The titan began its nearly 13,000-foot descent
but the vessel and its five person crew vanished in less than two hours. This is not the first
time a mission to the "Titanic" shipwreck has gone awry. 20 years ago science editor was
sent on assignment all the way down to the "Titanic" in a submersible when he got stuck.
>> I felt a little bit of a boom, didn't you? >> Yeah.
>> Oh, my gosh. >> Look at the side.
>> Are we stuck or what? >> Reporter: We appear to be wedged
alongside the propeller beneath the wreck of the upside-down stern.
>> Luckily there was a three-person crew and they were able to break free, a
moment captured and camera. Watch this. >> >> Reporter: After half an hour Victor's piloting
skills and cool-headed attitude win the day. We're out?
>> Joining us now is the scientist, the journalist
and author. Thank you for being with us. When I read your account I was so shocked because you
don't even like going under the water at all. And so when you got this offer as a journalist at ABC
news you felt you had to take it because of what you felt you would see, and then you get stuck in
the propeller. You have a perspective almost no one on Earth has of what it is like to go down.
Can you tell us about that experience given what we're going through looking for this right now?
>> Yes. Good morning. That's right. I have a deathly fear of water. When I was invited
to be the first TV correspondent to report from the "Titanic," my impulse was, oh, god,
no. Of all things I don't want to do that. [6:33:11 AM] that. But then I had to do my job. When we got
stuck down there, two and a half miles beneath the surface, it was the sense of being buried
alive under that much water. And I can't even begin to tell you how terrifying that is because
when we first collided, there was just a sense of orientation. When you're driving and it's a
beautiful, sunny day, on top of the world, you're thinking everything is going great. And then
suddenly, some other car comes out of nowhere and slams into you. There's that moment of confusion
what just happened. Once we realized this was a serious thing, the sub felt silent because
neither I or my driving buddy wanted to disturb the pilot on the edge of his seat monitoring the
situation, speaking in Russian to the mothership above us. We thought, wow, how are we going to
get out of this? My scientific brain started My scientific brain started ticking
off all the ways we could get out. You realize there is no way out. You're in the
middle of the north atlantic at the bottom. You can't call aaa to tow you out. I experienced
enormous sadness. The only way to describe it as if the weight of the ocean came down on me. I
thought of my wife, we were newlyweds. It was my anniversary. I ultimately experienced a sense
of peace. All three these 72 hours thinking of these souls down there and I know what they're
experiencing. I wonder if they're still alive. We're hearing noises, but we can't tell what
those noises are. We're past the point where they're running out of oxygen. Noise travels
very well in water, much better than in the water, much better than in the air,
and we've been listening for it. It might just be a piece of metal or a part of the
ship banging together. We may never know. We may never recover this vessel.
>> Let me ask, what are you -- a lot of people point to the
people on the submersible and said some of them have a lot of experience. They've
done -- they would know what to do in a situation like this. You make a great point.
There's nothing you can do to some degree when you are watching the captain of your ship
operate, are there things he was prepared for, protocols or is it make noise and pray?
>> When we were prepping for the dive, the captain put us through orientation and told
us stories about people in that situation when they panic and immediately they want to go
to the escape hatch which is, of course, a [6:36:13 AM] hatch which is, of course, a death sentence,
because when you panic you're not thinking. So I knew that when we collided, that's the thing
I didn't want to do. I wanted to make sure nobody else in the sub was and I would gang tackle
anyone who even looked at that escape hatch. For every problem there's an optimal solution.
I've drummed that into my son's head for every problem there's an optimal solution. It is the
most terrifying thing coming to the conclusion, no, there ain't a solution. There is no
solution, period. There's just no one around, and I imagine that at some point in
these five folks on the titan, they came to that realization. You could
have all the experience in the world, but at the end of the day there's only so
much you can do. No amount of technology, no No amount of technology, no number
of planes, rovs, sonars, nothing, nothing can come to your rescue. If you're at the
bottom of the ocean two and a half miles down, you don't just go down there and reach in even
with a cable or grappling hook. Pressures are enormous, bone crushing, it's cold down
there. I just feel -- I've been feeling for the last 72 hours this kinship. It's
utterly dark, no light. You don't want to light a candle and use up the oxygen. This
had to have been a catastrophic failure.
