Titanic tourist submarine had gone missing last year too, claims US journalist onboard then

As the hunt continues for the missing Titanic submarine, an American TV presenter has revealed that the submersible had gotten lost for five hours during an expedition last year too. David Pogue, an Emmy-winning correspondent for CBS News, today recalled his voyage to the Titanic last summer. 

Posting a video of his expedition, he said: "Remember my voyage to the Titanic last summer? In OceanGate’s homemade carbon-fiber sub? (https://youtube.com/watch?v=29co_Hksk6o) They took passengers out again this summer—but as of today, the sub is lost."

Commenting on this tweet, Tom, a user, asked whether submersibles have something similar to an aircraft's Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) that could be detected by searchers. To this, Pogue responded negatively and then revealed that the submarine had gotten lost last year too during his voyage.  

"This submersible does not have any kind of beacon like that. On my expedition last summer, they did indeed get lost for about 5 hours, and adding such a beacon was discussed," he said.

This revelation triggered the curiosity of some people who asked the presenter to elaborate on he got lost for 5 hours and what was that experience like. 

Pogue said in theory, the crew do one dive a day. So, he said, he was not on the submarine the day they got lost. "To be clear, I was not on the sub that day — I was on the ship at the surface, in the control room," he said.

The presenter said the crew could still send short texts to the submarine but did not know where it was. "It was quiet and very tense, and they shut off the ship's internet to prevent us from tweeting."

Another user, Mike Simons, asked whether the crew onboard have any emergency gear, maybe even tether. Pogue said there is no tether. "They do, however, say that the sub has 96 hours' worth of oxygen."

A tourist submersible, which set off from St. John's, Newfoundland on Friday, with five people on board vanished a day later in the North Atlantic on its descent to the century-old wreck of the Titanic.

The Canadian aircraft on Tuesday detected banging sounds at 30-minute intervals. US-based Rolling Stone said sonar picked up more banging four hours later. CNN also reported later sounds but did not describe them as banging. The US Coast Guard said Canadian P-3 aircraft had detected underwater noises and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) searches were directed to the area of the sounds.

(With inputs from Reuters)