The missing Titanic hunting submarine was steered by an Xbox controller. Yes, for real

As the OceanGate Expedition's submarine en route to the Titanic wreck lost contact 700 kilometres off Newfoundland's coast, rescue operations are underway. The sub, carrying five individuals, including CEO Stockton Rush, had 70-96 hours of emergency oxygen.

ALSO READ: 5 tourists paid Rs 2 crore each for submarine ride to Titanic wreck site, then went missing

Two individuals who previously did the same journey in the tourist submersible, have expressed their concerns about the trapped occupants' ability to escape. Going back to the reports and videos of the two, it looks like the sub-owners took the voyager as deep as 3,800 metres a little too casually.

CBS correspondent David Pogue, who had been on the sub last year and documented it, explained that passengers were sealed inside the main capsule using external bolts that required removal by an external crew.

There is a massive search effort underway to find the submarine that was taking people down to see the wreck of the Titanic. David Pogue has been on it…and it is small. 👇 ⁦@NewsNation⁩ pic.twitter.com/BkI8j5BZS0

— Elizabeth Vargas (@EVargasTV) June 20, 2023

• Although the 'rock-solid capsule tech' was a NASA and University of Washington collaboration, he recalled his initial reluctance to even step foot on the sub since some of the parts were "off the shelf, sort of improvised".
• The most mind-boggling fact to learn about the sub was the fact that it could be steered "with an Xbox game controller".
• "Some of the ballast was abandoned construction pipes," he added.
• Interestingly, he emphasised the absence of backup or escape pods, stating that survival depended solely on reaching the surface.
• He expressed worry that the submersible has not yet activated any of its seven different functions designed for resurfacing.
• However, he highlighted that even if the vessel had resurfacing capabilities, being trapped or encountering a leak would render the functions irrelevant.

Another voyager, Mike Reiss, one of The Simpsons writers, expressed his lack of optimism, citing the vastness of the ocean and the submersible's small size as the main obstacles to recovery.

US and Canadian search teams are racing against time to find the small submarine that went missing during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic.

Mike Reiss took the same trip last year and spoke to #BBCBreakfast https://t.co/FNeiSyZfLl pic.twitter.com/uAjfuM22jU

— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) June 20, 2023

• Mike terms the whole operation 'basic and simple', as the sub 'sinks into the ocean like a stone and hits the bottom'.
• According to him, on the ocean floor, the compass started to spin around and stopped working properly. So, they had to move around blindly at the bottom of the ocean where it was obviously pitch dark.
• Recollecting the propellers that made the sub move, he said, they looked like 'desktop fans'.
• He admits that he, along with the co-passengers, were all aware of the dangers and acknowledged the learning phase of the OceanGate Expedition.
• Having taken three different trips with the organisation, Mike said, there was always a communication failure, 'you are always at the mercy of something or the other' he said.

In another video BBC video from 2022, the company CEO and owner, Stockton Rush is seen explaining a few functionalities of the sub.

• As seen in the video, the sub has just one switch to crank it up. As Stockton presses the red switch, it turns green. There you go.
• He is also seen demonstrating how the sub is steered using 'a Logitech-made' SONY PlayStation-styled controller, where the keys would act as they are named, up for forward, back key for backwards, and so on.

The sub had five individuals including Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, as well as British billionaire businessman and explorer Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet, and OceanGate's CEO Stockton Rush himself. The voyage reportedly cost $250,000 or Rs 2.05 crore per person.