The Missing Titanic Submersible Was Operated By A $29.99 Video Game Controller?

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The eyes of the world are on OceanGate’s Titan, a submersible that takes tourists some 13,000 feet under the sea to view the Titanic wreck, for a cool $250,000 per passenger.

It set out from the Polar Prince yesterday morning with a pilot and 4 passengers and lost contact with the base ship about 105 minutes after launch.

One passenger is Hamish Harding, a British billionaire that has gone into space with Blue Origin and has set 3 world records in the air and underseas.

The Titan has about 96 hours of oxygen onboard via onboard CO2 scrubbers and oxygen tanks. It’s now a race against time to locate it and several countries and private enterprises are trying to do just that.

CBS correspondent David Pogue was invited by OceanGate to take a submersible dive down to the Titanic last year, and frankly the video is rather shocking.

In it, they too lose communication with the base ship for several hours, rendering themselves lost. The submersible can’t use GPS underwater, so it’s reliant on the base ship for communications on where to go.

But it’s the report starting at 3:23 into the video that gets weird. OceanGate’s CEO brags about how he bought some of the submersible’s components from Camper World. And then exclaims that he runs the whole submersible with a video game controller.

Nothing like having to rely on a video game controller that you can buy on Amazon for $29.99.

Maybe they just need to blow into it?

Based on that, one has to wonder what sort of communication system they were using that went out on the news reporter’s trip as well as yesterday’s trip?

The submersible is outfitted with 7 methods of resurfacing, though they include methods such as everyone going to one side of the ship in order to get the lead pipes that keep them submerged to roll off of the ship. No wonder this submersible was never certified to do what it’s being tasked to do.

Seemingly the submersible would have resurfaced if it could have via systems like propellers or inflatables, though it would still have to be found. There is no way for it to be opened from the inside to obtain more oxygen, it has to be unbolted from the outside.

Otherwise, it may have gotten tangled in underwater debris or wreckage, or worse, sprung a leak.

It’s a terrifying story for anyone that loves adventure, though I’d like to think even if a trip like this were to be bookable with miles, that I’d have turned it down based on how janky the outfitting is.

Let’s pray that the ship and passengers are located swiftly and safely.