Testimony of an American journalist, former passenger of the Titan submersible: "The ballast was used pipes"

An American journalist who traveled aboard the Titan submersible last year to do a report recalled his impressions of that voyage.

David Pogue, host of CBS and six-time Emmy winner, recounted the disappointment he felt when he first saw the small boat that last Sunday suffered a catastrophic implosion with five people inside.

In statements to the program Horizon on television channel Cuatro in Spain, explained that before seeing the ship he knew very little about it, only that it was a carbon fiber submersible, one of a kind.

"I did not know that It was controlled with a controller from a video game console. nor that the ballast was used construction pipes. Then you get there, you start seeing everything, and your mood plummets. You worry and wonder, 'Really, is this the level of sophistication?'" he questioned.

Pogue acknowledged that once aboard the device, after talking with Stockton Rush, pilot and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owns the submersible, he felt good and excited.

"I told myself that they wouldn't do this if it was really dangerous, even knowing that at that time they had already had an incident in which certain people were locked inside the submarine for 27 hours on the surface from the sea, since the waves made it difficult to get them back to the boat," he explained.

Stockton Rush is one of the five died last Sunday in the Titan implosion, during an expedition in search of the remains of the Titanic.

Last Monday, when rescue ships and planes were searching for the mini-submarine and there was still hope of finding its crew alive, Pogue recalled that on his excursion last year the ship was lost for several hours.

"You may remember that the OceanGate submarine to the Titanic was lost for a few hours last summer, too, when I was on board," he wrote on Twitter.

At that time, in a report in which he showed how the device worked, the journalist said that his trip was delayed several days due to bad weather. Finally, upon descending into the deep sea, the communications system failed.

"There is no GPS underwater, so the surface ship is supposed to guide us by sending text messages. But on this dive, communication somehow broke down. The submarine never found the wreck." , he detailed.

Fortunately, after almost three days without communication, the Titan was able to surface and no one on board was injured.

Throughout this week, Pogue gave several interviews in which he recounted his experience and shared his prognosis.

The reporter never had much hope that the five crew members of the Titan would be found alive. In his opinion, the loss of the signal less than two hours after the dive was a sign that "something catastrophic" had occurred.

"If the Titan is not floating, it can only mean two things: either they got stuck on the bottom of the sea, which is quite unlikely, there is nothing there but the Titanic; or there was a breach in the hull and it instantly imploded," pointed to CBS Sunday Morning.