An American TV writer who took the Titanic submersible trip last year has recalled when boarding the boat that transports you to the Titanic, tourists must sign an extensive waiver outlining numerous potential ways they could perish during the journey. The search for a deep-sea vessel with five people on board that has been reported missing is currently in progress. The ship had started a dive towards the famed Titanic ocean liner’s deteriorating wreckage.
Writer Mike Reiss told BBC Breakfast: “To even get on the boat that takes you to the Titanic, you sign a massive waiver that lists one way after another that you could die on the trip.
“It mentions that three times on page one and so it’s never far from your mind you try and put it out, but as I was getting on to the sub, I mean, that was my thought well this could be the end.
“So, you know, nobody who’s in this situation was caught off guard, you know that it’s very bad things broke this way.
“But you all know what you’re getting into. It’s really exploration, it’s not, it’s not a vacation and it’s not thrill-seeking. It’s not like skydiving or something. These are people these are explorers and travellers who want to see something.”
Mr Reiss said he is “not optimistic” over the search for the missing OceanGate craft.
He told BBC Breakfast communication was also lost during his dive down to the Titanic.
Mr Reiss said: “I’m not optimistic just because I know the logistics of it. And I know really again, how vast the ocean is, and how very tiny the craft is.”
He added: “So the idea is, if it’s down at the bottom, I don’t know how anyone’s going to be able to access it, much less bring it back up.
“There is a hope that it’s at, or near, the surface.
“I did three separate dives. I did one dive to the Titanic and two more off the coast of New York.
“Every time they lost communication and again, this is not a shoddy ship or anything.”
The U.S. Coast Guard is leading the search for the small craft, named Titan, in the North Atlantic Ocean.
The remote area is where the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew.
This was OceanGate Expeditions’ third annual voyage to chronicle the deterioration of Titanic since 2021.
The sunken ship is about 2.4miles (3.8 kilometers) below the surface.
The undersea exploration company has been chronicling the ship’s decay as well as the underwater ecosystem that has sprung up around it over the last century.
