Submersible tour boat joins the Titanic

[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.”

[Doctor Phibes]

@Mik said in Joining the Titanic:

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

I've had pretty much that conversation a number of times with people who think they know better than the folks who put tens of thousands of man-hours into developing safety standards, and that by applying "basic common sense engineering" they can make things every bit as safe, and much more effective than the rest of the poor saps who follow the rules.

I've said it here before, but working in industrial safety nothing sets my alarms bells ringing as quickly as the job-title "President and Founder" in an email signature. Except possibly when it's coupled with the three letters PhD.