21 June 2023 , 11:50
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A Simpsons writer who went on the missing Titanic submarine has admitted death "hung over him" constantly during his visit to the wreckage.
Mike Reiss, a former producer and writer on The Simpsons, went on OceanGate's tour of the Titanic wreckage in 2022, along with his wife, on the same vessel that is missing after vanishing 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada on Sunday.
The submarine was just one hour and forty five minutes into the trip when it lost communication with its mother ship.
A desperate search and rescue operation is underway to try and find the submersible before its oxygen supply runs out on Thursday morning.
Pakistani British-based businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Sulaiman Dawood, were confirmed to be on the submersible.
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He admitted the submarine had constant communication issues (Mike Reiss/Twitter)British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding is also in the vessel, along with French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet, and chief executive and founder of OceanGate Expeditions, Stockton Rush.
And now Mr Reiss revealed the vessel kept losing communication and had navigation issues - and even got lost near the bow of the shipwreck.
He admitted although it was a "beautiful experience" he was aware death "hung over him" at all times.
The 63-year-old told The Sun: "I've taken three different dives with the company and every time communication was an issue."
He has worked on The Simpsons for over thirty years (WireImage)He revealed the submarine lost communication, only to return a short while later, but confessed it was like something from a "World War II movie."
The television writer said the group was relying on the mother ship to guide them where the Titanic was, but everything they were seeing did not match the outside.
The submarine was also lost for nearly three hours while "blindly searching" for the wreckage 12,500 ft below the surface of the water, according to Mr Reiss.
The OceanGate Expeditions submersible vessel named Titan used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic (PA)However, just twenty minutes before they were due to come back up to the surface, he admitted they "stumbled" upon the bow of the wreckage, which gave them just enough time to take a few "tourists shots."
Mr Reiss admitted he was resigned to something going wrong and the possibility of death was never far from his mind.
He added: "The possibility of catastrophe and death just hangs over you - it's just a part of what you're doing.
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"You sign a lengthy waiver before you get on the ship that mentions death three times on the first page."
Inside the submersible with only a window into the darkness (CBS News)Although a "beautiful experience", the couple knew they "could die at any moment or things could go terribly wrong at any time."
He said that was part of the experience, adding: "This isn't a tourism boat, this is exploration. And exploration can be incredibly dangerous."