The tourist submarine missing 12,500ft below the Atlantic Ocean has disappeared before - a former passenger has revealed.
CBS Sunday Morning reporter David Pogue says the expedition got lost for two-and-a-half hours — and the crew had to navigate it using a video game controller, a US TV correspondent has said.
The U.S. Coast Guard and rescue teams are currently scouring the waters of the Atlantic Ocean for the vessel which disappeared on an expedition to the Titanic wreckage.
There has been no contact from the vessel for over eight hours now.
Last year the vessel was carrying David Pogue when it went missing for over two hours. The TV correspondent documented the experience for the programme.
"You may remember that the @OceanGateExped sub to the #Titanic got lost for a few hours LAST summer, too, when I was aboard…" he tweeted earlier today, attaching a clip of the documentary he produced.
The crew had been at sea waiting out some bad weather for six days when the skies finally cleared and the waves calmed enough to attempt a dive.
Oceangate lowered its submersible, which was filled with six people including Pogue, into the water.
But it never made it to the wreck.
The subs are guided by text messages sent from the main ship, Pogue wrote in a narrative for CBS — there's no GPS underwater, and no other way for the crew to navigate.
A few minutes after they submerged, they lost all contact with the main ship and were left adrift for two-and-a-half hours, forced to pilot the craft with a video game controller.
"I couldn't help noticing how many pieces of this sub seemed improvised, with off-the-shelf components," Pogue wrote.
"It seems like this submersible has some elements of MacGyver jerry-riggedness," he told Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush during an interview. "I mean, you're putting construction pipes as ballast."
"I don't know if I'd use that description of it," Rush retorted. "But, there are certain things that you want to be buttoned down. The pressure vessel is not MacGyver at all, because that's where we worked with Boeing and NASA and the University of Washington. Everything else can fail, your thrusters can go, your lights can go. You're still going to be safe."
Experts have warned that rescue is 'unlikely' as the crew face dwindling oxygen supplies.
Former Captain of a Navy salvage and rescue ship, Capt Sean P. Tortora, told the Mirror: "I can say any rescue at the depth would be highly unlikely."
The crew on board is said to have oxygen for 96 hours, which will last until around 6am (BST) on Thursday morning.
The step-son of British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding has confirmed that he is on board the missing vessel.
