Posted on 06/21/2023 6:41:03 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A submersible carrying tourists to look at the remains of the Titanic went missing on Sunday, and the odds of anyone onboard surviving grow lower by the day. It’s also been reported that the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the company behind the excursion, is onboard. And the more information that comes out, the less surprising it is that we’ve ended up in this situation.
Metro reports that last year, when asked about the safety of the Titan submersible, Stockton Rush, OceanGate’s CEO, said, “You know, there’s a limit. At some point safety just is pure waste. I mean if you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed. Don’t get in your car. Don’t do anything. At some point, you’re going to take some risk, and it really is a risk/reward question. I think I can do this just as safely by breaking the rules.”
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According to the report, OceanGate fired David Lochridge when he questioned how safe the Titan was and later sued him after he filed a whistleblower complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, claiming he violated the terms of his contract. Lochridge then countersued, claiming he was wrongfully terminated. In the suit, he said he pushed back against launching the Titan without doing “non-destructive testing to prove its integrity.”
“The paying passengers would not be aware, and would not be informed, of this experimental design, the lack of non-destructive testing of the hull, or that hazardous flammable materials were being used within the submersible,” Lochridge said in his suit.
From the CBS story:
The Titan relied on carbon fiber for a hull that would carry passengers as deep as 4,000 meters, a depth that Lochridge claimed in the court filing had never been reached in a carbon fiber-constructed sub. According to his claim, he learned the vessel was built to withstand a certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate planned to take passengers to 4,000 meters. Titan relied on carbon fiber for a hull that would carry passengers as deep as 4,000 meters, a depth that Lochridge claimed in the court filing had never been reached in a carbon fiber-constructed sub. According to his claim, he learned the vessel was built to withstand a certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate planned to take passengers to 4,000 meters.
He also said that even though the Titan was made out of carbon fiber, no carbon fiber sub had ever gone that deep before.
If these claims are true, they paint a pretty clear picture of a CEO who didn’t care about safety and was happy to risk other people’s lives to make a little money.
“It does have a toilet.”
See the next to last paragraph.
I’m sure I saw a video yesterday of Rush showing the sub, including a toilet. It wasn’t exactly a bathroom, but there was a toilet. Maybe it was added after this German took his trip?
You both seem to know a lot about this sort of engineering. What fields are you in if you don’t mind me asking?
Late to their thread and just an old construction manager but (perhaps an engineer with materials expertise might chime in) I want to discuss carbon fiber. It is a real buzz word material but in my experience I saw it used or applied in instance where additional tensile strength or extreme light weight were needed. Compressive strength never seemed to me to be the strong suit for this material let alone any feature of it use in a woven manner.
Video of this hull being made shows carbon fiber ribbons being wrapped in one direction, much like thread onto a bobbin. Great for quick garden hose repair but seemingly nonsensical in this application.
Any opinions?
“Maybe it was added after this German took his trip?”
With only 2.5 meters of space there’s not a lot of room for even a small porta potty. Maybe a bucket.
Here it is - you only get a quick look at it. Yes, it is very small, but I imagine it could be a little composting head.
Given all the precautions they didn’t take, I guess they thought it was adequate for the numbers of people and periods of time they would be out there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClkytJa0ghc&t=54s
“Here it is - you only get a quick look at it. Yes, it is very small, but I imagine it could be a little composting head.”
Toilet confirmed. In any case they’re all chum now.
The debris they’ve found may indicate it was catastrophic and fast. I hope so.
It is the first result using google or yt search.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9bMgCQyFNaMPsK9GtzM5dQ
Actually I watched this carbon fiber being made (woven)and applied - It was just 5 inches thick on the Titan. It was indeed experimental on the Titan for the pressures that would be experienced at the depths the Titan would go. No other sub is made of this carbon fiber.
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