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

Why are people so obsessed with the games controller? It's just an interface essentially.

That's ridiculous. They spent a huge amount of money to take an enormous risk for no real reason.
If we actually had any semblance of equality, there wouldn't be billionaires with money to waste on these ridiculous escapades.
I hope they don't suffer, but they knew the risks.

@FriedEggChocolate, that was a clever animation but kept making my stomach drop into my feet every time it got deeper. Awful. The thought of being deep under the sea is terrifying to me, as is the thought of being in space. Happy to keep my feet on solid ground.

Because it lends credence to most posters' view that the passengers are rich people playing around in places they shouldn't be in, in a tin can that isn't fit for purpose.

Which is it - she's either self-aware in knowing she's horrible, or she actually thinks she's moral and striking a blow for equality?

I think people are surprised that it costs 250k per person to descend the depths in something which doesn't appear to be particularly advanced, has gone missing before and seemingly has limited safety features.

I would not have handed these people my money. None of their literature or promo footage fills me with confidence. I wouldn't expect my life to be at the mercy of a Bluetooth gaming remote, seeing as I have enough trouble connecting to the speaker in my living room.

I agree @Oliotya When billionaires pay vast sums of money to go on a trip that comes with a huge amount of risk simply to gawp at a grave site my sympathy levels run very low.

Both simultaneously. She thinks conflicting things about two different mindstates. A thing unparalleled in the history of cognitive experience! Or, you know, quite common actually.

So not that self-aware then, according to you.

Sure, they shouldn't be, but the controller doesn't lend that view credence.

This reminds me of the search for the Malaysian airplane and something about the horror of that situation had me glued to the news for weeks. The saddest outcome may likely be that the sub is never found as it's literally a needle in a haystack, at a part of the ocean that isn't even visible. There is also zero chance of debris or oil as with searching for an airplane. Back then it was mind boggling how they couldn't find a plane but there were also scale-renderings of the potential crash sites (eg the size of a city) in relation to the tiny size of an aircraft.

Here's a detailed vlog from a travel blogger Alan Estrada who briefly appeared in a promo video about the Titan. He films the entire descent along with the view out the porthole. He was with 2 other people and the little space is crowded with computer equipment but it doesn't feel "risky" in the sense there are seats, belts or safety measures like we know from cars and airplanes. To be honest if an expedition goes successfully, it looks like a fairly comfortable, almost cosy experience. Maybe some of the other paying guests were swayed by that. (The video had a Citibank logo at the beginning so it's reasonable to assume he was sponsored to do the trip and didn't pay for the ticket himself)

Anyone else keep having to take long deep breaths whenever they read about this.

It actually makes me feel tight chested just thinking about it.

I bet you would be hard pressed to find anyone on this site who hasn’t “gawped” at some sort of grave site, from wandering around their local church graveyard reading the names, to visiting WW1 cemeteries or all the other countless sites where people have died or been memorialised in some way.

sorry for them but rich people do daft things and the titanic is a gravesite not a theme park

Someone who took this trip last year was being interviewed on BBC Breakfast news this morning - he said that he was so relaxed that he fell asleep on the descent!

Mine, too.

I'll save the majority of my sympathy for the people who are forced into dangerous situations to feed their families eg the Chilean miners

I still pray that they'll be safe - this is an horrific way to die.

It's not just gawping at a grave site. Many of us do that in visiting tourist attractions such as the pyramids. It's extreme adventurers and explorers, fully aware of the risks during their preparation and when signing the disclaimer. And it's not all billionaires who have taken part in these Titanic trips, though of course it's going to be expensive considering the costs involved.

I think we can still have sympathy for them, as we can for any similar adventurers and explorers who lose their lives, and more especially their families, but they will have known the great risks.

Igneococcus

I see that it has got clump weights to release and float up to the surface. I've ploughed through a few articles and found an explainer in the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jun/20/missing-titanic-sub-titan-submersible-tourist-oceangate-what-is-it-and-what-might-have-happened

In the case of becoming tangled, or a power or communications failure, the Titan would be equipped with drop weights, which can be released in an emergency, creating enough buoyancy to take it to the surface.

I do think that it's very bad situation for them.

But it's a proven piece of kit - highly reliable and proven from many millions of hours use by millions of people every day. It makes perfect sense. The engineering in a Ferrari steering wheel is 99% the same as a Ford Fiesta one.
Some people are speaking from a position of ignorance.

There is literally nothing else to do other than gawp at a grave site from a small window - these extreme explorers (or whatever they want to call themselves) are not contributing anything scientifically and aren't learning anything which isn't already known. They chose to put themselves at huge risk and unfortunately it's gone wrong for them. I really hope that none of the rescuers are put at risk as a result.

It’s easy to say that no one needs to dive to that depth out of curiosity, just as no one ever needs to climb a mountain, or ski down one, or explore a cave, or race a motor vehicle of any description, or ride a horse or do any one of a countless number of human activities that come with risk and potentially require other people to spend time and money, and potentially put themselves at risk, if something goes wrong.

if you start judging for it it is hard to know where to stop.

I'm willing to bet that the personal insurance you take out for a skiing trip will cost you a lot less than this - there's risk, and then there's risk.

As I said, I hope none of the rescuers are put at risk as a result of this grave tourism.

Their promo material is very poor and they're hiding behind a facade of doing it in the name of research/science, but they're really not.

I think it's particularly sad for the young chap. I have a nearly 19 year old and they're not really old enough to evaluate these dangerous situations and make an informed decision. Presumably he's not an engineer who'd be able to see that this Heath Robinson set up isn't fit for purpose, and I'm not talking about the game controller.

Just read this about James Cameron being down at the Titanic scuba diving for a few minutes. £200million to spend a few mins scuba diving around the bow of the Titanic.
divemagazine.com/scuba-diving-news/first-scuba-dive-on-the-titanic

There is literally nothing else to do other than gawp at a grave site from a small window

Most, if not all, of us will have 'gawped' at a grave site in our lifetimes . It's not taking it in turns to peer through the window, there are cameras and so on. Plus it's about the whole experience of travelling to and exploring those depths and environments, or they could just view previously recorded footage. One of the passengers has set records for travelling to similar depths. What an experience it must be, if you had the money, and the nerve.

I agree, and said, that they will have understood the risk involved. Of course.