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

Well, probably one without a track record of failures, for a start.

The more I think about these people, especially the teenager, the more horror I feel.
They will know they can't be rescued. What do you even talk about? I wonder if they will sing songs or just be very quiet to minimize the oxygen use.

But what level of failures are normal? These are people doing an activity at the limits, I can’t imagine there are more than a handful of vessels able to do this so how does this one compare with expectations?

Because regulation limits innovation apparently.🙄

Daily Mail (yes I know!) reporting that OceanGate's CEO fired their director in 2018 because he was insisting on more rigorous safety testing and independent assessment and the CEO was having none of it. Karma perhaps....

@Nesbi - One doesn’t need to be an expert
GCSE Level physics is enough to realise those pressures on a carbon fibre and titanium and poor communication is asking for trouble.

Plus the poor safety record that tin can has. It’s
Common sense.

@oakleaffy - that’s a ridiculous comment to make without detailed knowledge of the structure of the vessel and the work that went into building it (which apparently involved working with Boing and NASA on the pressure critical elements).

I don’t know I’m what was involved in its construction so I’m damned if I’m going to pontificate and pretend to have knowledge I don’t, unlike the influx of internet experts tripping over themselves to offer up their thoughts on what is “obvious” based on all of 5 minutes of googling.

Finally caught up on the thread. I had to work today so was hoping for a glimmer of good news when I got back. Sadly it's looking increasingly futile.

For anyone who hasn't seen it before the 2003 documentary about James Cameron and Bill Paxton's 2001 mission in a (more robust looking) submersible is on YouTube. It certainly gives a good idea of the adventure involved and why some people would take risks to do it.

However as others have pointed out the discoveries, the mapping etc. all took place over 20 years ago so the notion that this is research and not just adventure tourism rings hollow.

I suppose being generous to them it's thought that the Titanic wreck will no longer exist in a decade or two due to disintegration so perhaps there's a time pressure to try and discover all its secrets before it's gone forever.

he was insisting on more rigorous safety testing and independent assessment and the CEO was having none of it.

What does this remind me of? Happened in 1912?

In all honesty, I genuinely think I'd rather have gone instantaneously. Sounds awful, but imagine if they find it with the possibility of life on board and then they are dead by the time they possibly manage to miraculously complete the rescue? I think I'd rather an immediate death than to be alive with possible hope of being surfaced on time and then passing in the process. I feel for all their families, especially the mother of that 19 year old. The thought of that would haunt me for the rest of my life.

@Nesbi you don't have to be a subversive expert to understand that this is an extremely dangerous situation, just need some basic awareness of how dangerous it is for a human to be at those depths in a vessel without communication or any ability to right itself back to the surface.

I can't imagine the terror those people are feeling. If they're even still alive. That vehicle is operating almost at capacity as it is (depth wise)and things go wrong-it could be crushed like a maggot under your boot. It's very basic physics that a ten year old could probably understand

It is on the BBC News live page on the story.

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

Absolutely. A tether strong enough to winch the submersible in case of difficulty would be more of a liability (to both the submersible and the mother ship) than an insurance policy. I work for a company that lay offshore power cables between fixed points and that's incredibly tricky over much shorter distances (due to risk of cable snapping in currents, etc) as it is.

@HonorHiding, the tether used by Nereus wasn't a tether in the "traditional" sense (AKA securing the vehicle). It was a communications cable that was tethered to the vehicle in order to allow live stream video/operation of the vessel by pilots. There presumably would have been a lot of slack given in order to ensure that the cable didnt snap/disconnect at any point due to currents, etc.
It does seem odd that the Titan didn't make use of similar technology for ease of communication between vessel and mother ship.

This is just awful. I can't stop reading/thinking about it. Praying they'll be alive and rescued. It's making me feel anxious.

I thought that earlier - some one said the sub uses star link satellites

It is an eerily similar situation. The name. The lackadaisical attitudes to safety. The wanting to be innovative. The very rich people involved. My 'woo' friend believes it is a spiritual revenge. I am not 'woo' in the slightest but I can see where he's coming from!

Thank you

Being that deep is terrifying though

Totally agree plant

It is horrendous.

@plantsandwich - of course it’s dangerous, that’s a given! It’s about as close to space exploration as you can come without leaving the planet! But that is part of the attraction, and some people will want to take those risks.

it’s like climbing K2. For every 4 or 5 people that get to the summit, 1 person will die. And yet people will keep doing it because they want to experience these extremes.

I've been thinking about them and wondering this. Surreal to think they are living this in real time, all the way down there. How does the mind react to slow motion disaster? I imagine a period of panic and terror and then hopefully a kind of hypnotic state.

I think you'd go through a range of emotions. Id definitely panick, then cry. Probably shout at the CEO. Cry some more. Then maybe acceptance with some hope? I don't know.

It would definitely be best if they had perished instantly rather than waiting and then dying.

If they do manage to reach it can they get it out as quick as possible or do they have to be careful of the bends?

Elon Musk isn't likely to post anything publicly as he knows what the odds are. But he's not been on twitter which is unusual.

My understanding (from this thread and googling) is that because it's kept to atmospheric pressures inside the bends shouldn't be an issue.

I wonder if they have the means to record or wrote anything down, of the vessel is still intact and they’re still alive. An account of what went wrong etc. I suppose notes or voice notes if they have their phones? It’s said that if they do manage to locate it eventually they’ll probably seek to recover it.