A Youtuber has revealed that he had a close call with death after his trip in the same OceanGate submersive was axed just days before it imploded.
Jake Koehler, also known as Dallmyd, took a short ride in the Titan vessel but was told he could not explore the Titanic shipwreck because of ‘malfunctions’.
The self-proclaimed ‘treasure hunter’ was set to dive 13,000 ft down to the seabed of the North Atlantic but communication problems and harsh weather meant it was cancelled last minute.
He only experienced the 3,000 ft test dive, and said he felt like he dodged a bullet as the harsh reality that he could have died set in.
On Friday, he shared a haunting video of his time onboard the craft which zoomed in on the infamous video game controller used to control the 22-foot submersive.
Jake Koehler, also known as Dallmyd, revealed that he had a close call with death after his trip in the same OceanGate submersive was axed just days before it imploded
The content creator shared a haunting video of his time onboard the craft which zoomed in on the infamous video game controller used to control the 22-foot submersive
During a routine engineering dive, it was flagged that one of the two computers controlling the sub ‘was acting up a bit’
He said: ‘It’s crazy to think if the weather cleared up and the conditions were perfect, and Stockton looked up at me and said, ”Do you wanna go?” I would’ve done it, and my fate could’ve been just like the five who had lost their lives on that same submarine.’
As the self-proclaimed ‘treasure hunter’ prepared for the trip, disturbing trials revealed that the team started noticing issues just days before five people were killed on a dive to see the Titanic.
During a routine engineering dive, it was flagged that one of the two computers controlling the sub ‘was acting up a bit’.
The control problem, choppy seas and winds meant Jake’s trip was cancelled.
After a few days of bad weather, engineers felt the controls were in good enough condition to do a 3,000-foot test dive with the passengers.
The crew of passengers laughed while the cramped ship nose-dived into the ocean, but it wasn’t long before communication problems with the mother ship started.
‘If the fog didn’t roll in and cancel the dive, who knows, maybe we would’ve left that platform, and maybe we would’ve imploded,’ Jake added.
Jake said he feels like he dodged a bullet and is heartbroken for the families of the divers.
He said: ‘I didn’t know these people too well, but they treated me very nicely, and I lost a few friends.’
In the video’s caption, Jake wrote that he did not pay for a ticket as he was asked to share his experience with his 13.4million YouTube subscribers.
Jake is one of many people to have had a near-miss with the vessel, as Ross Kemp turned down the trip after his TV firm decided the vessel was ‘unsafe on every level’.
The British documentary-maker, 58, was keen to take part in the mission for documentary to mark the 110th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic on its maiden voyage from Southampton in 1912.
After an expert production company carried out checks, they decided seeing the shipwreck on the seafloor of the North Atlantic would be too risky.
Ross Kemp 58, was keen to take part in the mission for a documentary last year marking the 110th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic
The Titanic Five were killed instantly when the submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ just 1,600ft from the bow of the wrecked ocean liner, the US Coast Guard announced on Thursday.
The nail-biting search for the men on the Titan, a 21ft submersible operated by OceanGate Expeditions, drew to a devastating close when a remote operated submarine from a Canadian ship found debris on the ocean floor.
Search and rescue officials say the men likely died on Sunday – before military planes using sonar buoys detected what they thought could have been SOS ‘banging’ sounds in the water.
The victims are OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French Navy veteran Paul-Henri (PH) Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who was just 19.
‘The implosion would have generated a significant, broadband sound that the sonar buoys would have picked up,’ explained Rear Admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard at a press conference today.
It would have been an instant death for the men, some of whom had paid $250,000 each to see the famous shipwreck.
In a gut-wrenching blow for their families, experts say there is little prospect of recovering any of their remains.
‘This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there. The debris is consistent of a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.. we’ll continue to work and search the area down there – but I don’t have an answer for prospects at this time,’ Paul Hankin, a deep sea expert involved in the search, said.
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