The disappearance of the OceanGate submersible has caused an uproar in the media over the last few days. Unfortunately, the sub has still not been found, but many people are now speaking to why they don't believe the trip should have been made in the first place. Josh Gates, host of the Discovery show Expedition Unknown, recently shared about why he passed up going on a mission on the sub back in 2021.
Josh made an appearance on Today and spoke with Tom Costello about his encounter with the OceanGate submersible two years ago. At the time, the company was still in its testing phase and hadn't yet carried out its first manned mission to the Titanic shipwreck.
Josh, who once had plans to go on one of the sub's missions, later changed his mind. What he shares in the interview gives insight into why, and perhaps speaks to why the Titan may have still not been ready for its most recent manned mission that now has five men lost at sea.
More from LittleThings: Everything We Know About The People On Board The Missing Titanic Submersible
"We had issues with thruster control," he explained. "We had issues with the computers aboard, we had issues with comms. I just felt as though the sub needed more time, and it needed more more testing, frankly."
Josh shared that he and a crew went down in the sub for about three hours, but did not go on a full mission to the Titanic wreck. On June 21, he tweeted, "To those asking, #Titan did not perform well on my dive. Ultimately, I walked away from a huge opportunity to film Titanic due to my safety concerns w/ the @OceanGate platform. There's more to the history and design of Titan that has not been made public – much of it concerning."
"I have to say there are aspects of the sub’s design that are incredibly impressive," he added. "There were also aspects of it that frankly just seemed like they needed more time or more work."
Josh went on to share that he was amazed by how the Titan could fit five passengers, because most vessels that travel that deep into the ocean are smaller and very claustrophobic.
He added on that the oxygen systems in the submersible were manually controlled.
"From a performance perspective, more work had to be done on it," he said. "And I think for us, we ultimately just felt, and I personally felt, that it just wasn’t for me."
But in response to the heavy criticism of the passengers paying $250,000 to take such a risk, Josh stated, "(Shipwrecks) are this moment from another era in our history. And there are people who that’s very meaningful for, who really want to have this experience, to go down and see that history firsthand. And I have to tell you, as someone who manages risk and does a lot of risky things for a living, it takes a lot of determination, it takes a lot of courage for somebody to go down on a mission like that."
