Titanic tourist sub goes missing

[230RN]

I'm at a loss as to why anyone would pay $1/4Mil just to say they saw the wreck with their own eyeballs, regardless of one's personal wealth.

Come to think of it, I'm at a loss as to why anyone would pay a buck and a quarter just to say they saw the wreck with their own eyeballs, regardless of one's personal wealth.

There must be a mess of images and movies available for safe viewing even on the net.

If the thing did implode, at that pressure, over 400 Atm (over 6,000 pounds per square inch), they possibly would have been instantly incinerated by the Diesel effect.  It only takes about 20 Atm (~300 psi)  to ignite Diesel fuel.

I understand from a news report I just saw (0200) on TV, that they've had a lot of mechanical problems with the sub, with a series of aborted expeditions.  According to one news person invited on one of the trips, they had to abort after descending only 37 feet.

Terry, 230RN

REF (Whimsically related):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailors%27_superstitions
An appetizer for you whistlers:
"Whistling is usually considered to be bad luck with the possible exception of the sources mentioned below. It is said that to whistle is to challenge the wind itself, and that to do so will bring about a storm."

On the other hand, black cats aboard ships are considered good luck.  Go figure.

[WLJ]

Checked the news upon waking. Nothing new other than more info about the 5 on board

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12213257/One-Pakistans-richest-men-son-trapped-Titanic-sub-passengers-family-reveals.html

[WLJ]

Tourists who pay $250,000 to descend almost 13,000 feet below sea level to view the wreck of the Titanic must sign a waiver saying they accept the submersible is not approved by any regulatory body, it has been revealed.

It was last heard from on Sunday morning, one hour and 45 minutes into its mission.

Reaching the wreck usually takes two and a half hours.

So they still had some distance to go.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12212461/This-experimental-vessel-not-approved-regulatory-body-Titaniac-waiver.html

[HankB]

I'm at a loss as to why anyone would pay $1/4Mil just to say they saw the wreck with their own eyeballs, regardless of one's personal wealth.

Come to think of it, I'm at a loss as to why anyone would pay a buck and a quarter just to say they saw the wreck with their own eyeballs, regardless of one's personal wealth.

There must be a mess of images and movies available for safe viewing even on the net. . . .

Probably for the same reason that some people pay more than $75,000 for premium Super Bowl tickets, when the best view of the game will be on the big 4k flat panel TV in their living room. They just want to say "I've got the money to do that!" Pretty expensive to peer through a little porthole for a little while. (When the channel broadcasting the game turns their camera on the crowd, notice how a lot of people in the stands are "live streaming" the game and watching on their phone or tablet? And the executive boxes have TVs in them!)

[cordex]

There is absolutely something beyond bragging rights you can get from travel when you're able to actually be someplace and experience a place of interest.

I'm not saying that is how I'd personally spend a quarter of a million, but pretending that pictures and videos are the same thing as going someplace consequential is small minded and sour grapes.

[WLJ]

There is absolutely something beyond bragging rights you can get from travel when you're able to actually be someplace and experience a place of interest.

I'm not saying that is how I'd personally spend a quarter of a million, but pretending that pictures and videos are the same thing as going someplace consequential is small minded and sour grapes.

Along those lines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn9eqcqr64k

[Ben]

So they still had some distance to go.

Indicates catastrophic failure. With entanglement or power loss, there are too many safety failsafes to not have at least one activate. Comms, transponders, auto-release ballast, auto-release emergency beacon (I'm assuming like an EPIRB). All that stuff should have some kind of backup power.

That comms went dark and nothing activated seems to indicate something big happened. No flotsam seems kind of strange though, if that's what happened. Big ocean though.

[WLJ]

Indicates catastrophic failure. With entanglement or power loss, there are too many safety failsafes to not have at least one activate. Comms, transponders, auto-release ballast, auto-release emergency beacon (I'm assuming like an EPIRB). All that stuff should have some kind of backup power.

That comms went dark and nothing activated seems to indicate something big happened. No flotsam seems kind of strange though, if that's what happened. Big ocean though.

What I was thinking. If the times are anything to go by they were ~2/3 of the way down so even if they lost power they could still have manually dropped ballast and risen to the surface. Last ping was received at the 1 hour 45 minutes mark so something catastrophic probably happened shortly after that.
If they did implode or other wise spring a leak it's going to be a bear finding what's left in the Titanic's debris field.

[WLJ]

Always the remote possibility they are bobbing around on the surface and just haven't been found yet and I think that's what's many are hoping for. Currents could have carried them far away from the mother ship on the way up. Again remote but can't be overlooked. I would think there would be emergency transponders that would have been picked up long before now but this thing seems from reports to have been somewhat Jerry-rigged so who knows.

[230RN]

Sorry, but "bragging rights" don't cut it for me. Stet on "I'm at a loss..."

Parallel?

Depth-testing of the USS Thresher submarine.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/uss-thresher-submarine-disaster-navy-documents-released/

The crew indicated it was attempting to empty ballast tanks in an effort to surface. The crew of an accompanying rescue ship heard something about the "test depth." Then the sailors listened as the sub disintegrated under the crushing pressure of the sea.
...
Resting on the ocean floor at a depth of 8,500 feet, the Thresher looks as though it went through a "shredding machine" and is spread out over a mile, University of Rhode Island oceanographer Robert Ballard told The Associated Press in 2013. Ballard used his 1985 discovery of the RMS Titanic as a Cold War cover for surveying the Thresher.

Not everyone was satisfied with the Navy's conclusions.

Terry "That's just me," 230RN

[WLJ]

Can't compare the Navy's reasons for testing a cold war submarine to why people would risk their lives and pay $$$$$ to visit the world's most famous wreck. Apples and oranges. Why do people still line up to climb Mt. Everest despite the fact many still die to this day in the attempt?

[cordex]

Why do people still line up to climb Mt. Everest despite the fact many still die to this day in the attempt?

Because they don't know about Google Maps.

[French G.]

The most likely result now is a dead crew that is never found. I suspect that it will come out that the company needed the paid fare to continue operating. The cut corners that attend to that pressure will be huge.

[RocketMan]

One day some other Titanic explorers will come across new debris scattered in and around the Titanic debris field.  It will be from the imploded tourist sub.

[MillCreek]

Since Oceangate is headquartered and the vehicles are manufactured in Snohomish County, I will be interested to see the lawsuits against them filed in the local Snohomish County Superior Court or in the Western District of Washington in Seattle for the Federal suits.

[WLJ]

Since Oceangate is headquartered and the vehicles are manufactured in Snohomish County, I will be interested to see the lawsuits against them filed in the local Snohomish County Superior Court or in the Western District of Washington in Seattle for the Federal suits.

Can a lawsuit get around the waiver they have to sign?

    Tourists who pay $250,000 to descend almost 13,000 feet below sea level to view the wreck of the Titanic must sign a waiver saying they accept the submersible is not approved by any regulatory body, it has been revealed.

[MillCreek]

Can a lawsuit get around the waiver they have to sign?

Absolutely.  Depending on the specifics, many waivers are not enforceable in court, especially in Washington state.

[Tuco]

Absolutely.  Depending on the specifics, many waivers are not enforceable in court, especially in Washington state.

The CEO will be crushed.

[AZRedhawk44]

Tourists who pay $250,000 to descend almost 13,000 feet below sea level to view the wreck of the Titanic must sign a waiver saying they accept the submersible is not approved by any regulatory body, it has been revealed.

There is probably no regulatory body for deep sea human habitable submarines and submersibles.

Much like there is no regulatory body for human spaceflight capsules. NASA is not a regulatory body, and the FAA simply requires the launch to offer no undue threat to the rest of the public. "Man rated" spacecraft are a myth and NASA's human rating system is not an official stamp of any kind of competency.

This incident has the potential to stymie human spaceflight progress with any legal precedent.  I rather hope that heirs and descendants accept the word of their lost loved ones, and the honor of their commitments.  I rather doubt they'll be rejecting the legitimacy of the activated Wills and Trusts due to this event... these people wanted to further human exploration of new frontiers and risked their lives for it.  Maybe they were rich bastards,  but then again so was Shackleton.  Stuff doesn't get discovered by poor commonfolk.  And I sure would like a new age of discovery.

[sumpnz]

This incident has the potential to stymie human spaceflight progress with any legal precedent.  I rather hope that heirs and descendants accept the word of their lost loved ones, and the honor of their commitments.  I rather doubt they'll be rejecting the legitimacy of the activated Wills and Trusts due to this event... these people wanted to further human exploration of new frontiers and risked their lives for it.  Maybe they were rich bastards,  but then again so was Shackleton.  Stuff doesn't get discovered by poor commonfolk.  And I sure would like a new age of discovery.

Qft.

[Ben]

Well, nobody can say that the CEO won't pay a price.

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush among 5 onboard missing Titan submarine, company says
An OceanGate spokesperson tells Fox News' Tamara Gitt that the company's CEO, Stockton Rush, is among the five people who are now missing after its Titan submarine vanished during a dive Sunday to the wreck site of the Titanic.

“OceanGate can confirm that CEO Stockton Rush is aboard the submersible as a member of the crew," the spokesperson said.

[sumpnz]

Well, nobody can say that the CEO won't pay a price.

The CEO will be crushed.

Prescient.

[WLJ]

Coast Guard saying even if they found the sub there's really nothing they can do.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12215585/Coast-Guard-admits-not-able-rescue-five-people-board-missing-Titanic-tourist-sub.html

[BobR]

Coast Guard saying even if they found the sub there's really nothing they can do.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12215585/Coast-Guard-admits-not-able-rescue-five-people-board-missing-Titanic-tourist-sub.html

So, they finally caught up and said the quiet part out loud?

bob

[WLJ]

So, they finally caught up and said the quiet part out loud?

bob

One way to put it.