Missing Titanic submarine was piloted by games controller but that’s not unusual

The submarine lost on a dive to the Titanic was revealed to be using a $50 games controller for navigation. Photo / AP, CBS

The missing Titan submarine which disappeared in the Atlantic with five people onboard was an ‘experimental vessel’ controlled by a games controller, but that’s nothing unusual in the world of deep sea submersibles.

For a tourist, climbing behind the controls of a miniature submarine is a cocktail of emotions. Not just of wonder but of claustrophobia, and very real vulnerability.

Visiting Queensland by electric mini-submarine for a story in 2019 was an experience full of surprises and not just those visible outside the porthole.

To my shock the $2 million electrical submarine was being controlled via a $50 PlayStation controller. It did little to calm my nerves but I was told this is not an uncommon practice in submersibles. There is a very good reason for relying on the cheap consumer electronics.

Since the Titan deep sea submarine went missing on Sunday people have speculated what could have gone wrong. The adventure tourism operator OceanGate lost contact with the clients who were paying up to a quarter of a million dollars to visit the wreck of the Titanic, 4000m down on the Atlantic seabed. Some have said it was unsettling to know that they were using a cheap games console controller to do so.

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush demonstrated the games controller being used to missing submarine Titan. Image / CBS

The fate of five passengers, including three paying tourists, is still unknown and time is rapidly running out to locate the missing submarine.

Prior to the fateful mission, CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, Stockton Rush recently showed off the controls during an interview with CBC News.

“We run the whole thing with this game controller,” said Rush who is also missing, aboard the vessel.

It’s a detail that social media was quick to pick up on, identifying it as a Logitech F710 controller - an off-brand option for PC and Microsoft Xbox consoles. One pundit said he wouldn’t trust it to play Fifa, let alone pilot a potentially deadly mission.

However there is one key reason why submarines, not just the Titan, chose to use the controller: “redundancy.”

Pilot Erika Bergman uses a bright red Play Station controller to steer a $2 million Stingray submarine. Photo / Thomas Bywater

Former OceanGate pilot and submariner, Erika Bergman explained that it was important to have easily replaceable parts.

“We have custom steering devices too but we use the controller because it’s replaceable,” she said.

You can carry multiple and they are relatively simple and reliably built.

As she piloted the Stingray 500 through the Great Barrier Reef, she said you don’t want to be at the bottom of an ocean trench, only to discover your controls don’t work.

“It’s very intuitive,” she said.

Students and other guests who like their computer games are often surprised to see something so quotidian being used to pilot a multi-million dollar craft.

Since 2017 the US Navy has used Xbox 360 controllers to pilot their Virginia-class nuclear submarines as a way to increase reliability and reduce training time.

The games controller is not a potential reason for the mission failing, but is used because crews know components can fail and that backups must be carried.

Other criticisms of the Titan have described it as “homemade”, with the fact it was being controlled by a play-thing further proof of a reckless design.

It is true the Titan was not a commercially produced vehicle. Passengers are required to sign disclaimers confirming they are aware of just how risky the endeavour is.

“This experimental vessel has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, emotional trauma, or death,” reads the paperwork according to CBS.

However, to describe it as a jerry-built contraption would be a misrepresentation of the one-of-a-kind custom-made submarine capable of reaching the bottom of the Atlantic.

The water pressure at the site of the Titanic is over 400kg per square centimetre. There are few mass-produced machines that could survive that kind of pressure. It certainly didn’t roll off an assembly line.

On top of crushing pressure there is the limited supply of oxygen reserves. While most submarines will have a maximum operation time there will also be a reserve time before oxygen is used up. On Monday afternoon the US Coast Guard said that the submersible had around 70 to 96 hours of reserve oxygen. Not much longer than similar small submarines like the Stingray.

Any rescue attempt must be able to reach them within this time but the search area is vast and few rescue vessels would be able to survive the extreme pressure.

CBS correspondent David Pogue who previously visited the sub told the BBC there are few options available to the trapped crew. “There’s no backup, there’s no escape pod - it’s get to the surface or die.”