By now I’m sure many people are aware of, and following, this story of the Titanic submarine/submersible that is lost in the North Atlantic. If you haven’t heard about it, the New York Times has a pretty good summary here.
But when I first became aware that this mini-sub was lost at sea attempting to reach the wreckage of the Titanic, I thought to myself, ‘I feel like I’ve heard about this before.’ And in a rare instance of my brain actually remembering something correctly, I had.
My wife and I have been watching CBS Sunday Morning EVERY Sunday for years. In my opinion it’s one of the best shows on TV. Easy viewing. Grab a donut, grab some coffee, let those trumpets hit and drop your brain off for 90 minutes.
Well one of the regular contributors to that show, David Pogue, did a story on OceanGate and actually went out on that submersible for a segment that aired last December. Rewatching that segment (attached above) now is haunting. I remember thinking as we watched it initially that there were several things that felt off-putting. Equipment from Camping World, an Xbox controller that steers the vessel, etc. But they successfully completed the mission by the end of the segment, and it kind of felt like one of those things that was ‘dangerous-safe.’ Of course they’d make you sign one of those liability waivers, but like a lot of people, I’ve signed dozens of those waivers in my lifetime. You sign them, but never really think you’re in true danger. Plus, when you’re charging $250,000 a pop, you kind of assume the likelihood is that you’re going to be fine.
Well that vessel has now been missing since Sunday and the rescue mission feels pretty dire. The CBS Morning Show had Pogue back on when the news broke, here was his interview:
Just terrifying to think of what happened or what is happening to those aboard the ship. If they are alive at the bottom of the sea, their oxygen is running short, and as Pogue said, there’s really no way to get them out. Best case scenario is that they’re at the surface of the ocean, but locked in with their oxygen running low. We all hope for the best, but the best feels pretty far fetched at the moment.
PS: How far along do we think the Netflix documentary on this story is? Got to be 40% done already, right?
