A man who signed up to be on board the Titan said he pulled out because it didn’t seem like a ‘professional diving operation’

• An explorer who signed up to see the Titanic on the Titan sub canceled because of safety concerns.
• Chris Brown said "there seemed to be a lot of risks that were outside of my control."

A would-be passenger on the missing Titan submersible said he canceled his trip in 2018 because it "didn't come across as a professional diving operation."

Chris Brown, an explorer who has met some of those on the submersible, told CNN that he took "no pleasure" in knowing he escaped a potentially fatal journey.

Efforts to locate the submersible, lost since Sunday, continued into early Thursday, with little indication of whether the vessel is intact. Even if it is, its occupants — including the OceanGate cofounder Stockton Rush — are estimated to have only a few hours of oxygen left.

Brown said he signed up in 2017 to visit the Titanic in the Titan but asked for his deposit back the next year. As the vessel has made the journey several times in the interim, it's unclear whether he would have been among the passengers who set out on Sunday.

Brown asked for his deposit back after he assessed that "there seemed to be a lot of risks that were outside of my control."

"I didn't like the way that they were being approached by the company," he said. For example, he said OceanGate missed its targets for reaching depths at set times.

Insider was unable to independently verify this claim.

At the same time, "there was industrial casing being used as ballast," he said, adding: "They got an Xbox controller steering it. The parts seemed off the shelf."

Other commentators have noted that the vessel — which doesn't meet standard classifications — has a homespun quality, although experts have said that video-game controllers are common in submersible vehicles.

In a 2022 video tour for CBS News, Rush can be seen pointing out a component inside the vessel, saying he got it from Camper World. "We can use these off-the-shelf components," he said.

Brown told CNN's Jake Tapper that the sub came across like something hurriedly built to cross a river. He said this was why he withdrew his deposit, which in 2018 was around $110,000.

Brown is not the first to have raised concerns about the Titan's safety. Former passengers said they experienced communication losses, and a lawsuit in 2018 accused the OceanGate of having poor quality control.

Rush himself has been ambivalent about safety regulations, suggesting in previous interviews that they hindered innovation.

OceanGate did not respond to requests to comment on these remarks.