CBS Journalist Recounts His Experience on Missing ‘Titan’ Sub: 'It Is The Darkest You Can Possibly Imagine'

CBS correspondent David Pogue says there is a “culture of safety” surrounding the operation of the Titan submersible, but the journalist — who previously called into question the use of a PlayStation video game controller that the pilot uses to navigate the vessel — points to other questionable aspects, which he observed while on the Titan last year.

“They use rusty construction pipes as ballast,” Pogue, 60, tells PEOPLE. “I remember that you are sealed into the sub from the outside. There are 18 bolts around the hatch, and the crew bolts you in from the outside. And I remember it was odd that they put in only 17 of the 18 bolts. The 18th one is way up high, and they don't bother with that one. They say it makes no difference. But little things like that.”

Yet the former New York Times journalist — who says he was “petrified” the night before he took his turn on the Titan — was impressed by the interior of the vessel, which he says is about the size of a minivan, as well as other safety standards in place.

“This submersible is very different from all the ones I had researched and looked at pictures of,” he says. “Those tend to be very cramped, very homely, and filled with cockpit controls. I mean, they look like a space shuttle cockpit. This sub is modern looking. It has very cool lighting.”

Pogue adds, “And then there's a touchscreen computer that the pilot uses for functions like the lights and the air and the measurements of depth and so on, and communicating with the surface. So it felt like you're getting into a minivan without chairs. The sub is made from a carbon fiber cylinder, so the walls are curved. So you sit there on the floor with your back against the curved wall. It holds five people comfortably as long as they alternate back, feet, back, feet, you know what I mean?”

Pogue shares that the conditions can be uncomfortable, however.

“But as you dive, it gets colder and colder and colder,” he says. “And so they instruct you to wear layers and bring winter jackets and the ski socks because you don't wear shoes onto the sub. It's also probably worth mentioning that there is no real toilet on board. There is a pee bottle and a set of Ziploc bags. That's basically it. And if you have to go, you go to one end of the sub and you draw a privacy curtain, and Stockton [Rush, CEO and founder of OceanGate] turns up the music loud and you go.”

Rush is one of the passengers who is on the missing 'Titan,' PEOPLE has confirmed, along with Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman Dawood, Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet and British billionaire Hamish Harding.

Pogue continues, “So anyway, and that's relevant because on the day of, you have a sandwich and a bottle of water, and that's it. Because they don't expect this dive to take more than 10 or 12 hours. So think about the people who've been down there since Sunday. It is freezing cold. They apparently have no power because remember, we lost communication with them. So they have no light. So it's blacker than black. It is the darkest you can possibly imagine at the bottom of the sea. And they have no food or water.”

On July 11, 2022, Pogue and his CBS Sunday Morning camera crew documented his eight-day trip, which was marred by bad weather. And the reporter admits he was having a hard time keeping his emotions at bay.

“I was petrified in the days leading up to this,” he says. “I didn't sleep at all the night before the dive. My rational brain was satisfied that this was safe because I had had an elaborate tour of the sub and all the safety precautions and all the backup equipment. But emotionally, you can't control your emotions. And I knew that I was getting on a prototype, experimental vehicle. It had, at that point, made over 20 successful journeys to the Titanic without any injuries of any kind. So my intellectual brain thought, well, ultimately it must be safe. But emotionally, it was another story.”

Yet Pogue never made it down some 13,000 feet to visit the Titanic wreckage — the Titan went down 37 feet before having to resurface, he says.

Now, as the world awaits word about the fate of five people aboard its latest voyage, Pogue reflects on the “elaborate” ways in which he and other passengers were prepared while on the Titan.

“It takes a long time to get ready. It is treated much like a rocket launch,” he says. “There are elaborate countdowns and checklists and inspections and there are twice daily mandatory briefings about the weather and the submersible required for everybody, even those who are not diving. So I would definitely say there was a culture of safety in the operation of this submersible.”

Pogue adds that Rush debriefed the passengers before the dive about how to avert disaster.

“We all got inside before the dive,” he says. “And really, the only emergency that you can do anything about is a fire in the cabin. So he showed us where the fire extinguisher was. We tried putting on the smoke masks. Beyond that, the only thing you can do about a disaster is rise to the surface as quickly as possible. And Stockton also showed us the seven different ways that you can do that. They can release sandbags. They can release lead construction... I don't know if they're lead, heavy construction pipes. They can inflate an air bladder. They can release the legs of the sub and ditch those as weight. They can use their thrusters to get up.”

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He adds, “And some of these methods do not require electricity, and some of them do not require the hydraulic system. And one of these methods even works if everybody on board has passed out. It's a time-release system where these sandbags beneath the sub are connected by dissolving hooks. So if enough time in seawater goes by, they release the sandbags and the sub rises to the surface on its own. And I think that's an important element that I haven't seen reported anywhere, because it means that if the sub isn't snagged or imploded, then it must, at this point, be floating on the surface somewhere.”

Pogue was also required to sign a waiver before his dive, which he says is “quite clear about all the ways that you could be permanently disabled, emotionally traumatized or killed.”

“So everybody doing this goes in with their eyes-wide-open that this is an experimental vessel,” Pogue says. “The waiver says ‘This vessel has not been inspected or certified by any government body.' So you know very well that it is a one of a kind vessel."

Pogue also interviewed another one of the Titan passengers, Paul-Henry Nargeolet, last summer.

“He said, ‘Every submersible is a prototype.’ And what he means by that is there's only one of it. There's not a spare. There wasn't a 1.0 version and this is the 2.0. It is one of a kind, made of a lot of custom parts, and that's why they're all called experimental. They're not iPhones produced by the millions. And that's why this submersible, and all of the submersibles, have constant mechanical problems. Little things go wrong all the time.”

Now, however, Pogue says he is “praying for a miracle.”

“Today we learned that these sonar buoys have detected a banging every 30 minutes,” he says. “And that is certainly an indication that maybe they're alive. But the problem is, to my knowledge, there's no way to rescue them. You can't help them out of this submersible. You would have to bring the entire submersible back to the surface.

He adds, "There's a French vessel with a cable long enough to reach down to two and a half miles. But remember, this sub is shaped like a capsule. It's a shiny, smooth, white capsule. So I don't have any idea how they would expect to connect to it unaided. It's just a cable floating behind this vehicle, and you have to do that... And you would [have] to do that in the next 24 hours. So unfortunately, I'm praying for a miracle, but I think it would be a long shot.”