “Not gonna lie, I was a little nervous.”

The report showed Pogue reading off the forms he had to sign before taking the expedition. “‘It has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, disability, motion trauma, or death,'” he read aloud, before adding, “Where do I sign?”

Titanic enthusiasts — or Titaniacs, as Rush calls them — pay $250,000 to take part in the voyage to the deep sea wreck. Among those currently missing on the submersible include billionaire Action Aviation owner Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his son, Suleman.

According to Pogue, the inside of the sub is similar to the size of a minivan. There was only enough room for the journalist and Rush to sit cross-legged inside the sub as the CEO showed him how it worked.

“I couldn’t help noticing how many pieces of this sub seemed improvised,” Pogue noted in his report. The report cut to Rush explaining that they use “off the shelf components” and lights from Camping World. The sub also only had one button because “it should be like an elevator” and “shouldn’t take a lot of skill,” according to Rush.

“We run the whole thing with this game controller,” Rush said, pulling out what looked like a video game console remote.

When Pogue mentioned that elements of the Titan seemed “jerry-rigged,” Rush responded, “I don’t know if I’d use that description of it. But there’s certain things that you want to be buttoned down, so the pressure vessel is not MacGyvered at all because that’s where we work with Boeing, and NASA, and the University of Washington. Everything else can fail — your thrusters can go, your lights can go — you’re still going to be safe.”

On their sixth day at sea, the OceanGate Titan finally began its trip underwater to the Titanic. But they lost communication with the ship that directs its course, causing it to become lost for “two-and-a-half hours” according to one of the travelers on board. Luckily, the crew was able to return safely. Pogue reported that Rush promised those on board a “free do-over” the next year.

In a tweet shared on Monday, Pogue reflected on his time on the ship during those tense moments they lost communication with the sub.

“To be clear, I was not on the sub that day — I was on the ship at the surface, in the control room. They could still send short texts to the sub, but did not know where it was,” he said. “It was quiet and very tense, and they shut off the ship’s internet to prevent us from tweeting.”

OceanGate Expeditions is leading the search for the submersible. Rear Admiral John Mauger of the U.S. Coast Guard said during a recent appearance on The Today Show that the company is leading the search because they “know that site better than anybody else.”

The sub is still missing as of time of publication. It reportedly has 96 hours of oxygen supply for the passengers onboard and has been missing since Sunday morning, according to the U.S. coast guard.

Watch Pogue’s full CBS report in the video above.