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Missing Titanic Sub.

mikedt

mikedt

你好
VIP Member
I don't know if anyone else if following this ongoing event
A submarine with tourists, which dived to a depth of 2.5 miles in the Atlantic Ocean to see the wreck of the Titanic has gone missing. And apparently they only have a few hours of oxygen left.
 
I have been. They supposedly heard sounds that they believe came from the sub. But some are saying that they will run out of air this morning..... so they may have only a few hours left to get rescued.
 
The playstation controller bothered me. In a confined space someone could have sat on it and crashed the sub.

On the radio I heard some guy saying the hull should have 7 inches, not 5 invhes and the sub didn't go through proper testing. I don't who he was or how accurate his statemens were.
 
AugieTN said:
The playstation controller bothered me. In a confined space someone could have sat on it and crashed the sub.

On the radio I heard some guy saying the hull should have 7 inches, not 5 invhes and the sub didn't go through proper testing. I don't who he was or how accurate his statemens were.
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One item that stood out for me is that the viewport is certified only to 1,300 meters.

David Pogue traveled on the submersible and here’s some of his comments:

 
I see a PlayStation Controller as very appropriate for the purpose, a simpler interface for something like a sub that's not a research station but more of just a tourist vehicle for people with a lot of disposable income. Reportedly there were even spare PlayStation Controllers on hand.
Overly complicated control systems are inherently a lot more complicated to build and even more to maintain. Simpler and appropriate isn't necessarily a bad thing.
That said, this is still a tragedy that will hopefully not turn out to be a serious one.
 
A breaking story says the debris field is consistent with an implosion:

“Five major pieces of debris were found, including the nose cone, officials said.

The debris indicates there was a "catastrophic implosion" of the vessel, Mauger said.

It's too early to tell when the implosion occurred, officials said.”

For their sake I hope it was early in the trip, as death would have been instantaneous. Otherwise… I can’t imagine sitting on the bottom for a few days waiting for help. Horrible either way.

RIP to the passengers and pilot.
 
They have been saying that the hydrophones they've had deployed listening for signs of life would certainly have detected the sound of the implosion, which suggests that at least it happened before the listening gear was deployed. And a comment from an oceanographer that the size of the field is consistent with an "implosion in the water column", which I take as meaning he doesn't think it was on the bottom at the time. So yeah, too early to be sure, but it sounds consistent so far with the hull failing during the descent.
 
The WSJ is now reporting that a US military system (unnamed) detected a signal consistent with an implosion in the region near the Titanic "shortly after its disappearance", which I assume means "shortly after it lost contact" (i.e. hours before that loss was reported). At what point (or whether) this was communicated to the search teams I don't know (the actual article is behind a paywall, so I'm reporting this second-hand).

So assuming this report is accurate we can at least feel assured that the crew didn't suffer an extended ordeal.
 
Hadron said:
At what point (or whether) this was communicated to the search teams I don't know (the actual article is behind a paywall, so I'm reporting this second-hand).
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From the NYT, referencing a report from the WSJ:
Both officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details, said that the analysis of undersea acoustic data and information about the location of the noise had been shared with the Coast Guard official in charge of the search.
 
I saw the news, they suspect it imploded during the descent. And I read this submarine was controlled from a Logitech Bluetooth game-pad....okay.

I expect anyone going on the OceanGate Inc's Titan submarine signed a disclaimer form, agreeing to the whole thing is experimental, not approved nor certified, WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE, and GOOD LUCK!.
 
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mikedt said:
I saw the news, they suspect it imploded during the descent. And I read this submarine was controlled from a Logitech Bluetooth game-pad....okay.

I expect anyohne going on the Titan signed a disclaimer form, agreeing to the whole thing is experimental, not approved nor certified, WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE, and GOOD LUCK!.
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Re: the disclaimer, watch the YT clip I posted above with David Pogue (assuming China will let you watch it!).
 
Yeah, there was a disclaimer, but whether it will stand up if the families challenge it remains to be seen. Least of anyone's worries at the moment, and probably not even a worry for the company because I can't see them remaining in operation after this anyway. The question is will lessons be learned from this?

The most distressing thing I've read is a statement from the 19 year old's aunt (sister of his father who was in the sub) that he was very anxious about the whole thing. We can't know how he felt during the descent, but I can see the idea that he didn't really want to be there adding to the family's pain.
 
When I first read about the submarine being made of composite material the first or second day after it went missing, there was absolutely no doubt on what had happened. I doubt that they even reach the wreckage of the titanic before the sub imploded.
 
My helper's boss was interviewed about it (he's an expert in the field). This whole thing is very disturbing, but it helps to know that each person WANTED to do it, and also KNEW that death was one of the possible risks. So it's not like they went in blind and had no idea things could go wrong. I haven't heard, but I hope they had all already died before it exploded. RIP to all, and maybe this will lead to improvements that were needed.
 
MoodyBlues said:
My helper's boss was interviewed about it (he's an expert in the field). This whole thing is very disturbing, but it helps to know that each person WANTED to do it, and also KNEW that death was one of the possible risks. So it's not like they went in blind and had no idea things could go wrong. I haven't heard, but I hope they had all already died before it exploded. RIP to all, and maybe this will lead to improvements that were needed.
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More likely they died when it imploded. But it's unlikely they even knew there was anything wrong: if they were 3/4 of the way down (and time-wise they lost contact 1hr 45 minutes into an approximately 2hr descent, so I'd guess they were at least at that depth) then there would be a 300 atmosphere pressure outside. With that type of stress once something starts to fail it will just collapse, particularly composite materials like they used for the barrel of the pressure vessel. It would be over before they realised it was starting.
 
Just for some perspective, as the news media has all of us fixated on this sad event, there is a different disaster that has also occurred recently and it's only mentioned in some independent news sources -- a boat off the Greek coast has sunk and several hundred people, most women and children refugees, are also dead.
www.democracynow.org

As Media Spotlights Titanic Sub, Hundreds of Migrants Who Died in Greek Shipwreck Get Scant Coverage

As many as 700 migrants are feared to have died after an overloaded fishing vessel capsized last week off the coast of Greece. As search and rescue efforts continue with dwindling expectations, the Greek Coast Guard is facing backlash over its failure to help rescue passengers before the boat...
www.democracynow.org
This is a statement on our culture, we're focused on a the tragic death of a handful of people who died while on what's essentially a highly-priced joy-ride but when maybe 700 refugees fleeing in the hope of a better life also die in a tragic accident, it's a non-event.
 
It's received more coverage over here in Europe (it happened last week, several days before the Titan accident). I found myself swearing at the radio last Friday (something that doesn't happen often) when it was reported that they had found exactly no women or children amongst the survivors because they had been locked in below decks.
 
Hadron said:
It's received more coverage over here in Europe (it happened last week, several days before the Titan accident). .....
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That's very reassuring.
Here in the U.S., we're still plagued with Fox News continuing to be the dominant news source and sadly most of the conventional news sources are only slightly more revealing. So something like hundreds of dead refugees is only an after-thought in most headlines, or worse yet, not even mentioned at all.
 
Titan Submarine GIF by GIPHY News


This aged well...
 
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