Scientist breaks down recounting nightmarish trip to visit Titanic where his submarine got caught on the shipwreck's massive propeller

• Physicist Michael Guillen went down to the Titanic wreckage in a submarine in 2000.
• The Russian vessel became stuck in the ship's propeller for around an hour as debris rained down.

A scientist shared his own emotional tale of nearly becoming trapped by the RMS Titanic wreckage, amid the search for the missing Titan submersible that appears to have imploded. Its five passengers are presumed dead.

Michael Guillen, 63, is a physicist and former news correspondent who participated in an expedition to the Titanic wreckage site aboard a Russian submarine in 2000, according to a Sky News interview.

During his segment, Guillen became emotional as he explained his thoughts while the submarine became stuck in one of the ship's giant propellers. Guillen said he remarked at how shiny the brass propellers appeared after so many before realizing something was wrong.

"As that happened, as I was just dazzled by this giant propeller, I noticed we were speeding up and that seemed strange to me, I thought we should be slowing down."

According to his account, the Russian vessel had become caught in an underwater current that pushed it toward the propeller's blades at a high speed until the submarine made contact. The sunken object made the crew's submarine look like a "mosquito" by comparison, Guillen said.

"This voice in my head actually said to me, and I'll never forget the words, 'This is how it's going to end for you,'" Guillen said in the interview.

At the time of the incident over 20 years ago, the scientist was a TV correspondent for ABC News. The moment the submarine became stuck was documented by the station as debris from the Titanic fell around Guillen and the rest of the crew aboard the submarine. As a scientist, he said, he focused his mind on solutions rather than panicking, but he began to accept the possibility of death.

"It took me the better part of a half hour or more, as our pilot tried to jog us out, and he wasn't succeeding. I finally really hit a brick wall and realize, no, this is the end of it," he said in the Sky News interview.

After nearly an hour stuck in the ship's propeller, the pilot was able to free the submarine, and make the two-hour journey back to the surface safely, he said.

Guillen was unable to offer any additional comment beyond his Sky News interview, per his representatives.

The physicist shared his story in light of OceanGate's submersible that went missing on its attempted voyage down 12,500 feet below the ocean's surface to explore the Titanic wreckage site on Sunday.

The submersible sparked a widespread hunt led by the US Coast Guard to find the vessel that held five people aboard when embarked on its exploration. It also drew criticism and online jokes for its $250,000 tickets and lack of safety measures.

As of Thursday afternoon, the submersible has presumably run out of its oxygen supply, and the Coast Guard reports a "debris field" that is "consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber." In a statement, OceanGate said it believes that the Titan submersible has "sadly been lost," per CNN.

In a separate interview with GBNews, Guillen said it's time to stop "joyride" trips down to the Titanic's final resting place. He also added that there should be more "restrictions" in the wake of the submersible's disappearance.

"I'm sick to my stomach," Guillen said about the lost submersible in his Sky News interview.