Thread: Submarine on trip to explore Titanic wreck goes missing

Interesting video Tax.

Cheers for the info Mendy!
Looks pretty hopeless.
Searching an area the directory of Wales ffs.

Originally Posted by Edmond

More whining from Queen America

^ AO isn't whining but simply stating facts. Something you struggle with, that and lying.

Skiddy knows shit. Mendy would be a resource I would consider credible on all accounts.

Originally Posted by Joe 90

Cheers for the info Mendy!
Looks pretty hopeless.
Searching an area the directory of Wales ffs.

Yeah, they won't find the submersible in a directory of Wales.

ffs.

Originally Posted by david44

Good luck to the crew being surrounded by folks banging on will be a helluva tale if they are rescued alive otherwise we will discover how much the millionaires widows will shell out for a search and recovery

The reports about banging being heard makes it worse. As Mendy explained there's not much we can do to actually find and rescue them and with less than 40 hours to go.

Knowing that they were alive makes it more grim, it was easier thinking that perhaps there was a catastrophic failure and the folks didn't even know what hit them. 3 days locked in a sub at the bottom of the ocean knowing you cannot get rescued is a pretty harrowing way to go.

^ Yeah, I think so. Their only chance is to be found on the surface by the air search. If someone is banging on the side of the sub sitting on the seabed they have no chance.

First you would have to locate them, then somehow get them back to the surface.

I still can't understand why there is no transponder on the sub to enable it to be tracked (and positioned) by the support vessel. I think an awful lot of questions will be asked once this is over.

As standard kit, lifeboats have EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) that transmits a signal to enable discovery by search craft. Surely a surfaced sub would be equipped with this?

The whole thing seems so amateurish and negligent. Maybe they could have made one out of LEGO?

you would think that they could have fitted some kind of a "find my phone" device that, in the case of an underwater emergency, would be released to float up to the surface where it would ping its location.


these wealthy derring-do merchants remind me of the british victorian explorers who would embark on lengthy expeditions to uncharted regions of "the dark continent" in search of the voracious man eating pygmy women of bongobongoland armed only with a letter from queen victoria, a crucifix and a paper clip.

^ Yeah, there's that so at least support on the surface would be alerted to a problem, plus another beacon that stays attached to the sub which starts emitting a distress signal when the sub surfaces.

But also a transponder on the sub so that the support vessel can locate the underwater sub by means of acoustic positioning. Of course an acoustic positioning system costs a bit of money but it's standard stuff to position an ROV and I would have thought it would be mandatory where a manned sub was concerned.

Why would anyone board 'dodgy' Titanic sub, asks Navy admiral.


Chris Parry questions why people would use Titan after signing away right to sue company behind its technology

By
Catherine Lough
21 June 2023 • 9:09am

A retired rear admiral has questioned why anyone would get into a “dodgy piece of technology” like the Titan, as search for the missing submersible continues.

A deep-sea rescue mission is under way for five people on board the missing craft, which had submerged to explore the wreckage of the Titanic.

The submersible went missing on Sunday morning, less than two hours into the expedition to the wreck, which lies more than two miles below the surface of the North Atlantic.

During an interview with LBC, former rear admiral Chris Parry questioned the logic behind the decision to enter the submersible before the expedition.

He said: “Why on earth you would go in a dodgy piece of technology where you actually have to sign away any right to sue the company for emotional damage, injury and death is beyond me.

“It is fundamentally dangerous, there was no back-up plan, it’s experimental and I’m afraid to say there’s an element of hubris if you want to go down and do that.”


He said: “I’m afraid the odds are vanishingly small.



“Obviously, we want to remain hopeful and optimistic but there are two problems here - one is actually finding the thing and secondly is how on earth are you going to get it off the seabed. It’s never been done before and I don’t think anybody’s got any ideas about how to do it at the moment.”

On Wednesday morning, the rescue operation focused on a new area after “underwater noises” were picked up by a Canadian P-3 aircraft, yet so far remote operated vehicles investigating the noises have yielded negative results.

Friends of those on board the Titan have said they are not giving up hope.

‘There’s always hope’
The underwater noises have given friends and family of those missing some cause for optimism.

Chris Brown, an explorer and friend of Mr Harding, said he would expect his missing friend to make “banging sounds” to attract attention.

He told BBC Breakfast: “That is just the sort of thing I would have expected Hamish to come up with.”

He added: “There’s always hope. As an explorer, you never give up anyway.”

Mr Brown, 61, told The Sun that he had previously signed up to go on the submersible himself but pulled out after he questioned whether the company running the expedition was “cutting too many corners”.



The businessman had paid a deposit to join the dive at the same time as his friend, Mr Harding, but became concerned by the quality of the technology and materials used by OceanGate Expeditions. The pilot uses a modified Logitech gaming controller with twin thumbsticks and colourful buttons, allowing the operator to move the sub.

Mr Brown added: “I found out they used old scaffolding poles for the sub’s ballast — and its controls were based on computer game-style controllers.

“If you’re trying to build your own submarine you could probably use old scaffold poles. But this was a commercial craft.

“Eventually I emailed them and said, ‘I’m no longer able to go on this thing’. I asked for a refund after being less than convinced.”


Daily Telegraph

Originally Posted by malmomike77

But despite receiving apparent clearance from the Ministry of Defence to leave UK airspace, the American government has allegedly yet to authorise the team’s request to join rescuers 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland.

Shades of Kursk here?

Clearly lives were entrusted to people who were nowhere near deserving of that trust.

A sad situation.

^^ I was working with Stolt Comex Seaway at the time of the Kursk disaster, although I wasn't in any way involved myself.

The 'Seaway Eagle', a dive vessel operated bt Stolt Comex Seaway, was sent up to the Kursk location. The Eagle, incidentally also has an ROV system for back-up.

Quite a few years later the Eagle was renamed as the 'Seven Eagle' due to various takeovers/mergers and there's a few pictures here.

Random offshore pics

Not really on topic but also a few pics from onboard the Eagle when I did a job back in 2015 ish.

Random offshore pics

And the dive system... I wouldn't go down in a diving bell for love nor money and to think these guys paid $200,000 to go down to see the Titanic.

Random offshore pics

It's kind of ironic that a vessel carrying ultra-rich passengers to view the wreck of a so-called unsinkable vessel that was carrying ultra-rich passengers also goes missing.

21 1/2 hours and counting.

Oxygen supplies run out at 10am GMT tomorrow ..

^ all depends on whether they just lost comms and aborted trip for surface, which is what I would expect or if something more serious failed.
Picking up banging from hydrophones in the surface layer would be a good sign. Still going to be difficult to find them though.

If they are still submerged at depth ... no chance

Originally Posted by Joe 90

21 1/2 hours and counting.

Oxygen supplies run out at 10am GMT tomorrow ..

21 hours for 5 people. 100 plus hours for one. May the odds ever be in your favour.....

Originally Posted by david44

If the vehicle is intact will it be CO or lack of oxygen that will end it for the intrepid crew?

I'm pretty sure that it's the build up of CO2 that will end it. These subs will have CO2 scrubbers but if it lost all power...

Originally Posted by mikenot

It's kind of ironic that a vessel carrying ultra-rich passengers to view the wreck of a so-called unsinkable vessel that was carrying ultra-rich passengers also goes missing.

Actually Mike, one reason the Titanic story has endured was because she carried the full range of passengers, from the ultra rich to steerage who were basically economic refugees.

... and that wasn't me talking... I've been listening to BBC radio all day and that was a tidbit I picked up from one of the various expert contributors!

I think it is ironic that the Titanic is still claiming the lives of these ultra rich 'explorer' ghouls 113 years after she sank.

If 'ironic' is the right word... Cyrille?

maybe I'm missing something here - a mother ship took the submersible out to its launch/ drop point?
Wouldn't it then be somewhere (relatively) nearby?

Originally Posted by Joe 90

21 1/2 hours and counting.

Oxygen supplies run out at 10am GMT tomorrow ..

A very inexact science according to the scientist on tv news,, spoke of maximum 'up to' and it being dependent upon the state of the people inside - calm?

Originally Posted by nidhogg

21 hours for 5 people. 100 plus hours for one. May the odds ever be in your favour.....

In the old days, stranded sailors on a lifeboat would draw lots to see who would be eaten. Better for some to survive than none at all, and all that. There was a famous murder case where maritime law came up against 'proper' law, maybe in the 1800s... I will have to look into it.

Who knows... what would you do?

Originally Posted by Ukan Kizmiaz

maybe I'm missing something here - a mother ship took the submersible out to its launch/ drop point?
Wouldn't it then be somewhere (relatively) nearby?

Exactly... that is the big thing about this tragedy. Where is the support ship and what support is it actually providing?

Originally Posted by Mendip

I think it is ironic that the Titanic is still claiming the lives of these ultra rich 'explorer' ghouls 113 years after she sank.

That is if it really is the 'Titanic' and not her sister ship the 'Olympic'?

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

That is if it really is the 'Titanic' and not her sister ship the 'Olympic'?

No stone left unturned"pardon the pun mendy" by the sleuths of TDCSI today..

I believe the Olympic was scrapped, the Britannic however...

Britannic, in full His Majesty’s Hospital Ship Britannic or abbreviated HMHS Britannic, British ocean liner that was a sister ship of the Olympic and the Titanic. Having never operated as a commercial vessel, it was refitted as a hospital ship during World War I and sank in 1916, reportedly after striking a mine.