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

Unlikely! The last lunar landing was in 1972, so either the US are doing stuff they're not telling us about, or there can't be anyone younger than their 70s who's been.

(Sorry - missed the subsequent clarifications.)

DumboLives · Today 20:47

^if they could not find the plane mh370 when it went down, they stand next to no chance of finding the sub.

The plane went down in an unknown area, hundreds of thousands of kilometres across. The tools they used were not really well suited for searching for small debris items, as they had to fly the equipment higher than optimal.

(I'm in the marine survey industry and know a few people who were on the job, on the Fugro Discovery - I've been on it in the North Sea).

This is a much smaller area, a few square kilometres and they are likely to have gone to one of the larger pieces of the wreck.

If they can't be found with a visual survey, the terrain is far better suited (much flatter and less rugged than much of the Pacific search area) to using side scan sonar to locate it.

It cannot navigate by itself, it needs the mothership.

It most certainly can, it will have at least two inertial navigation systems, gyrocompasses, pressure and depth sensors. If it couldn't navigate, they wouldn't be able to get to the location of the wreck.

Not a silly story at all, I enjoyed it.

I looked up Mt. Pearl weather (closest I could find to St. John’s) on the BBC earlier and was fascinated by the variability… 5°C today and 24°C on Saturday.

The Times article talks about the death waivers too.

TBH I think it is bonkers. The description of the vessel and stories of other stuff that has gone on with it in the last 18 months is mind blowing.

And now there’s potentially going to be rather a few more people, non billionaires, who happen to have signed up for military service or something like it tasked with risking their lives to try to find them.

Goodness this thread is moving quickly! I can't keep up

Oh I most DEFINITELY don't blame them! They're so hugely emotionally charged and we've treated them despicably. Good for them if they're plotting revenge. But I don't think that's the case here, they were too far down.

I was brought up near the sea - and its power never ceases to leave me breathless. And its mood can change in a heartbeat.

In the Old Testament it was considered the place where all evil resided

There is a very high probability that they will never be found.

The search area is massive.

Remember it's not like looking for something on 2D plane such as someone lost in a massive forest.

We don't know if they are on the seabed on the surface or somewhere in between.

The sub is tiny. It's a needle in a supersized haystack.

I feel very, very sorry for all the families but there is no getting around the fact this was always an incredibly risky (and arguably unnecessary) "adventure" that had no scientific merit.

We already know why/how/where the Titanic sunk and have detailed 3D images of the wreck. Further visits to mark its deterioration could have been done using un-manned submersibles.

This was simply an opportunity to join a very, very exclusive club of people having visited this wreck (more people I believe have been in space than dived to these depths) and having bragging rights about having done so.

I genuinely hope there is a positive outcome but I think the chances of that are almost negligible.

Hopefully, commercial expeditions of this type will be banned as a result.

Unfortunately I don't see a happy ending here.

The whole set up seems to smack of Heath Robinson to me, (one for we oldies).

He was talking about it at the Explorers Club Global Exploration Summit just last week apparently. I suppose there are groups of people who see it as an adventure (rather than terrifying, which is where I fall!).

The migrant boat was intentionally ignored until it was too late. It could have had a live news feed. But everyone was waiting for it to become someone else's problem.
The migrant boat, the titanic, and the billionaires. Feels like it could be an episode of Black Mirror almost.

@Eenymeanymineymo

I'm still so shocked that anyone would do this...let alone hand over 250k. And it hadn't been put through an independent inspection process.

Seems like (and somebody mention this earlier) the whole business is almost unregulated...so who would do deem what inspections would be needed and who would appoint the inspectors?

There are parallels in some forms of vintage aviation in the States where you can't buy tickets to fly as a passenger on some old aircraft (because can't be maintained to air transport standards) but if you make a suitable donation to the owning organisation .... you also have to sign a hefty disclaimer.

@TokyoStories the weather in Canada can be bonkers across all Provinces. It was snowing in parts of Alberta yesterday!

Can someone explain the Heath Ledger thing to me? I've googled and still can't get my head around it!

Apparently the US military routinely use game controllers for drones by way of example.

It may sound odd but actually games companies spend millions developing/testing these this controllers - so why make your own?

www.wired.com/2008/07/wargames/

Robinson, not Ledger

"William Heath Robinson remains one of Britain's best-loved illustrators and has embedded himself into English vernacular, inspiring the phrase 'it's all a bit Heath Robinson' to describe any precarious or unnecessarily complex contraption"

There's an eerie bit in the Cameron documentary I linked a few pages ago. That expedition took place as 9/11 happened. They emerged to discover what had happened in New York.

Although the Titanic sinking wasn't an attack there was a strange parallel in bearing witness to a world changing event that happened at the beginning of the previous century whilst another was happening at the turn of that one.

😂

Is that in response to my post referring to Heath Robinson? If so, you're googling the wrong name!

@plantsandwich unless I missed a bit of the thread, you mean Heath Robinson?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Heath_Robinson

Thanks @HundredMilesAnHour Your story paints a really interesting picture too.

No he hasn't "been to the moon" ffs

@MooseBeTimeForSnow interesting - I knew it was a bit bonkers but I didn’t realise how bonkers until today!