Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

[RACISM]

I feel nothing at all knowing people paying $250k to board a tin can so they could go on a dangerous trip to visit a heavily documented place are likely dead.

I don't know. If I was stupid rich this sounds like exactly the sort of stupid thing I would do.

 

[make_it_so]

Holy shit, what an absolutely rinky-dink looking sub. No fucking way I would set foot on that to go 10,000+ feet down. The research subs that explored the Titanic some 40 years ago looked more sturdily built than this.

 

[Cultured Xeno]

View attachment 5170847
Holy shit, what an absolutely rinky-dink looking sub. No fucking way I would set foot on that to go 10,000+ feet down. The research subs that explored the Titanic some 40 years ago looked more sturdily built than this.

I would definitely take the Alvin over the Titan.

Also something interesting I read on Wikipedia about the Alvin:

In an emergency, if Alvin were stuck underwater with occupants inside, the outer body, or cladding, of the submersible could be released and discarded using controls inside the hull. The titanium sphere would then rise to the surface uncontrolled.

I am betting the Titan did not have an escape system like this built into it judging by the photos of it. You would think a lifeboat type system would be mandatory on a DSV, but I guess some lessons need to be relearned.

 

[malleusmaleficarum]

My money's on a catastrophic hull failure. What a niggerbrained scheme this was, and now they're gonna make rescuers risk their lives just to recover the unrecognizable pulp at the bottom of the ocean.

 

[W00K #17]

You couldn't pay me $250,000 to set foot in the fuckin thing.

 

[kurosawa]

A reporter who took the trip last year said they had communication system failures. (A) So cross fingers that's the issue - but on that trip they were only lost for 2ish hours during which the pilot was still able to pilot using a game controller (maybe the AA batteries died).

Most of the submersible is a carbon fiber cylinder, which Boeing and UW helped design/prototype. (A) Boeing had issues with their carbon fiber 787 wings due to contamination, hmm. I especially like the rusted roller (or whatever that is) and aluminum foil(?) on the fiber laying equipment from Oceangate's site. (A) The patent for their acoustic and ultrasonic monitoring system of the carbon fiber cylinder contains this ominous line:

The integrity and safety of such structures generally can't be reliably evaluated using visual or other conventional inspection techniques.

Taking into account the issues they had last year and looking at the development, technology and what little photos there are of the manufacturing of this submersible - no chance in hell I'd set foot in that thing.

 

[W00K #17]

Holy fuck, this is what the interior looks like.



I hope for their sake it sprung a leak and they all died instantly.

I can't imagine spending 96 pitch black hours in this claustrophobic hell pod waiting to slowly die of suffocation while covered in piss and shit.

 

[HodgePodgeRogerDodger]

I would definitely take the Alvin over the Titan.

Also something interesting I read on Wikipedia about the Alvin:

In an emergency, if Alvin were stuck underwater with occupants inside, the outer body, or cladding, of the submersible could be released and discarded using controls inside the hull. The titanium sphere would then rise to the surface uncontrolled.

View attachment 5170982


I am betting the Titan did not have an escape system like this built into it judging by the photos of it. You would think a lifeboat type system would be mandatory on a DSV, but I guess some lessons need to be relearned.

Wouldn't the uncontrolled rise cause the bends? Unless the entire thing is pressurized that escape would lead to a long recovery process and potential brain damage.

 

[W00K #17]

Wouldn't the uncontrolled rise cause the bends? Unless the entire thing is pressurized that escape would lead to a long recovery process and potential brain damage.

I believe it's pressurized, but the gs sustained from floating up from significant depth as well as being uncontrolled means you could be spinning all over the place. Hope it has seatbelts and there's no loose objects to bash your brains in.

 

[JosephStalin]

You couldn't pay me to get into such a thing. Fuck that, keeping my ass on land.

 

[Android raptor]

I feel nothing at all knowing people paying $250k to board a tin can so they could go on a dangerous trip to visit a heavily documented place are likely dead.

Imagine how much that money could've helped legitimate deep sea research and conservation. I hear the tourism associated with the Titanic wreckage has even caused a problem with litter accumulating nearby. Very shitty especially considering how many people lost their lives in the Titanic disaster (most of whom were poor).

Personally I'm all for rich people continuing to fuck around and find out with the ocean.

 

[W00K #17]

You couldn't pay me to get into such a thing. Fuck that, keeping my ass on land.

I'm as comfortable on water as I am on land. But not confined in a trap miles underwater. Hell no to that. Boats and wading/swimming are fun as fuck though.

 

[LaxerBRO]

I believe it's pressurized, but the gs sustained from floating up from significant depth as well as being uncontrolled means you could be spinning all over the place. Hope it has seatbelts and there's no loose objects to bash your brains in.

For a vessel like that with the precautions they had, I am sure they had some sort of special EPIRB that would have been deployed if they had surfaced.

Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) rescue process

P.S. These people are dead.

 

[W00K #17]

For a vessel like that with the precautions they had, I am sure they had some sort of special EPIRB that would have been deployed if they had surfaced.
View attachment 5171284
Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) rescue process

P.S. These people are dead.

Absolutely for the Arvin.

The Titan looks like something one of my redneck friends would build in his garage and I think I might actually trust their build more than whatever the fuck this ghetto sub is.

 

[Otis Mallebrok]

I'm surprised they only have one crew member on board. You'd think they'd be required to have two in case said crew member gets incapacitated or has a heart attack or something to that effect and can't operate the sub

Its a five man sardine can. Every crew member is one less pay-pig.

My guess is that the submersible was crushed by the water pressure, and that it was over in about 50 microseconds or so. RIP

Also, apparently part of the pressure hull was made by carbonfiber, which seems an odd choice of material.

Wouldn't the uncontrolled rise cause the bends? Unless the entire thing is pressurized that escape would lead to a long recovery process and potential brain damage.

All deep diving submersibles are pressurized to sea level pressure. That why they can be crushed by the immense differential pressure at depth. Which is likely what happened.

 

[thunderous ball lightning]

By Gareth Evans
BBC News
1 minute ago

A submersible craft used to take people to see the wreck of the Titanic has gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean with its crew on board, sparking a major search and rescue operation.​

Tour firm OceanGate, which runs $250,000-a-seat expeditions to the wreck, said it was exploring all options to get the crew back safely.

It said government agencies and deep sea firms were helping the operation.

The Titanic sank in 1912 and lies some 3,800m (12,500ft) beneath the waves.

The missing craft is believed to be OceanGate's Titan submersible, a truck-sized sub that holds five people and usually dives with a four-day supply of oxygen.

It is not known when contact with the craft was lost.

"Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families," OceanGate said in a statement.

"We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to re-establish contact with the submersible," it added.

The company bills the eight-day trip on its carbon-fibre submersible as a "chance to step outside of everyday life and discover something truly extraordinary".

According to its website, one expedition is ongoing and two more have been planned for June 2024.

whacky! this is so horrifyingly stupid.

They're probably dead, this sub is more of a "cheap and cheerful" submersible that's driven with a 3rd party Xbox controller.

holy shit....

 

[Snekposter]

Also, apparently part of the pressure hull was made by carbonfiber, which seems an odd choice of material.

Not really. Lightweight and fairly good tensile strength. You just need to keep them dry as fuck to prevent them from debonding since they are a composite. Which isn't as difficult as you think since a basic polymer coating can do that job just fine. Its more likely they cheaped out and went with what their engineers decided was the absolute bare minimum instead of having some extra strength just in case, and one small failure caused a cascade. Personally I'd have gone with a internal alloy tube for extra reinforcement instead of just pure carbon fiber, but that's just me.

 

[Cpl. Long Dong Silver]

The deep ocean is sketchy enough on top of it. You start diving at depths that can crush you in a nanosecond? Fuck that.

I'd rather go to space on a Soyuz capsule dug out of some Soviet warehouse.

 

[Secret Asshole]

Ah yes, trust the capitalist to fucking build a sub for the rich and think he won't fucking cut corners that will get everyone killed. I guess the ghosts of the Titanic can rest easy knowing that rich capitalists are identical in any fucking era.

Kind of like all the rich people passing all the corpses of other people on Mount Everest. Nobody takes this shit seriously, or looks at history. How fucking tiring this shit must be.

 

[Friendly Primarina]

Do you think it went down like this?