A search is underway for missing submarine that takes people to see Titanic
apnews.com
A search is underway for a missing submersible that carries people to view the wreckage of the Titanic. Canadian officials say the five-person submersible was reported overdue Sunday night about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John's, Newfoundland and that the search is being led by the U.S. Coast Guard. The owner of the ship that launched the submersible confirmed that it was operated by OceanGate Expeditions, which has been operating annual voyages since 2021 to the wreckage of the iconic ocean liner. In a statement, the company said it is working to bring the crew back safely.
    • Onii-Chan@kbin.social
      24·
      2 years ago

      Built with shit from Home Depot, controlled with a literal Logitech game controller, construction pipes as ballast… holy fuck, why would anybody agree to go 3.7km below the surface of the ocean in that deathtrap?

      • StringTheory@beehaw.orgEnglish
        7·
        2 years ago

        Made out of a fiberglass tube (catastrophic failure) and titanium end caps (cracks) instead of steel.

        “Steel is real.”

        • Pigeon@beehaw.orgEnglish
          2·
          2 years ago

          Titanium cracks under pressure, I take it?

          Or is the join between the cap and the fiberglass body potentially more of a problem?

          • rustyspoon@beehaw.orgEnglish
            8·
            2 years ago

            Everything cracks under pressure, I’m not exactly sure what the above commenter is getting at. If the sub was steel the walls would be thinner. With titanium the walls are thicker. Without knowing the dimensions of the material we can’t know whether it was built to high enough standards.

          • ZapBeebz@beehaw.orgEnglish
            6·
            2 years ago

            I mean, anything will crack under pressure. The biggest issue I see is uneven compression of the two materials coupled with different fatigue behaviors. I’d feel a lot safer if the whole submarine was titanium, honestly. Barring that, a couple inches of solid steel would be just as comforting.

          • StringTheory@beehaw.orgEnglish
            3·
            2 years ago

            I would be worried about both. Joining two very different materials that need to deal with crazy pressures seems like a really bad idea.

    • demvoter@kbin.social
      7·
      2 years ago

      Wow, that is super sketchy. Now I am not at all surprised this happened. Hope that company has a shit ton of insurance.

        • NattyNatty2x4@beehaw.org
          11·
          2 years ago

          There’s also a conspiracy that my farts smell like rancid carrots because the government puts carrots up my butt while I’m sleeping

        • FaceDeer@kbin.social
          8·
          2 years ago

          They’re playing a really long game if so. Submarines like this weren’t even conceived of yet when the Titanic went down, it’d take tremendous foresight to have set this up.

        • mobyduck648@beehaw.org
          4·
          2 years ago

          An easily disproved one too, as the sister ships weren’t actually identical. Also the recent scan on the ship revealed the hull number 401 on one of the propellers putting another nail in the coffin of the idea the ship is actually the Olympic.

          • BlueDiamond@rammy.site
            4·
            2 years ago

            Oh i hate that stupid theory. That’s like top tier “looking for a conspiracy because we’ve got nothing better to do”

        • Storksforlegs@beehaw.org
          1·
          2 years ago

          It’s not a great theory. I’m pretty sure it would have made more money transporting passengers hundreds of times over

  • BobQuasit@beehaw.org
    25·
    2 years ago

    I find it strangely hard to care about the fate of a handful of multimillionaire tourists when hundreds of refugees died last week due to the indifference of the Greek authorities - and the media barely noticed.

      • CeruleanRuin@lemmy.one
        1·
        2 years ago

        I am, however, enjoying the gradual turn from the search and rescue efforts to assigning blame and pointing out all the noted issues with the vessel that went missing - and the pushback from people saying it was completely safe.

        History repeats itself.

    • CeruleanRuin@lemmy.one
      1·
      2 years ago

      We should all just be glad that James Cameron wasn’t on board. Imagine never getting another one of his movies because he Heart -of-the-Ocean’ed himself.

  • TheOtherJake@beehaw.org
    17·
    2 years ago

    …officials are working to get a remotely operated vehicle that can reach a depth of 6,000 meters (about 20,000 feet) to the site as soon as possible.

    The 5-person submersible, named Titan, is capable of diving 4,000 meters or 13,120 ft. “with a comfortable safety margin,” OceanGate said in its filing with the court.

    but…after looking up on Wikipedia

    …a wreck that lies over 12,000 feet (3,700 m) below the surface…

    • neuropean@kbin.social
      13·
      2 years ago

      I think they’re advertising the depth limit of the recovery vehicle, not claiming that the wreck is actually at 20,000 feet.

    • Pigeon@beehaw.org
      10·
      2 years ago

      It might be best practice to use a vessel rated for considerably deeper than you actually go, in case of some problem in the hull?

      • Pigeon@beehaw.org
        8·
        2 years ago

        And/or it’s just a description of a particular vehicle they’re bringing that was most convenient to get there quickly.

    • FaceDeer@kbin.social
      10·
      2 years ago

      Maybe they’re concerned that it no-clipped through the sea bottom and wound up deeper than the Titanic’s current location?

  • Great Meh@discuss.tchncs.de
    14·
    2 years ago

    What I dont get is that one of the passengers was a billionaire. He could have built himself the fanciest and safest vessel for a few Million Dollars with a whole naval operation attached. Of course thats a lot more than 250K but still nothing for a billionaire. These people are so out of touch and greedy its insane.

    • TheTrueLinuxDev@beehaw.org
      10·
      2 years ago

      It goes to prove that billionaires are just as gullible as the rest of the people, all they had was just money and assets, it doesn’t grant them wisdom or intelligence.

      • StringTheory@beehaw.org
        7·
        2 years ago

        That much money must give you incredible hubris: up until this point you’ve never had a problem that money couldn’t fix (or ease) for you.

        Unfortunately, you can’t bribe physics.

    • not_amm@beehaw.org
      5·
      2 years ago

      Why do that when you can cut costs, and how would it be possible for them not to ensure their safety? I don’t think they cut costs like the clients, I don’t think they would put lites at risk just for the sake of some extra dollars to the pocket of the CEO. /s

  • Holos620@kbin.social
    13·
    2 years ago

    Very wealthy people wasting a huge amount of society’s resources to have mild fun doing something very risky then having to get rescued on the back of society at a high cost. I say let’s enjoy watching them die.

    • alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgMEnglish
      21·
      2 years ago

      this is a very weird first comment to make and the subsequent comments neither look productive nor particularly on topic. let’s save the thirsting for rich people blood for a topic where it’s more warranted folks, please and thanks.

      • hglmanEnglish
        6·
        2 years ago

        But rich blood being spilled is the topic. They took a huge risk only to get more resources deployed to find them.

    • FaceDeer@kbin.social
      5·
      2 years ago

      Hey now, that money goes to support the families of the people who make shoddy tourist submarines, who then go on to spend that money on groceries and rent and so on, driving the overall economy. The money isn’t really “wasted.” If it weren’t for these submarine tours the money would just remain sitting in rich peoples’ wallets doing nothing.

    • Pigeon@beehaw.org
      4·
      2 years ago

      Ooooor, you know, don’t let these people die (and definitely don’t enjoy it, wtf), AND fix the medical and housing systems so a similar amount of effort goes toward making sure everyone else also doesn’t die. Letting some rich people die doesn’t make any poor people less dead.

      • ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
        5·
        2 years ago

        Letting some rich people die doesn’t make any poor people less dead.

        [x] Doubt

      • RedMarsRepublic@vlemmy.net
        2·
        2 years ago

        At least it evens the score a bit. Yes we should enjoy when rich people meet grisly fates, they’ve literally doomed the rest of us.

    • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
      4·
      2 years ago

      Regardless of one’s opinion the super rich, the thing also has crew that are just there because they’re paid to operate the thing, I doubt they make enough to buy tickets for this kind of thing themselves.

  • Dane@beehaw.org
    11·
    2 years ago

    Even if I had a stupid amount of money, there’s no way in hell I would pay someone to stuff me inside what seems to be an over-sized propane tank, then send me to depths where the water pressure is so extreme it will literally crush you.

    Just…no.

    • Kleinbonum@feddit.de
      8·
      2 years ago

      I particularly like the part where this specific submersible can’t ever be opened from the inside, because it gets bolted shut from outside.

      • PoopSnatchXtreme@lemmy.one
        2·
        2 years ago

        You wouldn’t want to open it down there, but also I don’t know why anyone would want to be down there in the first place.

        • itsYaBoyNoodles@beehaw.org
          4·
          2 years ago

          You definitely wouldn’t. But what about if you made it to the surface in an emergency? I’d probably want to open it at that point. Someone mentioned how the sub reminds them of Apollo 1 and I tend to agree. So many poor choices were made!

  • TheLoneMinon@lemm.ee
    10·
    2 years ago

    This shits going to keep happening as companies continue to rush commercialization of “Extreme” Travel.

    • ZapBeebz@beehaw.org
      18·
      2 years ago

      I am hopeful, but not necessarily optimistic…if it lost power and descended below crush depth, no amount of life support is bringing them back.

      • Pigeon@beehaw.org
        4·
        2 years ago

        Someone else in the other thread about this said they have magnetically attached ballasts that can be jettisoned so the sub floats if power is lost.

        It’s also designed to go down to the floor where the Titanic is. Was it also passing over deeper water? I’dve assumed they’d release it from a boat above the titantic fairly directly.

    • Tin@beehaw.org
      2·
      2 years ago

      This may be true, but how much time does it take to surface to avoid decompression sickness if they are found? This, of course, assumes that the surface in the same vehicle.

      • mobyduck648@beehaw.org
        10·
        2 years ago

        The inhabitants of the submarine aren’t under pressure directly like scuba divers are, they’re at atmospheric pressure while inside which is why the pressure hull needs to be so strong to resist the hundreds of PSI outside - it’s the pressure difference that crushes things in this case. If they are rescued there’ll be no requirement to decompress slowly as their bodies were never under pressure and at risk of the bends (when nitrogen bubbles form in your blood with often lethal results) to begin with.

        The inhabitants of the Kursk during that submarine disaster were subjected to high pressure in their last hours but that was because the water slowly flooding their compartment compressed the air like a piston, this isn’t a concern for this submarine as it goes far deeper than the Kursk and the slightest fracture to the hull would kill them instantly in a violent implosion.

  • SaintLunatic@midwest.social
    7·
    2 years ago

    According to the article there is a metal eating bacteria that’s eating the titanic? And it the wreckage might be gone in a few decades?

    That’s incredible

  • khalic@beehaw.org
    4·
    2 years ago

    I hope there’s some kind of black box… what would be worse than it happenning again one day because we don’t know what happenned.

    • StringTheory@beehaw.org
      4·
      2 years ago

      BBC said that this sub (Titan) was damaged last year, and this was its first dive since being “repaired.”

      I’m betting it didn’t have a black box, and we’ll never know if the “repair” was the cause.

        • StringTheory@beehaw.org
          8·
          2 years ago

          That is the worst part to me. This kid’s main interests were Rubik’s cubes and volleyball. At least all these old guys had an interest in the Titanic and knew what they were getting into.

          I feel bad for the kid.

    • ZapBeebz@beehaw.org
      4·
      2 years ago

      It’s controlled with a knockoff Xbox controller. I’ll bet the “black box” is a cassette recorder bought from Goodwill for $3 and then spray painted black

    • kingofmadcows@startrek.website
      13·
      2 years ago

      Gabe Newell, yes the owner of Valve/Steam, has an ocean research organization that owns a submarine designed to dive down to 10km, to some of the deepest parts of the ocean.

    • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
      6·
      2 years ago

      To be fair, even if no vehicle that could rescue it from the bottom is available, that doesn’t mean that there is no use in a rescue mission if they don’t know where the sub is. For instance, it could have surfaced but had it’s communications lost, in which case they’d still need rescue, because based on a CBS video of the sub in question shared elsewhere on the thread, the thing doesn’t actually have a hatch and just has the front taken off and then bolted back on afterwards to let people in and out, and obviously is going to be airtight given it’s a sub and all.