Posted on 06/21/2023 8:43:31 AM PDT by Red Badger
As time runs out for the passengers on the Titan submersible that went looking deep into the sea for wreckage of the Titanic, a last-ditch effort involving heavy machinery and submarines arrived in Newfoundland on Tuesday night.
Three C-17 aircraft from the U.S. Air Force reportedly landed at a cargo terminal in St. John’s, Newfoundland, carrying unmanned vehicles capable of going 19,000 feet underwater as well as two heavy-duty Hyundai winches emblazoned “6000 kg line pull,” a huge roll of cable, and two large machines that said “high voltage” on their sides, The Daily Mail reported. A forklift truck loaded the equipment onto six flatbed trucks.
The equipment was taken to a port where a ship dubbed the Horizon Arctic was scheduled to leave at midnight, although the journey to the area where Titan is submerged would take 15 hours. The Titan may be as deep as 12,000 feet below the surface and weighs 10,432 kg, so both winches would be necessary to pull it out.
Late Tuesday night, “banging sounds” were reported coming in 30-minute intervals near where the Titan went missing with its passengers: billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, and Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19.
“RCC Halifax launched a P8, Poseidon, which has underwater detection capabilities from the air,” the Department of Homeland Security said in an e-mail. “The P8 deployed sonobuoys, which reported a contact in a position close to the distress position. The P8 heard banging sounds in the area every 30 minutes. Four hours later additional sonar was deployed and banging was still heard.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Capt. Jamie Frederick with the Coast Guard’s 1st District estimated that the passengers aboard the Titan had limited oxygen left. “We know there’s about 40 hours of breathable air left based on that initial report,” he said.
Acknowledging that the search area was “larger than the state of Connecticut,” he added that his estimate of the remaining oxygen was based on OceanGate Expeditions saying that the Titan had a 96-hour life support system, meaning the oxygen would run out at roughly 5 a.m. ET on Thursday.
Another concern regarding the passengers comes from the fact that a 2022 report by CBS correspondent David Pogue said the Titan’s hatch is sealed by an external crew with 17 bolts, so they cannot open the hatch from the inside.
That video was informative.
I think I have a handle on what has happened.
The CEO of the outfit that produced the sub said he did not want 50 year old white guys on his team.
Another object lesson has been created.
Hire only the best for critical tech positions, pay zero
attention to anything but ability... NOTHING BUT ABILITY MATTERS WHERE SAFETY IS CONCERNED.
“a fools errand, they are dead”
An expensive stunt. I was thinking back a hundred years ago maybe more stuff like this was kind of common... some hairbrained plan ill conceived, and destined to failure.
“I do not want 50 year old white guys”
Should have focused more on what he did want...people who could build a sub.
Hell, every weld on a Navy ship being constructed gets x-rayed. At least, they used to.
I don’t know this source, but interesting, if true
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Yes, it’s true. He says it in video linked in Post#2.
Thanks for that video!
The parts to build and repair a USN submarine have to meet strict quality control. Level1 and sub safe standards. Not Camper World and Toys R Us. Rickover and the USS Thresher saw to that. As far as I know our boats are still following these standards.
Wonder how many 50-yo white guys are now trying to save their asses. Bet he doesn’t have a problem with THAT.
Thank you for this
I disagree. The effort should be made. They found ALL of those kids alive in that cave in Thailand a few years ago when nobody gave them much of a chance.
Also, most of the rugby team from Paraguay was found alive in the Andes months after they went missing after two of them walked out.
The hatch is only useful when at or within a couple of hundred feet of the surface. The act of opening the hatch at the depths of most of the trip could cut one or more of the passengers in half just before it crushed them. Why would you want the hatch openable from inside?
Is it bad that I hate how much we are spending on this effort?
To understand the situation I need to know whether 50 year old white men are organizing the rescue.
If only a message could be passed to the CEO that a crew of non white non binaries are coming to rescue him, that would give him hope.
At least they should bill the billionaires estate after this fruitless search is over. If by some miracle, they do rescue them, he should also pay a hefty amount of the costs of the effort.
High risk stupidity should not be subsidized in this manner. This isn’t like miners or some people lost in the wilderness.
No safety recovery features? Something as simple as a buoy shot to the surface....like a flare.
If the vessel operated as designed wouldn’t the vessel have surfaced?
All that equipment is useless unless they actually find the damn thing.
Nada...................
Even then it will be a ‘recovery’ effort...................
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