Josh Gates of ‘Expedition Unknown’ Declined Trip on Titan Sub Because of ‘Safety Concerns’ 

TV host Josh Gates of Expedition Unknown had a chance to take a trip on the doomed Titan submersible but declined the opportunity because of fears the vessel was unsafe, he revealed on Twitter. 

The Discovery Channel personality considered visiting the wreckage of the Titanic on the OceanGate Expeditions submersible. But a troubling dive with CEO Stockton Rush led Gates to cancel plans to film the most famous shipwreck site in history. 

“I had the unique opportunity to dive in the @Oceangate #Titan sub with Stockton at the helm in preparation for its maiden mission to Titanic,” Gates tweeted on June 21. 

Gates added that he was “pray[ing] for a positive outcome to the rescue efforts of those aboard,” which was still missing at the time. One day later, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed that the Titan has experienced a “catastrophic implosion” that killed all five people aboard. In addition to Rush, the passengers included British businessman and adventurer Hamish Harding, Pakistani investor Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, and French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

In a follow-up tweet, Gates revealed that the Titan sub “did not perform well on my dive.”

“Ultimately, I walked away from a huge opportunity to film Titanic due to my safety concerns w/ the @OceanGate platform,” he wrote. “There’s more to the history and design of Titan that has not been made public – much of it concerning.”

However, Gates defended those who wanted to visit the remains of the luxury ocean liner, which sank in April 1912. 

“To those questioning why people would dive to Titanic: the ship has fascinated the world since the night she sank,” he tweeted. “It’s a time capsule to another era of our history. It takes courage to make a trip like this.” 

‘EastEnders’ actor Ross Kemp also turned down a trip on the Titan sub

Gates was far from the only person who had reservations about the Titan’s unique design. After the sub disappeared on June 18, roughly 1 hour and 45 minutes into a dive to the Titanic wreck site, it emerged that multiple people previously expressed serious concerns about the sub’s safety. They included members of the Marine Technology Society, who sent a letter to Rush in 2018 warning that “the current experimental approach adopted by OceanGate could result in negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic) that would have serious consequences for everyone in the industry,” Reuters reported.

British actor Ross Kemp, who previously starred in the soap opera EastEnders, also turned down an opportunity for a trip on the Titan sub. Now a documentary filmmaker, Kemp was considering making a film to mark the 110th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking, his agent Jonathan Shalit said, according to The Guardian. However, Kemp backed out of the planned trip following third-party safety checks that determined the Titan was unsafe. 

Titanic director and deep-sea explorer James Cameron, who has made 33 visits to the Titanic wreckage, has also criticized OceanGate for ignoring warnings from industry experts.

“​​I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship, and yet, he steamed up full speed into an ice field on a moonless night,” he told ABC News. “And many people died as a result and for us very similar tragedy where warnings went unheeded to take place at the same exact site.” 

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