Titan submarine

[PaulB]

I've been reading and gripped just like everyone else in regards to the lost submarine. It's harrowing to read about what those 5 poor souls were thinking during the entire trip and what was going through their minds, hoping and praying for a miracle. As of us, we were all hoping that some sort of a miracle could be performed, unfortunately it doesn't seem there will be a happy ending after all. My thoughts go out to the 5 and their families. God bless you all.

[3Sisters]

My mom was just telling me about this earlier today! I'm so saddened by this horrid tragedy. As of late it seems the U.S. Coast Guard and other rescue personnel on the job are going on standby as no new news has come about. The debris field shows signs of a catastrophic implosion. What was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, ended up being such an awful endeavor. My heart goes out to everyone who is suffering through this.

[Kendall James-Vargas]

This was such an eerie read after hearing news of the lost Titanic submarine. https://www.cruisehive.com/how-cold-was-the-water-when-the-titanic-sank/87765

I send my condolences to everyone battling with this unforeseen tragedy. This fluke incident seems to be ending in the most awful possible way.

[FJB]

Risk-takers improve our lives. 

[kefthecruiser]

Untimely, accidental death is always such a sad situation. Hopefully those involved with submersible craft will find the cause and correct the design. Also hoping the failure was caused by a previously unknown / misunderstood factor and not by someone intentionally ignoring procedures (as alluded to by the press). Reminds me of the Challenger disaster.

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@kefthecruiser I have read many alternative perspectives about this horrifying incident. I have also seen videos of the whole submarine design, and it certainly wasn't very appealing. I'm surprised the guests onboard were willing to spend that much money on such an experience that ended in total disaster. It's quite bizarre to me that the whole thing is driven by what looks like a game controller. 

[kefthecruiser]

@Kendall James-Vargas I so agree with you. As an engineer, I try not to rush to judgment. However, this whole thing just screams EXPERIMENTAL and to charge tourists to ride along is just wrong. (It screams other things as well, but not for publishing.) That's enough. Rant over.

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@kefthecruiser I'm so glad you agree with me. It seemed so novice in design. I'm pretty sure this could have been a better thought-out submarine. Even the bathroom onboard was almost hilarious. All it could take is one bad maneuver for that thing to go wrong. I'm assuming this was all purely accidental, but many of the conspiracy theories of course say otherwise. 

[PaulB]

Just read in the papers, that unfortunately they have confirmed that they have come across human remains inside the imploded sub. I keep thinking of what was going through their minds all that way down. That company have a lot of questions to answer.

[Kendall James-Vargas]

Thanks for this update! At least there is concrete evidence now, but what an awful occurrence. I just wonder how this all came about. The co-founder of OceanGate was onboard the submersible and apparently had ventured down there quite a few times prior to this disaster. I agree that there are so many questions the company will have to respond to. What a shame. 

Edited June 29, 2023 by Kendall James-Vargas

[kefthecruiser]

@PaulB I'd say a silver lining to those on board is that they likely never had time to realize the hull was fracturing. In the movies, we get this vision of a singular crack slowly moving across a panel and then some leakage. Reality is that a catastrophic implosion is virtually instantaneous, with the entire carbon fiber hull failing together. Think like a bomb explosion. I'll note that at the ocean depth of the Titanic, the water pressure is 6,000 psi (said another way - 6,000 lbs, or 3 tons, pushing down on every square inch of surface). For comparison, the air we breathe is around 14.7 psi. Your home water pressure is around 50 psi. Not to be graphic, once the hull breeches, the bodies were instantly crushed by the same pressure. It's an unforgiving environment for us humans.

@Kendall James-Vargas I'm confident forensic engineers will be able to determine what went wrong. I won't be surprised if they find that the carbon fiber was a poor material choice, that the fabrication was flawed, it took multiple drives for the hull to weaken (low cycle fatigue for you engineers), and that for this dive, the dive rate was too high. JMHO

All right, enough. On a positive note - mainstream cruise ships are safe. Let's cruise

[PaulB]

@kefthecruiser that's interesting stats. I wouldn't have known that. And yes I agree that the pressure was far too much for the sub to withstand. @Kendall James-Vargas what I've read and certainly what keftthecruiser is talking about too, is even though the submarine made the dive several times, if there was a flaw or even an imperfections in any of the material, each dive would affect it on every occasion, and unfortunately on this instance, it finally gave in