Journalist David Pogue participated in an OceanGate expedition in the summer of 2022 and reported on the dive of the submersible Titan on CBS Sunday Morning. david pogue
CBS reporter David Pogue dove on Titan last year to see a continental shelf.
The trip was cut short midway due to strict safety protocols, Pogue recalls.
The aftermath of Titan’s deadly implosion this month “was one of the toughest weeks of my life,” he told Business Insider.
This article is based on a conversation with David Pogue, who participated in an OceanGate expedition in 2022 to report on CBS Sunday Morning. He participated in a trip to the North Atlantic continental shelf that was canceled due to security protocols. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The waiver said riding the “experimental submersible” could result in injury or death. At the time, I considered it legal language.
In hindsight, of course, everything looks different. Today we know more than we did a year ago. That’s not to say we didn’t do some research before embarking on the trip last year. And we knew that PH Nargeolet (arguably one of the most famous and most knowledgeable Titanic experts in the world) not only endorsed the voyage, but accompanied it whenever the opportunity arose.
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I’ve hosted about 20 specials for Nova, a science show on PBS. Here I flew kites, swam with sharks, sat in a wrecking car and was put in a military freezer. I always believed in the cause, after all, who would want me to die in front of cameras? I also had confidence in OceanGate.
They invited us to publicize their company and their expeditions. It never occurred to me that they would willingly risk my life for something that has not been tried and true. At the time, I thought the game controller business was fun. I didn’t doubt for a second that it wouldn’t work. In fact, I find discussions of the matter inappropriate, as the controller had absolutely nothing to do with the implosion.
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We signed the disclaimer the day before our dive. It didn’t really worry me because that’s what you sign for while skiing, bungee jumping, one of those trampoline parks or scuba diving. We knew this thing had dived into the depths of the Titanic about 20 times before without a hitch. So at that point, we had no reason to think it could be dangerous.
The protocol was to abort if something went wrong. But OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush also liked to play the underdog.
They lowered the sub, it sank, and divers were on their way to unhook the sub from the platform. Then the control room spotted two black buoys floating on the waves. These were attached to the four corners of the platform. Somehow two of them got separated.
Although the submersible was not affected by this issue, the launch was cancelled. I still remember how upset and disappointed I was about that. In hindsight, this is a good example of safety culture: if something goes wrong, you stop.
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Rush once said that “at a certain point, security is a waste”. He pointed out that the Navy requires every switch in the switchbox to have explosion-proof construction that costs thousands of dollars. He was very fond of playing the underdog and considered himself a risk-taking innovator. I have no idea how much he believed what he said. Many of his statements have not aged well.
Many people say, “He built a Lego box and threw it into the water.” But it’s not like that. It should be looked at in a more differentiated way. I feel that reasonable people have generally understood that this is a complicated story with many components.
Those were the hardest weeks of my life..
The constant reports kept me from processing my emotions. On the one hand, there is anger that I was deceived. There’s the hysteria, the shaking, and the gratitude that he’s still alive. There’s also a bit of survivor’s guilt. Family and friends have been incredibly supportive and wonderful. When my wife first saw me after the message, she hugged me so tightly that we just stood there for five minutes.
Any sane person would think there was some danger involved. And it ended: the danger was too great. You feel like you played Russian roulette and won.
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This text was translated from English. You can find the original here.