Scores of former passengers who have ridden on board the that passengers’ feet could freeze if they sat too close to the submersible’s single porthole. And there was no room for standing inside Titan, which measures nine feet wide and eight feet tall.
Hagen recalled the cold getting to French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet—who’s confirmed to be on the Titan’s most recent dive—on their voyage together. Hagen said he’s devastated he never sent Nargeolet a pair of UGG-branded boots to keep him warm on dives.
“All I can think about over and over again is that I meant to send him a pair of those Uggs and I never got around to it and I’m torturing myself every day,” Hagen said. “He could have suffered less and died maybe with his feet warm.”
Others who have journeyed aboard Titan to the Titanic wreck site told The Daily Beast it was “inappropriate” to speak about their experiences while rescue operations remained active.
“Anyone who is not actively involved with the current situation is not in a position to offer responsible comment or speculation,” said Chelsea Kellogg, who was on a 2022 Titan expedition.
And Prof. Murray Roberts, a marine biology instructor at the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences who is one of several experts who accompany Titan passengers on wreck dives, said in a text that he is not granting any interviews “during this difficult time.”
Shocking details about the Titan and OceanGate have emerged this week. That included the surfacing of comments from the company’s founder, Stockton Rush, bemoaning regulations and calling safety efforts a “pure waste.” Rush is believed to have been on board Titan’s most recent dive.
“I mean if you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed, don’t get in your car, don’t do anything,” Rush told CBS News in a podcast last year. “At some point, you’re going to take some risk, and it really is a risk-reward question.”
Flaws with the Titan, like its lack of a basic locator beacon and failed safety checks, became widely-reported for the first time this week. Possible leadership failures also emerged, with The Daily Beast revealing that Rush was sued for fraud by a Florida couple who claims they paid for a Titanic voyage but never received one.
The sketchiness of Rush’s operation was enough to put off at least one potential passenger for Sunday’s trip, who surrendered an $88,000 deposit to steer clear of the Titan.
“We decided the risks were too high in this instance, even though I’m not one to shy away from risk,” Chris Brown, 61, told The Sun this week. “Eventually I emailed them and said, ‘I’m no longer able to go on this thing.’ I asked for a refund after being less than convinced.”
While many deep-diving horror stories that emerged this week came from trips aboard the Titan, others shared equally-chilling tales from other submersibles—highlighting why trips that traverse miles below the ocean’s surface are so rare.
Michael Guillen, a former ABC News correspondent, said the Titan’s disappearance has brought back foul memories of his own near-death experience in a dive to the Titanic’s wreckage site.
Guillen was the first journalist to report from the Titanic’s wreckage site in 2000. While there, however, an unexpected underwater current pushed his vessel into a propeller of the sunken liner, where they became briefly stuck.
“This voice came into my head and said, you know, ‘This is how it’s going to end for you,’” Guillen recalled to ABC News this week. “I’ll never forget those words. I’m very aware of what these poor souls on board the ship the Titan are experiencing. I am just heartbroken about it.”
