The Titanic sub was 'tossed around pretty roughly on a daily basis' before its doomed expedition, would-be passenger says

• Arnie Weissmann, a journalist, has recalled his cancelled trip on the Titan submersible.
• He described the enormous stress the submersible came under before its final voyage.

The Titan submersible that catastrophically imploded while on a journey to visit the Titanic wreckage was "being tossed around pretty roughly on a daily basis", according to a prospective passenger.

Arnie Weissmann, editor-in-chief of Travel Weekly, had been booked on a trip on OceanGate's submersible in May, its last planned mission before the June 18 dive where it imploded.

Weissmann's trip was cancelled due to bad weather. However, he said he wondered whether technical concerns had also contributed to the journey being scrapped.

In an editorial for Travel Weekly, he recalled warning Hamish Harding, one of the five people killed on board the Titan, about how the vessel was coming under daily stress due to being towed behind its support ship instead of being kept on its deck.

He said at one point the Titan partly sank when the platform it was being towed on got submerged.

"He asked me for my impressions of the operation. I told him candidly. He raised his eyebrows," said Weissmann.

"I said that I thought many of the problems with my nondive may have arisen because this was the first season that the Titan was being towed behind its support ship rather than being kept on its deck. I said I thought the sub and platform were being tossed around pretty roughly on a daily basis," wrote Weissmann in Travel Weekly.

The other passengers killed on the vessel were British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, a student, as well as OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

Weissmann recalled Rush describing being worried about the vessel getting tangled in "ghost nets," or bits of commercial fishing debris.

Nargeolet, meanwhile, discussed potential problems with the Titan's structure while on a dive to the bottom of the ocean, he said.

In the wake of the disaster, it emerged that experts and former OceanGate staffers had expressed concerns about the safety of the vessel and its experimental design. US and Canadian officials have launched an investigation into the implosion.

Rush before his fatal last trip on the vessel had defended its experimental design, insisted it was safe, and argued that safety regulations can stifle innovation.

OceanGate did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Correction: July 5, 2023 — an earlier version of this story misstated the name of journalist Arnie Weissmann.