On Good Morning Britain, a US journalist fought back tears as he remembered his own experience on a submarine voyage to explore and report from the Titanic disaster, during which a near-fatal tragedy almost happened.
A search and rescue effort has been launched after a tourist submarine transporting five people to the Titanic wreckage went missing in the north Atlantic Ocean.
British wealthy adventurer Hamish Harding is among those missing on the OceanGate Expeditions submersible Titan, with rumours stating they have enough oxygen in the submarine until Thursday lunchtime.
Dr Michael Guillen, a writer and novelist, talked to Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley on Wednesday’s Good Morning Britain about his own comparable experience, becoming upset as he did so.
The US TV reporter recalls visiting the crash in 2000 while working for ABC News, becoming the first TV correspondent to report from the site.
During the journey, the submarine he was aboard became jammed behind the stern wreck, leaving him terrified.
‘I started ticking off all the various ways in which I could imagine we could be rescued, but it was pretty quick that I realised I hit a brick wall, and couldn’t think of any viable or realistic way that we could be rescued,’ Dr Guillen said on Good Morning Britain.
‘I think that’s when a resignation set in and that’s when that voice in my head, and I’ll never ever forget those words that came into my head: “This is house it’s going to end for you.”
‘I thought it ironic, because I’d been to the North Pole, the South Pole, I’d covered the Persian Gulf War, almost was killed with bullets flying all over the place, but I thought, this is it.
‘This is how its going to end, and what flashed through my mind, and I’ll never forget it, is I thought, “My gosh, I’m going to join all the souls who lost their lives down here, I’m going to be one of them. I’m going to lay and rest for eternity. My body is going to be down here with the rest of them who went down with the Titanic.”
‘And then I had a sense of peace and that I can’t explain.’
Tearing up, he elsewhere added: ‘I think the drama for me began when we had finished our tour, everything had gone well, we had a moment of silence to honour the people who lost their lives down there, because remember this is not just a wreck, this is a sacred gravesite where people lost their lives.
https://twitter.com/GMB/status/1671397870069530624
TITANIC ACCIDENT. When I was at ABC News, I became the first TV correspondent in history to report from the wreck of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, 2-1/2 miles below the surface. An accident happened that almost claimed my life. Here's what happened. #Titanic… pic.twitter.com/b4t3WtaRdc
— Dr. Michael Guillén (@DrMGuillen) June 19, 2023
‘Just to think, I was there, I could see the Titanic was as close to me as my face is to my hand right now, and as we were departing from the bow everything was going fantastically, we travelled across what’s called the debris field where all the stuff spilled out of the Titanic when it broke in two.’
He went on to add that throughout the “second part” of their excursion, they were “going towards the stern.”
‘What I noticed right away was how shiny the propeller was, it was huge compared to the size of our little submarine, and I was just captivated by it,’ Dr Guillen said.
He added: ‘Then I sensed that we were speeding up, and I thought to myself, that’s odd, we should be slowing down, we’re approaching the propeller.’
Dr. Guillen and those with him on the excursion were thankfully saved after the operator of their submarine managed to remove it from where it was jammed beneath the propeller.
Recalling his personal experience, he went on to say that despite his “deathly fear of water,” he was “honoured” to be the first TV journalist to report from the accident.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1.