Most everyone watch the movie Titanic (spoiler if you have not…the ship sinks) and since 1912 there have been theory after theory about this tragedy.
Then along came James Cameron and a movie and documentary on this famous wreck…..fast forward to 2023 and the interest in this shipwreck is still high…..
The operator of the submersible that went missing on a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic says it is “exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely.” In a statement, OceanGate Expeditions said its “entire focus is on the crew members in the submersible and their families,” the CBC reports. The company says it lost contact with the sub, which has a 96-hour oxygen supply, Sunday morning. OceanGate says it is rushing to get a remotely operated vehicle capable of diving 20,000 feet to the site. The Titan submersible vessel has a capacity of five, though it’s not clear how many people are on board. Action Aviation has confirmed that its chairman, British billionaire Hamish Harding, was on the sub, the AP reports
“Every attempt is being made for a rescue mission. There is still plenty of time to facilitate a rescue mission, there is equipment on board for survival in this event,” said Mark Butler, the aviation company’s managing director. In a Facebook post Saturday, Harding said the expedition “is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023. A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow.”
Canada’s Coast Guard says a military aircraft and a Coast Guard ship have been sent to assist the US Coast Guard with the search and rescue operation around 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, the New York Times reports. Experts say it’s not clear what happened to the sub, though there is a chance it could have released a drop weight after losing power and is on the surface of the water waiting to be found. Parks Stephenson, technical director on James Cameron’s Titanic movie, says the loss of communication with the vessel is a “highly unusual event,” reports the BBC.
Time is running out for those trapped in this ‘sub’……including some random billionaire……
Billionaire British adventurer Hamish Harding is among the five people aboard the submersible that went missing during a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic Sunday. The 58-year-old chairman of private jet dealer Action Aviation is also a “renowned explorer,” the BBC reports. Last year, he flew to space on Blue Origin’s fifth human-crewed flight. He’s also been to the South Pole multiple times and set three world records, including longest time spent at full ocean depth when he went on a dive to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. He posted on Facebook Saturday that he was to be a mission specialist aboard the Titanic expedition, which he said would likely be the only manned dive to the wreckage this year.
He said that was “due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years,” and said that a “weather window” had just opened up that should allow them to start the dive at 4am local time Sunday if the weather held. The wreckage sits 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. US Coast Guard officials lost contact with the submersible about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, and a Coast Guard official said Monday that he understands the vessel likely had 70 hours left of its 96-hour oxygen supply at that point, Axios reports. Sources tell Sky News two of the others aboard the submersible are French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet and Stockton Rush, chief executive and founder of OceanGate Expeditions, the company that runs the submersible tours.
Sorry this ‘adventure’ is not and never was on my bucket list……never did I ever consider being in a small metal tube thousands of feet under the water.
Some things should just stay a ‘mystery’……this is one of them.
Any thioughts?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
My thoughts — The proprietary hull-condition reporting mechanism probably suffered a catastrophic failure, the sub exceeded safe depths with a hair line crack in the sub structure somewhere and the tons and tons of water pressure imploded the craft thus instantly crushing the life out of everyone on board — and it probably happened in a millisecond …so there was no suffering … something like the styrofoam chips that doomed one of our space shuttles a few years back ….I think they should just look for something that looks like a big flattened tin can on the ocean floor …and the mystery will be solved —
Apparently the sub could stand the depth seems to be mechanical failure….chuq
crushed inwardly like an aluminum can–defect in the hull — failure of the sensors –all perished — tragedy– they had been warned before about the integrity of the craft by other employees –this dive was lucky 13– people need to avoid the area of the Titanic — it is like the devil’s triangle –an accursed place of tragedy —
Like I said…watch the Cameron documentary. chuq
wait and see is all I can offer at this point.
If a submersible underwater craft suddenly loses cabin pressure at maximum depth, the occupants will experience a rapid decompression, which can be fatal. The water pressure at maximum depth is immense, and when the cabin pressure is lost, the water will rush in, forcing the air out of the lungs. This can cause the lungs to collapse, and if the decompression is severe enough, it can also cause the blood to boil.
Report is there is a tapping sound or it could be Aquaman….chuq
or it could be a portion of the broken tether being slapped against the vehicle by the motion of the waves.,
I do not believe it was tethered. chuq
You are right, it might not have been tethered even though if it was the outcome would be a lot different….
What might have happened?
In a best case scenario, the Titan may have lost power and will have an inbuilt safety system that will help it return to the surface. For instance, it may be equipped with additional weights that can be dropped to instantly increase its buoyancy and bring it back to the surface.
Alternatively, the vessel may have lost power and ended up at the bottom of the ocean. This would be a more problematic outcome.
The worst case scenario is that it has suffered a catastrophic failure to its pressure housing. Although the Titan’s composite hull is built to withstand intense deep-sea pressures, any defect in its shape or build could compromise its integrity – in which case there’s a risk of implosion.
Another possibility is that there may have been a fire onboard, such as from an electrical short circuit. This could compromise the vehicle’s electronic systems which are used for navigation and control of the vessel. Fires are a disastrous event in enclosed underwater environments, and can potentially incapacitate the crew and passengers.
Time is of the essence. The search and rescue teams will need to find the vessel before its limited supplies of oxygen and water run out.
There’s an ongoing debate in scientific circles regarding the relative merit of manned submersibles, wherein each deployment incurs a safety risk – and the safety of the crew and passengers is paramount.
Currently, most underwater research and offshore industrial work is conducted using unmanned and robotic vehicles. A loss to one of these vehicles might compromise the work being done, but at least lives aren’t at stake. In light of these events, there will likely be intense discussion about the risks associated with using these systems to support deep-sea tourism.
Not to worry these people feel like they can do anything and come through it just fine….chuq
There was just a press conference by the Coast Guard command center for this operation… and it boggles the mind how much the press is missing the science of all this.
Apparently contact with the submersible stopped at about 1 hour and 45 minutes into the descent. There’s a natural assumption that somehow bringing all recovery assets to bear to the last known position this will all turn out like that DSRV bumping onto the Red October and the folks inside just opening a hatch and everyone is back on shore by for a noon latte.
What this tells me…. a sudden loss of comms to the sub during a descent means the comm went down… or a sudden event occurred disabling human control and/or the ability for the occupants to simply make noise, like banging a hammer on the sides to create an audible signature. I would guess since the latter didn’t occur (that we know of) then there was a sudden trauma to the sub itself, very likely some structural failure that led to a pressure implosion, likely killing everyone instantly.. and sending the craft to the bottom.
I might speculate that at the pressure at reaching 1 hour and 45 min into the descent burst a weakened seam, popped a faulty window port, broke a seal.
There is a possibility that the breathable air system sustained damage due to outside pressure.. a faulty valve, pipe, etc. Maybe contaminated air (from the batteries?) seeped into the passenger area… maybe some rapid decompression similar to those airplanes where the passengers all go unconscious at once due to loss of oxygen and the plane flies on auto pilot. But I think in this case that’s pretty remote.
Now.. then this brings into question… did the design of this sub have any sort of fail safe tech in the event of a sudden crisis? An auto mechanism to “blow all ballast” for an emergency ascent? Backup comms? Emergency visual and radio beacons to be released (manually or automatically) to the surface? If there were a sudden loss of control of the craft by the occupants, and the descent went straight to the bottom, and they were still alive (the naturally hoped for scenario everyone is thinking of), and the occupants were banging away on the sides of the craft… one might think all the pinging sonar from ships and dropped sonar buoys would have picked it up by now.
I’ve not seen any media focusing on any of this. Sadly (or thankfully), I think their demise was sudden. But this will certainly draw attention to future safety designs of these crafts, as well as certain international nautical considerations, like aircraft having to file flight plans, maybe tourist vessels of all kinds have to notify before they take a dive.
Strangely, the reason the Titanic sunk was due to an arrogance of technological prowess feeding safety complacency. This event might be for the same reasons.
In 2018 employees sent a letter voicing safety concerns….they were fired. We will know what went wrong after awhile.
Sue read some where that it cost $250,000 to make this trip. chuq
The Titan had some kind of electronic monitoring capability that would report on stresses in the hulls and the structure itself ..it was supposed to have been automated –obviously it did not work or it worked and was ignored or it worked too late while the implosion was happening or milliseconds later …Maybe the crew just became too comfortable with how easily their operations had been going up until the fateful dive …they were warned by some former employees about safety concerns with the ship itself –don’t know if those concerns were addressed or if they ever were addressed …it is obvious that some kind of catastrophic event occurred rendering human communications null and void ….there is the possibility that they might have collided with part of the Titanic itself and suffered a fatal damage to the hull of the submersible allowing flooding… which would have been bad enough, providing some sort of ghoulish replay of the Titanic disaster itself. We can speculate all day long but I am of the suspicion that we are never going to know the full story… aside from what some experts may reconstruct as the most possible cause of the event disaster.
All makes sense, John. They just interviewed some deep sea fellow who said the military has retrieved an F-18 from 13,000 feet and a Blackhawk chopper from 19,000 feet… obviously not saving human lives, but for investigation issues. I would guess that once the air time runs out the vessels will still stay active if for nothing else than to retrieve remains for family and investigations. That in itself will open up a myriad of court filings I am sure… in trying to assign blame.
It will, of course, end up in a massive paycheck for all surviving persons of concern and will probably end the availability of the adventure from the present promoter of the adventure …It is like I, myself, would never buy a ticket on a ship named “Titanic II.” So submersible tourism might be on hold for awhile.
I get that sinking feeling just thinking about it. 🙂
That is positively rib-tickling Hilarious!!
Well, no sense diving into it any further given the pressure being applied. 🙂
a g r e e d
I think the future will require a more in-depth study, which from there the the facts will rise to the surface.
t r u e
I have little sympathy for multi-millionaires essentially desecrating the site where the Titanic sunk by ‘ghouling’ over it. It sank in 1912, so to my way of thinking that is a ‘modern wreck’. They are in a submarine that is navigated by a Nintendo game controller, (Truth) so should have known better Each paid around $200,000 for the trip, which shows they have money to waste on frippery. They could have done something worthwhile with that cash.
Best wishesm Pete.
I totally agree….the wealthy are always look for ‘adventure’…..I mean watch the documentary by Cameron if it is that important to them. chuq
One of the advantages of being wealthy is the ability to spend casual income in any legal way one sees fit to do.
That’s fine. As long as they are prepared to face the consequences of their actions.
Best wishes, Pete.
Money keeps a person ready for the consequences —