Posted on 06/20/2023 6:40:43 AM PDT by Red Badger
The desperate search for a missing submersible that vanished during a mission to explore the wreck of the Titanic continued on Tuesday as more information about those onboard came to light.
The submersible, which is part of an OceanGate Expeditions tour that offers passengers a once-in-a-lifetime experience to explore the Titanic wreckage, went missing on Sunday after losing contact with the research vessel Polar Prince.
British billionaire and owner of Action Aviation Hamish Harding was among the five people onboard the vessel, along with prominent Pakistani businessman, Shahzada Dawood, and his son, Suleman. The other two people onboard have yet to be identified.
Submersible was operated with a video game controller - Marlene Lenthang
Titan, the missing tourist submersible was operated by a video game controller and had parts that were described as “off-the-shelf components.”
During a tour of the vessel in a CBS News segment aired in November, OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush pointed out some of these unexpected features including a light fixture from CamperWorld and a makeshift toilet with a plastic bottle.
He brought out a Logitech game controller saying, “we run the whole thing with this.” It was not immediately clear whether the submersible was operated with such a controller during the latest mission.
OceanGate’s website describes the five-person submersible as a combination of “ground-breaking engineering and off-the-shelf technology,” the latter of which “helped to streamline the construction, and makes it simple to operate and replace parts in the field.”
Thoughts of crew and their families driving search efforts - Marlene Lenthang
In the desperate search for the missing vessel touring the shipwreck of the Titanic deep in the Atlantic, crews are thinking of the lives of the five people on board first and foremost.
“The thoughts of the crew members and their families really drive our crews forward and all of the partners that have been working this complex case to make sure we can continue to find them,” Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said Tuesday morning on NBC's "TODAY" show.
Factors such as oxygen levels, intense water pressure, and the remoteness of the area make the search difficult.
The ship went down Sunday with four days worth of oxygen. The wreckage of the Titanic is also at a depth of 13,000 feet — too deep for typical U.S. Navy subs, which typically go down to 2,000 or 3,000 feet, to descend to.
Canadian aircraft dropped a sonar buoy into the ocean listening for tapping or talking in an effort to pinpoint the submersible.
1h ago / 7:37 AM CDT OceanGate Expeditions leading underwater search - Marlene Lenthang
OceanGate Expeditions is leading the underwater search for the missing Titanic tourist submersible because the deep-water exploration company “know[s] that site better than anybody else,” Rear Adm. John Mauger with the Coast Guard said on NBC's “TODAY” show Tuesday morning.
As the search for the 21-foot submersible entered the third day, Mauger said search crews have an “understanding” of where the submersible was operating and searches are being prioritized in those areas.
The wreckage of the Titanic sits 900 nautical miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Searches are underway with equipment the Coast Guard has brought to the area. The agency's current focus is on getting more assets and technical experts to the scene as fast as possible.
2h ago / 6:58 AM CDT What did the Titanic expedition set out to achieve? - Chantal Da Silva
The submersible that disappeared Sunday was on only its third trip since OceanGate Expeditions began offering them in 2021.
On its website, the company said the expeditions are intended to "further document the Titanic and its rate of decay."
"Given the massive scale of the wreck and the debris field, multiple missions performed over several years will be required to fully document and model the wreck site," it says. "This longitudinal survey to collect images, videos, laser, and sonar data will allow objective assessment of the rate of decay and documentation of the process."
"Qualified explorers have the opportunity to join the expedition as Mission Specialist crewmembers whose Training and Mission Support Fees underwrite the mission, the participation of the science team, and their own training," the company states.
Looks like a click-bait headline.
There is zero reference to any US interference in the article.
The XBOX controller for the mast is for convenience. They have a milspec certified way other than the controller to operate the mast.
You do not mess around with submersibles, nothing wrong with convenience but it is insane to make such a device the primary means of operation and reliability.
Do they have an accurate current location? If not, that's the 1st problem they need to solve. Everything else is secondary.
They have no information on the location. Honestly the moment they lost comms and could not restore them I find it extremely unlikely someone in charge did not already know this submersible was a lost cause.
Given in a power loss it is supposed to automatically surface I would assume it has a means to broadcast its surfaced location in such an emergency.
That leaves only the likely result of it continuing to sink after the loss of comms.
One would think that a submersible like this would have layers of safety devices. ongoing pinging location devices etc. Finding this should never be an issue. Even in the event of a catastrophic failure, an outside pinging device should be working even if separated from the ship by explosion etc.
Approximately 5400 lbs p/sq in.
Watch the video. I wouldn't assume they had any sort of backup systems/redundancy, contingency plans, or anything else. The whole operation and the submersible are almost comically inadequate in every way.
>How many PSI at 13,000 ft below sea level?
Roughly 5791psi
Just about everything that is advertised to us is about getting thrills. YOLO, go for the gusto, and if you only have one life, live it as a blonde. So many die just seeking a simple thrill....
Ya, I have that sense as well, my statement was more of what should be the case and can be the case engineering wise, not what actually is.
Again as it is supposed to surface automatically on a power loss such a surface can literally result in the boat being many miles away, not having a finder on it is negligence if that is the case.
As we are seeing though, there appears to be a lot of opportunity for negligence in this craft.
Here’s my work :)
13000ft / 33ft/1ATM * 14.7psi/1ATM = 5790.90909090909
Right. The video on YouTube, where an NBC reporter went on a dive, shows what a slipshod device and operation it is. It is unbelievable to me that anyone would willingly get into that thing and dive to 13,000 feet, AND pay $250k for the privilege. This is especially stupefying when unmanned submersibles can capture high resolution pictures and videos, without risking anyone's lives.
Sea surface conditions: relatively calm vs rough seas makes finding such a small craft before the oxygen expires difficult to almost impossible, if there is no functioning locating device.
What a great view!
“...it has emerged”??
“to rise from or as if from an enveloping fluid : come out into view. a diver emerging from the water.”
They should choose better words.
I couldn’t do it..
I can think of a lot better ways to spend 250 large while I look at photos of Titanic in National Geographic.
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