"It's An Awful Feeling" - Titanic Reporter Breaks Down Talking About Missing Submersible

fewer than 40 hours of oxygen remaining

so could this be a rescue mission

impossible well the remains of a Titanic

where some are speculated in the sub

could be stuck rests 12 and a half

thousand feet beneath the surface of the

Atlantic at that depth no light from the

Sun reaches the ocean floor it's pitch

black temperatures are near freezing

around 0 to 3 degrees Celsius water

pressure is 380 times greater than on

land that's the equivalent of being

trapped under 100 Story Tower made of

lead and to illustrate just how deep it

is twelve and a half thousand feet is

about nine Empire State Building stacked

on top of each other well joining me now

are Explorer and friend of British

businessman Hamish Harding uh Yannick

Mickelson retired U.S Navy submarine

Captain David Markey and Dr Michael yeen

who's a journalist who became the first

TV correspondent in the history to

report from the wreck of the Titanic

well welcome to all of you

um Jenny let me let me start with you

Yannick if I may obviously a

devastatingly difficult time for you and

everybody who knows any of the these

five people on board how are you feeling

about this because obviously Hamish

great Explorer done many very risky

things in his time but this as time goes

on does look to be potentially like a

real tragedy unfairly

it's looking Bleak I'm terrified for the

worst news now it's

um I have a little bit of Hope but they

have all the odds against them at this

point and it will be a miracle if they

can recover the summary they're

submersible with a crew that's alive

what kind of man is Hamish for those who

don't know him

is larger than life he loves exploration

he's been to space he's been to the

deepest point of the planet he's been to

the South Pole and he's also mentored me

a lot in my career as a Explorer and

this is why I'm living close to the

North Pole to train to be a polar

Explorer and survive in a Polar climate

there are videos of I think Hamish and

others talking about this this vessel

the submersible the thing that struck me

was that for people who were so wealthy

it doesn't seem a particularly

sophisticated piece of Machinery that

the risks are pretty high actually

something was to go wrong would that be

a fair assessment

I myself haven't seen this submersible

but with any Expedition there's a large

amount of risk involved if you want to

be the first person to do something

today on planet Earth or in space you

have to accept risk because if it was

easy it wouldn't have been done

um David you've been a retired United

States Navy submarine Captain so an

expert in this field I want to play a

little bit of what I'm just talking

about a little clip of some of the

people who are on board talking before

about it including Hamish

an experimental submersible vessel that

has not been approved or certified by

any regulatory body and could result in

physical injury disability emotional

trauma or death

where do I sign I couldn't help noticing

how many pieces of this sub seemed

improvised we can use these

off-the-shelf components I got these

from uh Camper World We Run the whole

thing with this game controller

[Music]

so today

they're sort of been quite jokey about

it obviously this is now a very serious

situation

um did they underestimate perhaps the

dangers or is that just always part of

the risk you think of this kind of

expedition

no I think you could do a better job

mitigating the risk we know from a long

history of operating submarines in the

Royal Navy the American Navy I've been

underwater for 87 continuous days what

it takes to keep a submarating operating

safely underwater we have first of all

starts with the design and the building

of the submarine we track a bolt from

when it was manufactured and say it's

chromium magnesium alloy two when it's

installed on the submarine every step of

the way because we want to make sure

that the exact right Bolt but the right

material is installed in a right bolt

hole this all costs money and then when

we operate the submarine if we were in

Port for a while we don't just go out

and submerge in deep water and see how

it goes we we test everything at the

pier then we go deliberately 100 feet

200 feet 300 feet walk around with

flashlights checking things it is

daunting and this is why these

submarines cost so much money so I

admire people pushing the boundaries and

throughout the human race these people

have contributed a lot

hey man some risk is unavoidable but I

think you should try and do everything

you can to minimize avoidable risk what

David what do you think is the most

likely scenario that's happened here

well uh for the families and friends

prepare yourself for bad news

the communications abruptly ended

and the submarine has not shown up on

the surface so to me that signifies the

likely that the crew has been

incapacitated it could be simply that

the batteries die but in this case I

would expect to hear someone banging a

wrench for example against the titanium

and bells of the submarine but we're not

hearing anything so I worry that there's

something there could have been a fire

on board they could have somehow

depleted their oxygen way early and not

realize that they could have flooded

somehow A fitting corroded and ruptured

and water came in and when you're that

deep you said 380 times the pressure at

air that's just the number it's hard to

conceive how that happens like this the

water would come in so fast they

wouldn't experience anything they would

be crushed they would be drowned they'd

be asphyxiated and they would feel no

pain what is the difference between a

submarine and a submersible

a submarine has a big motor a big engine

and a propeller that drives it out of

port so it's on its own leaves Port uh

leaves Norfolk goes out to sea drives a

Thousand Mile submerges and and operates

a submersible has small maneuvering

propellers so it's towed out to the side

of the Titanic it's released by the

mother ship it can drive down hover

around the wreck uses those propellers

because there's currents down there so

it uses those propellers to make sure it

doesn't get swept into the Rack or

entangled in the wreck and then when

when they're done sightseeing and the

time's up then they come back up to the

surface

well thank you for the expert uh

guidance too because I think a lot of

people are a little bit confused Dr

Michael you know better than most the

difference you've been honest

submersible in 2000 you went down there

for ABC News you were the first TV

correspondent in history to report from

the wreck of the Titanic at the bottom

of the ocean we've got a little clip of

this I think

as we approach the stern of the ship

we're suddenly caught up in a strong

underwater current that pushes us

towards one of the gigantic 21 ton

propellers oh my God look at the size of

these things oh my gosh so are we stuck

or what

as this graphic shows we appear to be

somehow wedged beneath the wreck of the

stern

a scary moment for you uh does this

bring back pretty awful memories of what

happened to you and what could have

happened

yeah

I'm feeling pretty sick right now

and uh

agree with that Lieutenant the two

things that um

come out at me right now is the loss of

communications because even when we were

stuck down there our pilot so it was a

former Russian Nick pilot was piloting

our three-man sub much smaller than the

one that's currently in its situation

and uh he was able to communicate with

the surface ship the research vessel the

academic kelvish on the surface I

couldn't understand what they were

saying it was all in Russian but

nevertheless and then the second thing

that stands out to me Pierce is

um as a lieutenant pointed out if it had

just been a failure of communications

then that pilot would have brought that

thing up to the surface immediately so I

mean uh we can speculate endlessly I

hate doing it because lives are at stake

utterly hopeless it's not easy to get

out of there I can see the emotion there

in you that this is obviously and and

indeed also for you uh Yani um because

Dr Michael I guess

you must have had a moment when you were

in a similar situation where you thought

you may not get out of it right

yeah more than a moment uh the better

part of an hour and uh being a scientist

of course I'm a professional Problem

Solver so my first instinct was number

one to hope nobody in the cabin would

panic because we had been told uh by the

captain of our ship before we went down

that he told us a story a true story of

a gentleman who has found himself in

that situation and in his Panic went for

the escape hatch to open it up it's

right above your head and of course that

was the end of it because it's the cap

as the lieutenant said the pressure's

down there enormous uh I filed a story

for 2020 and then Good Morning America

and just to illustrate how this powerful

the pressure is down there we took some

styrofoam cups and the cup came back

about that small and all the air had

been squeezed out of it from the

pressure down there that brings it home

it's a very hostile environment very

cold very high pressure

um so uh yes for the better part of an

hour I kept thinking well how can we get

out of this there was another Russian

sub in the vicinity and I thought

perhaps it could tell us out but of

course it's not feasible it's not AAA

comes to you out of the month

um and I just ran through the checklist

of things in my mind and I finally came

to that moment that brick wall that

utter sense of uh hopelessness and the

words that came into my mind were this

is how it's going to end for you and you

have to understand I've been to the

North Pole the South Pole I've covered

the Persian Gulf War for 14 years ABC

news I've been all over the world I've

Been In Harm's Way everywhere but those

words came into my mind and I'll never

forget it this is how it's going to end

for you and I thought of my wife Laura

thought I'd never see her again just by

the grace of God Victor and his skill

managed to weasel her way out of that

big propeller it's a big propeller our

ship was very small you have to

understand it's a huge propeller our

ship is small in comparison we just got

trapped in the blaze but if it weren't

for Victor's hero efforts of I wouldn't

be here today to tell you about this but

it's just terrible it makes me sick well

incredibly emotive uh description there

from someone who really does know what

they may I mean look you had a miracle

Escape we can only hope and pray that

something may turn up here we don't know

obviously what's happened until we know

for sure there's hope and they they

would still have enough oxygen left if

indeed they're still alive and we can

only hope and pray that does happen and

Yannick for you and for everyone who's a

friend a family member our hearts go out

to all of you and we just hope and pray

that there is a miraculous ending to

this but thank you all very much indeed

for joining me I appreciate it

thank you peers