In a 2022 Good Morning America segment detailing a previous, successful expedition to the Titanic, journalist David Pogue reads aloud a portion of the passenger waiver. In it, Titan is described as, “An experimental, submersible vessel that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma, or death.”
In a follow-up Twitter thread this week, Pogue appears to confirm that Titan lacked any emergency distress location beacon at the time of his visit. “On my expedition last summer, they did indeed get lost for about 5 hours, and adding such a beacon was discussed…,” he writes.
https://www.popsci.com/technology/oceangate-titan-submersible/
OceanGate’s own CEO touted their cavalier approach to deep sea exploration at the time. “I got this from CampingWorld,” Stockton Rush says on camera, pointing to the Titan’s interior light. Rush then showed a modified video game controller, which he claimed controlled and steered the entire vessel. “It should be like an elevator. It shouldn’t take a lot of skill,” added Rush.
“The use off-the-shelf [sic] components helped to streamline the construction, and makes it simple to operate and replace parts in the field,” reads a portion of Titan’s official description.