Former Titanic sub passengers describe the terrifying conditions onboard the vessel

A man who was one of the first customers to ride the submersible to visit the Titanic’s shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean recalled the dive he made to the site two years ago, describing it as a “kamikaze operation.” 

Arthur Loibl, a 61-year-old German businessman and adventurer signed up for OceanGate’s tour of the famous shipwreck in 2019 for $110,000. However, his plans originally fell through when the company’s first submersible did not survive the testing period. 

Two years later, however, Loibl was able to embark on his voyage to the bottom of the ocean alongside OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and two men from England. 

Most of the 2.5-hour descent and ascent to 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) was pitch black, Loibl said. The lights in the small submersible were turned off to conserve energy. To make matters worse, he said, the confined space inside the sub was far from comfortable. 

“Imagine a metal tube a few meters long with a sheet of metal for a floor. You can’t stand it. You can’t kneel. Everyone is sitting close to or on top of each other,” Loibl said. “You can’t be claustrophobic.”

Additionally, his dive was plagued by problems, which delayed the trip. The voyage to the Titanic ended up taking more than 10.5 hours, but the group was able to see the wreck as most have never seen it before. 

“I was a bit naive, looking back now,” Loibl said of his trip. “It was a kamikaze operation.”

Mark Reiss, a writer and producer for the famous television show “The Simpsons,” took the same voyage with OceanGate last year. 

"I took four different dives with the company, one to the Titanic and three off of New York City, and communication was lost, at least briefly, every single time," Reiss told CNN. "It just seems baked into the system. I don't blame the submarine as much as I blame deep water, but you would always lose it and come back."

The submersible has no GPS and relies on the surface ship for navigation. Reiss said it took his crew about three hours to find the Titanic despite having been dropped off about 500 meters from the wreck.

However, while Reiss understood the dangers of taking the voyage to the Titanic, he said he did not feel the company acted recklessly. “They take this very seriously,” he said. 

The 23,000-pound submersible went missing on Sunday, about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive with five people on board. Rescue efforts are rapidly trying to find the missing sub, which only has a few hours left of breathable air.