Missing Titanic submarine

[Twinklesgolden]

How horrifying that a submarine carrying 5 people has gone missing. Apparently there’s only 96 hours of air on the submarine when it sets off.

The people on board must be terrified!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65953872.amp

If they are stuck at the bottom, I don't see how survival is possible.

But if they have managed to surface (and it's a comms fault that means they have been unable to signal their whereabouts) and they are seen within the 96 hours of oxygen supply, and a suitable vessel can be got to their location still within that window, then yes survival would be possible

As an aside, 96 hours is 4 days. There's no word on how much water they took down with them, but the effects of dehydration can be severe after about 3 days

Unless they are bobbing along on the surface and found within the next couple of days, very probably not. It's not impossible but it really is not very likely at all. It's a highly specialised vehicle (even if not sophisticated) at the limits of its specialism. Not much can rescue it, even if they are still alive at the moment.

True, I was simplifying, but my point was that the Apollo 13 crew knew and understood the vessel they were in, so they were able to work on it. The owner of the sub is on the sub, so he should know every nut and bolt. I was thinking more along the line that, because he knows the sub so well, possibly he might be able to understand the problem with the communication link that was lost and be able to fix it. Or if they surfaced somewhere, but hadn't been found yet, he might know how to maintain the CO2 scrubbers (there was talk about the filters being maintained) etc so they have a chance of extending their ability to breath until they could be picked up and the door unbolted.

Vain hope, yes. But I prefer to be hopeful for as long as possible, the alternative is just too difficult to accept right away.

New drama to distract from what's going on ..elsewhere.

Anyone else watched Black Sea??

I know.

What do you suppose they are saying to one another? It's unimaginable. Poor desperate people.

What they wouldn't give now for a humdrum life listening to the birds and insects.

"Actually, I was suggesting a magnet to pick up the submersible (which is relatively small), not the Titanic itself!

Or did you mean the required cable length was too long? 2.5 miles is very long...but they lay cables across the Atlantic, so fairly long ones must exist.

But first they have to actually locate the sub."

I think the submersible is made of titanium and carbon fibre, which wouldn't stick to a magnet . You'd need to use some kind of basket to scoop it up. So you'd need one of those cable laying ships with a really big winch that can handle 2.5 miles of cable it's not designed for (they usually lay either fibre optic cable or power cable,not lifting cable). The cable would need to have a breaking strength of 10 metric tonnes (the submersible)+weight of cable itself+ weight of the basket/big steel net that can hold 10 tonnes+ a bit for good measure.

Even if you knew exactly where the craft was and dropped the basket beside it, unless it was capable of seeing and manoeuvering into the basket itself, you'd have to have a big light source and fibre optic cameras (can they withstand the pressure?) going down too, and probably another submersible watching and nudging things in the right direction for the scoop , without either sub getting damaged enough to kill everyone.

In short- yeah let's hope it has surfaced and is bobbing about ready to be spotted and picked up.

BBC article - updated 1 hour ago

Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way - BBC News

Comms were lost about 1hr45 after the start of the dive - not clear what depth it would have reached in that amount of time.

Several organisations involved in the rescue/recovery attempts - it'll really be putting skills and innovative thinking to the test

Conspiracy theory/badly written post/novella/pish whatever

I think the billionaires not tourists who are missing (this happened last year too BTW) will miraculously survive

How tall is the Titanic though? They may have a depth rating that only covers part of the vessel. Ships are huge. Some you can easily dive around and over the top but you couldn't visit the bottom of without breaching safe limits. It did cross my mind they might have landed in wreckage and got stuck. I don't know how big the wreckage area is.

I read that the full dive is ~8hr but the actual descent only takes ~2hr. Contact was lost 1hr 45min into the dive, is that 1hr 45min into the descent? Because then they are near the bottom. I would hope the two staff would drop weight and ascend immediately but humans can be prone to pressure and biases that lead to bad judgement so it wouldn't be suprising if the dive continued. Equally, would they know that their comms system was down? Lots of questions. And maybe I shouldn't post it in case we stray too far into speculation but I've typed it and we've already had speculation about spies 🙄

They're either on the seabed 4.5 miles down, or bobbing about having surfaced.

If the latter they MIGHT be found...but imagine the likelihood of spotting a craft the size of a big car. It's hugely unlikely.

If they're on the seabed there's simply nothing & no one that could go down after them, so that's not survivable.

They've got limited air & no communication with anybody.

No, the prospect isn't good.

It seems most likely that something's gone wrong on descent. Hopefully something quick & decisive tbh. Better than the thought of them being down there & knowing they won't be rescued.

@ItsReallyAwright

You're enjoying this a bit too much... what a full and joyful life you must have.

This US science reporter went on the sub to the Titanic last year apparently. His tweets on the awful situation provide some further information..
https://twitter.com/pogue/status/1670838178528346119?s=61&t=JdkndO417wUfB5xJiVIJww

If they have managed to surface and are just bobbing around waiting to be found, won't the bends be equally lethal than running out of oxygen/water? It sounds very bleak

I assume that they would have been fully briefed on the risks of doing this and that they would have told their families. Let’s hope they are on the surface. Does anyone know if it would automatically surface in an emergency?

Earlier BBC article said US Coast Guard confirmed P-8 with underwater detection capabilities (nfd) has been deployed. But how deep can those types of kit "see"? Weren't they originally designed for hunting submarines - so up to say 1000m?

(It might help put the depth in context to think of the opposite - the Titanic lies at a depth equivalent to the rough height of the Eiger or Mt Fuji)

No bends if they are in a container that maintains atmospheric pressure.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/titanic-expedition-submersible-missing-oceangate-1.6881448

^^

Bit more info here

US and Canada searching apparently

I don't know how big the wreckage area is.

Big. The Titanic broke in two as it sunk and the bow came to rest about 600m from the stern. There must also be scattered debris away from the two main wreck sites.

That's something at least - thanks for explaining.