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

Mike Reiss went on trips in the sub 3 times (including 1 to the Titanic) and said that comms to the mother ship failed all 3 times.

I don't understand why these people got in it when it had such a poor reputation. It was a tragedy waiting to happen.

Ironically, it's that same level of arrogance which built the unsinkable ship, isn't it?

It's one thing if the CEO is popping down for a nosey on his own. When you have paying members of the public on your (unregulated and unclassified) vessel, the first sign of any problem should trigger an emergency response. Who plays wait and see for hours when they might have a sub in distress, 4km under the sea?! It honestly beggars belief.

I would be absolutely raging if my loved one was in that vessel. Raging.

@BillyNoM8s I'd be raging at my loved one being so stupid to even do it to be honest !

No, realistically most sharks don't like cold water. My point still stands though?

I guess the desire to be one of the first and few to do something supercedes common sense sometimes. Or they fell for the company bullshit? "Regulations can't keep up with innovation" or whatever bollocks it says on their website.

There is also that. I would've researched the hell out of these people before being bolted inside their death trap.

If you're a billionaire, you could probably commission your own submersible if you're that way inclined.

Thats ridiculous

Isn’t it Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system which has provided the dodgy comms in the first place? Obviously we don’t know that they have been a cause of the present situation, but comms seem to have been a recurrent problem with OceanGate.

https://twitter.com/OceanGateExped/status/1664306619608449026

The thing about the coms though is that it's as untested in this situation as the sub itself is. So there being continuous problems with it is probably considered normal.
What I don't understand is why it's not tethered. Surly if your coms are not reliable a basic safety measure would be that the sub be tethered to the ship?

Yes, I wondered about the tethering but maybe as it's a wreck it's not suitable in case of snagging.

If your comms aren't tested and reliable, I think you have no business plunging people to the bottom of the ocean.

You don't guinea pig with the general public, no matter how wealthy they are.

I imagine it's a cost or convenience issue for tethering. You'd need an extremely heavy cable and therefore, presumably, a larger mother ship.

It’s absolutely criminally negligent to allow paying passengers on that death trap.

Why aren’t there safety regs brought in?

The eerie name, too “ Titan”
Like tempting fate.

Possibly but you would think you would extensively test it somewhere other than a famous shipwreck site?
Then when the coms are reliable and with a decent plan B backup you would start exploring elsewhere!

Agree that the negligence and hubris is staggering.

https://www.businessinsider.com/titanics-books-predicted-disaster-2018-4?r=US&IR=T

TITAN!

The second novella — "The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility" by Morgan Robertson — boasted even more startling similarities to the sinking of the Titanic.

Just to add the reason Billionaires are billionaires is often because of their unusual propensity for risk taking. Hoping for a miracle here.

@BillyNoM8s I completely agree!

I do wonder if the passengers are truly passengers or are actually considered investors. Which doesn't make it much better of course but does explain it a bit more.

How can you charge people to go on a tourist trip on an unregulated boat?

They can't tether it too great a distance it would cause too much drag to the sub with the under water currents

Watched the news report earlier from the US journalist who travelled on it it looked like it was put together with scraps from b&q. How was this company allowed to run these trips in the first place??

I have no idea how to judge a submersible as it is completely outside my sphere of knowledge but I’m glad to be on a forum with so many experts in the field.

Regarding tethering, it’s interesting to see that the Nereus vessel (which imploded in 2014) operated with some 25 miles of fibre-optic tethering (width of a human hair) available to it from the ship. Though Wikipedia says the tether could only support 4kg which seems remarkably fragile given the forces it would be subjected to. Anyone understand how that might have worked?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nereus_(underwater_vehicle)

This story is so awful and has made me even more terrified of the ocean

I think because it's in "international waters" it's a weird grey area as far as regulations are concerned. Hopefully not any more, regardless of the outcome of this disaster.

I agree that billionaires often take extraordinary risks, but I don't necessarily think they should be so easily allowed to.

Look at the astonishing resources that are being poured into this (probably fruitless) rescue mission.

They also seem to class the passengers as "crew", in some attempt, no doubt, at not being liable when shit hits fan.

I definitely agree about the name!
Is there anywhere we can watch the Press Conference? I missed it.

Don't be scared of the ocean. Be scared of carbon fibre boxes that are locked from outside with limited oxygen..

Definitely spoof.
scuba diving isn’t possible at anywhere NEAR those depths.
The pressure would kill someone and squish their lungs like a plastic bag at a fraction of that depth.