Tourist submersible missing on visit to Titanic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is the same excess of wealth, hubris, and reliance on flawed, yet cutting edge technology that led to the sinking of the Titanic. The parallels give me chills. What an unnecessary nightmare. I hope for a good outcome.

Although well-intentioned, this kind of tourism should stop. The parallels drawn in other posts to Gettysburg, etc., aren't the same because those are far more accessible- no great wealth required.

Agree. It really is stunning.

Agree. I feel bad when anyone suffers, but these people invited their own suffering and likely demise. Spoiled rich people doing stupid things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is the same excess of wealth, hubris, and reliance on flawed, yet cutting edge technology that led to the sinking of the Titanic. The parallels give me chills. What an unnecessary nightmare. I hope for a good outcome.

Although well-intentioned, this kind of tourism should stop. The parallels drawn in other posts to Gettysburg, etc., aren't the same because those are far more accessible- no great wealth required.

Agree. It really is stunning.

Agree. I feel bad when anyone suffers, but these people invited their own suffering and likely demise. Spoiled rich people doing stupid things.

yep - however its like a trainwreck that i can't look away from. wish they hadn't publicized this at all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if these people had 96 hours of oxygen I don’t think they had any water. And I believe you can only live three days without water.

A common misconception. I am a hospice caregiver and have been for the last almost decade. Even very frail dying people can live many days without water.

Yay I think the 3 days without water is for people lost on a wilderness trail. Not lying still in a bed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The submersible is sealed with 17 21" bolts that can only be unscrewed from the outside.

Really?? What an awful design flaw.

Why? It's not like they could open it, exit, and swim to the surface.

Seems like a necessary design. If they were the other way, perhaps the pressure from the ocean could press inwards and “unscrew” them. Then everyone definitely dies. Bolting from the outside in means the pressure strengthens the bond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if these people had 96 hours of oxygen I don’t think they had any water. And I believe you can only live three days without water.

Drinking your own urine would give you another day or two.

But it’s moot point, as all signs point to a sudden hull collapse.

If this happened, would there even be remains of the submersible craft or people? Or would the pressure essentially eviscerate everything?

[Anonymous]

Hopefully there is a good outcome, but it isn’t looking promising.

Is this considered international waters? Is there any way to ban this kind of expedition going forward? Just dumbfounded at the rudimentary technology involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if these people had 96 hours of oxygen I don’t think they had any water. And I believe you can only live three days without water.

Drinking your own urine would give you another day or two.

But it’s moot point, as all signs point to a sudden hull collapse.

The submersible has a relatively novel hull of titanium and carbon fiber. Given the brittle nature of carbon fiber, I suspect the monitoring for defects isn't well understood at this time for this application.

I'm wondering if the repetitive stress of multiple dives means the submersible has a distinct and measurable shelf-life. Eg, the materials could only do the dive a max of 60 times before it eventually had a catastrophic failure.

If that's the case, then the organizers are under-charging clients at $250K.

It will be interesting to see if they ever find the wreckage. I would imagine that a hull breach would lead to an instant scattering of equipment and the pressure would crush any pliable materials into microscopic particles. There may not even be a noticeable wreckage to evaluate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully there is a good outcome, but it isn’t looking promising.

Is this considered international waters? Is there any way to ban this kind of expedition going forward? Just dumbfounded at the rudimentary technology involved.

Off the shelf components are the opposite of rudimentary. Better than recreating the wheel. The hull seems to be the novel part of the submersible and it has worked well so far. Progress is based on failure and solutions.

[Anonymous]

I heard the BBC person on NPR introduce the story as capturing attention because it’s about 1)adventure, 2) enduring allure of the titanic, and 3) the very wealthy. Seemed a little tone deaf, considering they have all but certainly perished.

I guess it’s not considered a tragedy until they have gone past however many hours of oxygen they have?

Very sad story and could have all been avoided.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard the BBC person on NPR introduce the story as capturing attention because it’s about 1)adventure, 2) enduring allure of the titanic, and 3) the very wealthy. Seemed a little tone deaf, considering they have all but certainly perished.

I guess it’s not considered a tragedy until they have gone past however many hours of oxygen they have?

Very sad story and could have all been avoided.

How?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is the same excess of wealth, hubris, and reliance on flawed, yet cutting edge technology that led to the sinking of the Titanic. The parallels give me chills. What an unnecessary nightmare. I hope for a good outcome.

Although well-intentioned, this kind of tourism should stop. The parallels drawn in other posts to Gettysburg, etc., aren't the same because those are far more accessible- no great wealth required.

Agree. It really is stunning.

Agree. I feel bad when anyone suffers, but these people invited their own suffering and likely demise. Spoiled rich people doing stupid things.

Well, so do a lot of dumb poor people. Does it really matter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The submersible is sealed with 17 21" bolts that can only be unscrewed from the outside.

Really?? What an awful design flaw.

Why? It's not like they could open it, exit, and swim to the surface.

Seems like a necessary design. If they were the other way, perhaps the pressure from the ocean could press inwards and “unscrew” them. Then everyone definitely dies. Bolting from the outside in means the pressure strengthens the bond.

I think the water pressure is so powerful that buoyancy is negated and, therefore, any type of debris field doesn't exist. The water current and pressure doesn't allow anything to just float away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if these people had 96 hours of oxygen I don’t think they had any water. And I believe you can only live three days without water.

Drinking your own urine would give you another day or two.

But it’s moot point, as all signs point to a sudden hull collapse.

If this happened, would there even be remains of the submersible craft or people? Or would the pressure essentially eviscerate everything?

Mythbusters did this with a de-pressurized diving suit and a fake human skeleton covered in pig skin at a depth of only 300 feet:

Tory built a fake diver using a plastic skeleton and pieces of pig flesh sewn around it together. Organs and fake blood were also inserted into the chest cavity. The team went to open waters and lowered the fake diver to a depth of 300 ft (91.4 m). At that depth, 135 psi (9.2 atm) of pressure was needed to equalize the suit pressure. To simulate the air line being cut, grant used a quick-release valve. To the team’s surprise, the pressure differential did indeed force organs, blood, and flesh, into the helmet, and thus, the myth was confirmed.

Yuck video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEY3fN4N3D8

These folks in the submersible were over 2 miles (10500+ feet) below the surface. 300 feet is already catastrophic to a human body.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if these people had 96 hours of oxygen I don’t think they had any water. And I believe you can only live three days without water.

Drinking your own urine would give you another day or two.

But it’s moot point, as all signs point to a sudden hull collapse.

If there is no hope of rescue then I hope this is what happened because the idea of being trapped just waiting for death in a small metal container is terrifying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even if these people had 96 hours of oxygen I don’t think they had any water. And I believe you can only live three days without water.

Drinking your own urine would give you another day or two.

But it’s moot point, as all signs point to a sudden hull collapse.

The submersible has a relatively novel hull of titanium and carbon fiber. Given the brittle nature of carbon fiber, I suspect the monitoring for defects isn't well understood at this time for this application.

I'm wondering if the repetitive stress of multiple dives means the submersible has a distinct and measurable shelf-life. Eg, the materials could only do the dive a max of 60 times before it eventually had a catastrophic failure.

If that's the case, then the organizers are under-charging clients at $250K.

It will be interesting to see if they ever find the wreckage. I would imagine that a hull breach would lead to an instant scattering of equipment and the pressure would crush any pliable materials into microscopic particles. There may not even be a noticeable wreckage to evaluate.

Carbon fiber is notorious for developing cracks when it's used for bike frames and bike forks.