Friend of man on missing sub backed out of similar voyage

(NewsNation) — As the frantic search continues for five people missing on a Titanic expedition submersible, a friend of one of the passengers says he backed out of a similar voyage due to safety concerns.

British explorer Chris Brown paid a deposit in 2017 to embark on one of the Titan trips with OceanGate Expeditions but later pulled out.

“They set different milestones where your deposit ramped up. So, if they hit the first milestone, you paid more in a deposit. They constantly missed those milestones. They weren’t hitting the depths that they were supposed to be doing, which was the first alert in my direction,” Brown told NewsNation host Dan Abrams.

Brown said he started pressing the company on the issue of certification.

“It became evident that not only did they not have certification, they weren’t going to try and even get certification for going down 3,800 meters once, let alone several times,” Brown said.

It was at that point Brown says he decided not to take part in the underwater journey to view the Titanic wreckage.

“I thought, these risks are beyond what I can mitigate in my own head, so I withdrew from the program,” Brown said.

Brown considers missing passenger Hamish Harding a friend.

“I expressed my concerns to different friends, both of whom pulled out at different stages, but not directly with Hamish,” Brown said, later adding: “I would definitely count myself as an explorer and aware of risks. That’s probably why I pulled out. Hamish is a very experienced explorer. He’s done lots of expeditions. He’d be aware of the risks. He took a different view on those risks.”

As the hours left of breathable air in the submersible dwindle, the U.S. Coast Guard said the search is focused on an area where Canadian aircraft detected underwater noises that are being evaluated by the Navy.

Officials are still classifying the operation as a search-and-rescue effort with hopes they will be able to find the sub and its passengers.

“The issue right now is we’ve got to save these five people, and our thoughts go out to the friends and family of those who are underwater,” Brown said.

The Titan takes people paying thousands of dollars each to view the remains of the Titanic.

The missing submersible is believed to be about 900 miles east of Cape Cod. Locating the vessel is just part of the challenge rescue teams face. Officials may also need to figure out how to bring the submersible, which could be as far as two miles underwater, to the surface.

As of Tuesday morning, a total of 10,000 square miles had been searched for the missing 21-foot submersible. To put that into perspective, NewsNation host Leland Vittert said it’s like trying to find a penny in an area the size of 60 football fields.

The Titanic wreckage is about 12,000 feet at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The ship sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg.