An OceanGate passenger says he has 'survivor's guilt' because his Titan trip got canceled due to bad weather

• A man whose trip on the Titan sub got canceled told Insider he feels like he "dodged a bullet".
• Arnie Weissmann was set to go on a dive in May but it was called off due to bad weather.

A journalist who was due to go on the Titan says he "dodged a bullet" and now has "survivor's guilt" because he knew three people who died when the sub imploded.

Arnie Weissmann, editor-in-chief of Travel Weekly, went as a guest on an OceanGate expedition to the Titanic in May.

He told Insider he spent eight days on the Titan's support ship, Polar Prince, before the expedition was called off due to bad weather.

"I feel I dodged a bullet with the weather being bad on two instances when I was told we have a dive window," Weissmann said. "I feel a little survivor's guilt because I did know the people. My good luck turned out as someone else's bad luck."

He said he spent time with French diver PH Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush on the Polar Prince the month before their fatal June expedition that killed all five people on board.

Weissmann already knew Hamish Harding, one of the passengers who died on the sub, as he and the British billionaire were members of The Explorers Club – a professional society based in New York.

Weissmann saw Harding at the club's conference on an island off the coast of Portugal a few days before he went on the Titan sub.

"When we first saw each other, the first thing he asked me was 'how did it go?'," he said. "He knew I hadn't dived because he knew no one had dived yet this year, but asked me about the operation. So I told him candidly many of the things that I reported in my articles and as I've written, he literally just raised his eyebrows but didn't express concerns in any major way."

Weissmann said he had been contacted in January by Rush's wife, Wendy, who was OceanGate's communications chief. He was then invited in April to learn about its operations and go on a dive.

Weissmann had been due to dive in June, but had a diary clash and ended up opting for May in what would have been OceanGate's first expedition to the Titanic this year.

"Some newspapers have kind of made it seem like, 'boy, I really was lucky not to have gone on that particular expedition', but the fact is, I was probably in more danger going earlier in the year when that would have been the first time," he said.

An OceanGate representative told Insider it was "unable to comment."