Piers Morgan has slammed vicious online trolls mocking the nail-biting Titanic submarine rescue mission.
A frantic search and rescue operation is underway for the Titan, a tiny submersible vessel, which has been missing since Sunday.
It lost communication contact with its support ship just short of two hours after submerging, and those onboard - British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman - have hours of oxygen left.
The TV presenter addressed the ongoing news story on his TalkTV show Piers Uncensored, and began Wednesday night’s edition with a powerful monologue about exploration, which he said “tests the limit of human potential”.
“Taking risks is the fire behind the human spirit, this ravenous desire to adventure, explore and conquer has taken us, mere human beings, to the planet’s tallest peaks and beyond into space,” he said.
He said the passengers on board the submarine “took a major risk”, and said they were “under no illusion” about what may happen.
“I wouldn’t do it,” Piers confessed. “I hate heights and I hate depths. But my God, I admire those who do this kind of thing.”
He then took aim at those who have been critical of British explorer Hamish, as Piers said he admired the adventurer for “spending his time at the frontiers of human existence”.
“But not everyone agrees. We live in spiteful times, fuelled by vicious social media,” he raged, slamming those who had targeted the passengers because of their wealth.
He then showed a tweet from a troll who called Hamish a “dips*** billionaire”, and went off on a furious tirade against the “pathetic individual”.
“Imagine tweeting that to the world,” Piers said, as he told viewers he “can’t imagine being that disgusting”.
He said “we used to celebrate” explorers, and was sad to see that people on social media “like to despise and laugh at them”.
“What would prompt you to say that, when we don’t know what’s happened to these people?” Piers asked. !When they might be dead, or dying, or desperate?”
He hit out at those who had focused on the wealth and taxes of those onboard, and said those criticising the passengers had “pathetic jealousies”.
“Now is not the time for puerile abuse on Twitter,” he firmly stated, taking aim at “pathetic student politics”.
“I hope these five adventures somehow survive to tell their stories,” Piers concluded,
He shared a clip of the speech on Twitter, captioning it: “My monologue on the vile trolls abusing the missing Titanic sub explorer heroes.”
However, one of his followers quickly replied: “How are they ‘heroes’, Piers? Have we redefined that word? I don't see how the people on board are heroes.”
The former editor fired back: “I think anyone, regardless of wealth, who risks their life for exploration is heroic.”
