Submersible tour boat joins the Titanic

[George K]

Submarine on expedition to Titanic wreck missing with 5 aboard

A search and rescue mission was underway Monday for a submarine that went missing in the North Atlantic on an expedition to explore the wreckage of the Titanic. Lt. Jordan Hart of the U.S. Coast Guard in Boston first confirmed to CBS News that personnel were "currently undergoing a search and rescue operation" when asked about the rescue efforts off the coast of Newfoundland.

At a news conference Monday afternoon, Rear Admiral John Mauger confirmed that five people were aboard. A Coast Guard official identified them as an operator and four mission specialists — a term the company uses for its passengers.

The vessel submerged on a dive Sunday morning, and the crew of the Polar Prince — the ship that ferried the submersible and expedition members to the dive site — "lost contact with them approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes into the vessel's dive," the Coast Guard said in a tweet.

OceanGate Expeditions, a company that deploys manned submersibles for deep sea expeditions, confirmed in a statement that its sub was the subject of the rescue operation, adding that it was "exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely."

This "tour" costs $250,000.

OceanGate charges tourists $250,000 for a spot on its expeditions to the Titanic wreckage. The company has yet to comment on the disappearance and could not immediately be contacted due to a surge of internet traffic that crashed the company's website on Monday.

[Horace]

I bet the internet’s heart will pour out for those victims of rich person experience gluttony.

[Jon]

At that price some might well be recognizable either by name or position.

[Horace]

@taiwan_girl let's see which of us can get to the bottom of this first. I've been on the phone all night, digging.

[Mik]

It would seem like a vessel like that might well be tethered to the ship. I would want it to be. At the very least pinging equipment for location.

[Jolly]

@Jon said in Joining the Titanic:

At that price some might well be recognizable either by name or position.

Hamish Harding.

[Mik]

Not looking good for the occupants.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/submersible-scientist-fears-oceangate-may-have-suffered-catastrophic-implosion-deeply-worrisome/ar-AA1cLs37?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=35a5c54d804642ed907b6279e9cc84e2&ei=18

[89th]

As clearly an expert in this field. I'd imagine an implosion at that pressure would be instantaneous death. Unlike hitting an iceberg.

[George K]

I would think that such a submersible would have some kind of tracking device on it. Surprised that it's taken so long to (not) find it.

[Mik]

@George-K Me too. It has to be a very expensive piece of equipment. I suspect it's a crumpled ball of carbon fiber and metal by now.

[Mik]

More info. Looking grim.

https://apnews.com/article/titanic-wreckage-missing-submersible-9f0e66fc1df5d9f1e8d262dc7ce0135e

[89th]

Eventually another sub will find this sub, maybe months or years from now. It will be interesting to see what it looks like. RIP

[Mik]

About like this I'd imagine.

[Jolly]

Ah, just another part of the next tour.

Hurry, hurry, hurry...

[Jolly]

A thought...Carbon fiber arrows are used a lot in archery. Unlike aluminum, though, when they go, they fail catastrophically. I wonder if a sub hull is the same way?...

[Mik]

Not certified because innovation.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/the-maker-of-the-lost-titanic-sub-said-innovation-was-the-reason-the-vessel-wasn-t-checked-to-see-if-it-was-up-to-industry-standards/ar-AA1cNp5H?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=84e1b98e3ff24e2d8a123968aa7c6d43&ei=53

[Horace]

"By definition, innovation is outside of an already accepted system," the blog said. "However, this does not mean that OceanGate does meet standards where they apply, but it does mean that innovation often falls outside of the existing industry paradigm."

They missed a "not" there, and inverted the intended logic of their sentence.

Pesky details. I bet submarine design has some details to it, too.

[Mik]

Yeah, but...innovation.

[Renauda]

OceanGate was warned in 2018 about the “innovation”.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-us-canada-65953941?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=64920378523d5b1261707f21%26Submersible experts wrote to OceanGate CEO expressing concern%262023-06-20T21%3A24%3A38.642Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:cebd3e4f-dae4-4965-8aaf-90c6600cf104&pinned_post_asset_id=64920378523d5b1261707f21&pinned_post_type=share

Could very well be another example of what Shuttle astronaut, Col. Mike Mullane described as the avoidable and tragically costly, normalization of deviance.

[George K]

@Renauda more:

https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/20/a-whistleblower-raised-safety-concerns-about-oceangates-submersible-in-2018-then-he-was-fired/?guccounter=1

The director of marine operations at OceanGate, the company whose submersible went missing Sunday on an expedition to the Titanic in the North Atlantic, was fired after raising concerns about its first-of-a-kind carbon fiber hull and other systems before its maiden voyage, according to a filing in a 2018 lawsuit first reported by Insider and New Republic.

David Lochridge was terminated in January 2018 after presenting a scathing quality control report on the vessel to OceanGate’s senior management, including founder and CEO Stockton Rush, who is on board the missing vessel.

According to a court filing by Lochridge, the preamble to his report read: “Now is the time to properly address items that may pose a safety risk to personnel. Verbal communication of the key items I have addressed in my attached document have been dismissed on several occasions, so I feel now I must make this report so there is an official record in place.”

The report detailed “numerous issues that posed serious safety concerns,” according to the filing. These included Lochridge’s worry that “visible flaws” in the carbon fiber supplied to OceanGate raised the risk of small flaws expanding into larger tears during “pressure cycling.” These are the huge pressure changes that the submersible would experience as it made its way and from the deep ocean floor. He noted that a previously tested scale model of the hull had “prevalent flaws.”