Titanic tourist sub goes missing in Atlantic Ocean, June 2023 #2

[Mo Thuairim]

Disgusted with the Daily Mail this morning and their “countdown to 12:08”. I’m quite sure 96 hours is not an exact science, y’know. Could be 90 and too late, could be 100, could be more if they’re desperately trying to reduce oxygen consumption.

(12:08 UK time is a little over 3 hours from now)

Trust them to go full Black Mirror with their tawdry coverage of this nightmare. How distressing for the families to see that.

 

[MassGuy]

2hrs 20 mins from what I heard

Yeah it’s done. It’s in our nature to hope for miracles, but there is nothing here.

 

[Twistinginthewind]

Not sure if this has already been posted (BBM):

"The Titan set off with 96 hours of air, according to the company, meaning its oxygen tanks would likely be depleted some time on Thursday morning. How long the air would actually last, experts said, depended on various factors, such as whether the submersible still had power and how calm those aboard remained."

Search intensifies for Titanic sub with only hours of oxygen left

 

[iamshadow21]

How likely is it that the noises detected underwater are coming from inside the missing Titanic tourist submersible?

Jeff Karson, Professor Emeritus of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Syracuse University, told The Daily Mail that it's similar to dropping a marble in a tin can.

"It's rattling around and that would confuse the location. The banging — I have to say, I hear the Coast Guard guys talking about this, I wonder how much of this is just wishful thinking.

...

Sound gets bent as it travels underwater, because of how pressure and temperature change at different depths, Dr Dzieciuch said.

This can create echo-like effects and make it hard to locate the source of a particular sound.

"Someone tapping, say, an SOS at the bottom of the ocean might sound like just some random banging at the surface of the ocean," he said.

 

[BeachSky]

Titanic sub: What happens next after sounds detected in search - BBC News

With oxygen supplies dwindling - under 24 hours' worth remains - the next few hours are critical.

www.bbc.com

"If there was a 30-minute interval, it's very unlikely to be anything but human related," he told the BBC.
The men on board include British businessman Hamish Harding, 58, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, his son Suleman, 19, and Stockton Rush, 61, the chief executive of OceanGate, which runs the voyages at a cost of $250,000 (£195,270) per head.
But Mr Owen says the noises "smack of advice" coming from the fifth man inside - 77-year-old Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a former French navy diver and renowned explorer.
"He would know the protocol for trying to alert searching forces… on the hour and the half-hour, you bang like hell for three minutes," Mr Owen said.
Banging on the vessel's hull every half hour is standard naval protocol around the world for stricken vessels aiming to send word of their location to rescuers, Mr Owen told LBC News.

 

[gitana1]

<modsnip: quoted post was removed>



I don't think that will work on a metal hull while trying to signal to people up top. We're trying to figure out Dot Dash Dot as played by our fists or a hammer on a metal hull.

I like the Triplets/quarter note/Triplets idea (pretty much what most of us were thinking - but now I'll be able to remember it).



It likely doesn't cost a whole heckuva lot more than a planned rescue exercise. The Coast Guard is already indicating it intends to keep searching and that what they are learning is "valuable." To me, that's code for "learning about international cooperation, logistical timelines, difficulties of deep water rescues, vagaries with international law" and so on. Nothing works to train people as much as real, hard-won, important service.



There never was a way for direct voice communication with the Titan.

It was all sonar-based transmission of pings and alphanumber coordinate messages of a predetermined length - readable by the transponder on the Titan (which presumably is no longer powered up). So there's nothing to hear.

The layers of angst and tragedy in this are many and it's hard to wrap one's mind around.

Missing Titanic Sub: What Could Have Gone Wrong?

A submersible called Titan has gone missing on a dive to the remains of of the Titanic

www.scientificamerican.com

I would love to know if every single one of these risk factors was explored in that waiver.

JMO.

Good question.

Also, why wasn’t this connected to the surface vessel by a tether?

 

[ChuckMaureen]

Hindsight is always 20/20. I also wonder why.

JMO

ETA - I'm not sure sonar works underwater.

SONAR indeed works in water... it's a liquid medium. Submarines use SONAR to detect obstacles and navigate channels. RF (radio frequency) waves do not travel any distance in water.

 

[gitana1]

Which brings us to the question that will plague we Websleuthers, possibly for days, weeks, months or years.

What if there is no proof of what happened?

Searches are called off on federal land (and state lands) all the time, once all hope is gone and experts agree there is no hope.

So I keep wondering how long this will go on. If the Titan imploded, there may be no evidence. OTOH, perhaps a remotely operated camera submersible might find one of the titanium components? If it drifted helplessly off into the Atlantic, it might never be found.

At some point, family members will surely go to court to get people declared dead. Will that mark the end of it, for us, here? I am hoping that fragments enough will be found to allow closure on what actually happened.

I also want to know if there's ever going to be an official meta-report (international) on what experts think actually happened here. I am wondering what kinds of research will now get conducted near the Titanic site, in order to figure it out.

IMO.

I hope whatever research is conduced is unmanned. I had no idea that these types of vessels were unusual (as manned vessels) and that we have been able to explore the sea bed and the wreck, etc., with unmanned submersibles. This seems like a fools errand and it makes no sense that humans would undergo such an endeavor when it’s as high risk as it is.

 

[Kemug]

I want to, but it’s ballgame in a few hours, and it’ll become a recovery mission by tomorrow.

I just hope we learn the sub imploded and that wasn’t them banging.

We may actually never learn anything.

 

[gitana1]

Some people are very secure with the notion that everyone will die at some point, so they are okay with the risk of dying while doing something that they enjoy. I have known people like this and they are usually easy going and care free personalities. I would think 3 of the 5 in the Titan would probably think like that. Especially the French oceanographer, I am sure he made peace with dying in the ocean a long time ago. I doubt the father and son thought death was really a likey scenario. I have had to sign waivers before zip lining and cave repelling, and even though it says death is possible, I assumed the places were certified by some agency, and everything was completely safe.

I agree with your assessment of the people involved: “Some people are very secure with the notion that everyone will die at some point, so they are okay with the risk of dying while doing something that they enjoy. I have known people like this and they are usually easy going and care free personalities.”

So true. One guy who took a trip on this vessel described falling asleep as the thing descended. He was that relaxed.

 

[AliceInPain]

1hr 10mins left, please happen.
My FB Titanic groups have mostly agreed the vessel imploded, these are deep divers, mechanics and the like, professionals and scientists, I'm not going there yet. Miracles do happen.
Still just thinking about the teenager in there

 

[musicaljoke]

In the U.S. I believe it's the U.S. Department of Transportaion Maritime Administration. In Canada I have no idea.....

Maritime Administration

Navigating a stronger future.

www.maritime.dot.gov

It is the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

TSB Recommendation M04-01 - Transportation Safety Board of Canada

Management of safety by operators of passenger vessels

www.tsb.gc.ca

TSB Recommendation M17-02 - Transportation Safety Board of Canada

Explicit requirements and guidance for implementation of risk management processes

www.tsb.gc.ca

 

[LunaInvidia]

It's 2:26 AM where I am and I just woke up from a nightmare about being trapped in the sub. I sincerely hope for peace for all the souls involved- whatever that ends up being.

 

[Twistinginthewind]

I was wondering if the Titan may be on the surface somewhere, instead of on the bottom of the ocean, and this portion of this article gives me some hope. For instance, what if during the hour and 45 minutes after it launched and before the communications system stopped working, they had gone down aways and recognized there was an issue that required they return to the surface, and that's when the communications failed -- when they were on their way back up to the surface? JMO

Where else could the Titan be?​

"Another possibility is that the Titan will be found on the surface due to its built-in safety system that helps the vessel rise to the surface in emergency situations. The system was designed to function even if those onboard are unconscious.
...
CBS News journalist David Pogue said the Titan's communications systems stopped working about an hour and 45 minutes after it submerged Sunday."

Prospects dire for 5 passengers on missing Titanic sub as oxygen levels run out

 

[iamshadow21]

I was wondering if the Titan may be on the surface somewhere, instead of on the bottom of the ocean, and this portion of this article gives me some hope. For instance, what if during the hour and 45 minutes after it launched and before the communications system stopped working, they had gone down aways and recognized there was an issue that required they return to the surface, and that's when the communications failed -- when they were on their way back up to the surface? JMO

Where else could the Titan be?​

"Another possibility is that the Titan will be found on the surface due to its built-in safety system that helps the vessel rise to the surface in emergency situations. The system was designed to function even if those onboard are unconscious.
...
CBS News journalist David Pogue said the Titan's communications systems stopped working about an hour and 45 minutes after it submerged Sunday."

Prospects dire for 5 passengers on missing Titanic sub as oxygen levels run out

Unless they're found, the outcome is the same. They can't open the sub from the inside.

MOO

 

[Twistinginthewind]

Unless they're found, the outcome is the same. They can't open the sub from the inside.

MOO

Good point, @iamshadow21. "The Pollyanna in me" thinks -- unless it had a leak or tear in it from a mini explosion or buckling of some sort that poked a hole in it as they were surfacing and that would provide air to breathe, if not too big a hole that it would be totally inundated with seawater. JMO

 

[ChuckMaureen]

1hr 10mins left, please happen.
My FB Titanic groups have mostly agreed the vessel imploded, these are deep divers, mechanics and the like, professionals and scientists, I'm not going there yet. Miracles do happen.
Still just thinking about the teenager in there

Such an underwater implosion could possibly be detected by any of numerous earthquake/tsunami wave detectors, although the distance from the surface and from any such detectors might preclude recognition.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Amid the desperate efforts to locate a submersible that went missing while on its way to Titanic wreckage an immersive video show how deep it could be. The 3D footage, created by Spanish animation company MetaBallStudios, gradually descends through a virtual underwater seascape filled with global landmarks to show how deep particular stretches of the ocean are - from the beach to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. According to the YouTube description of the video, the footage was created in 2021, but is making waves online in the wake of the disappearance of the Titanic submersible.

The animation begins from a coast and as it gradually progresses, multiple landmarks are depicted in the water including the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and Burj Khalifa - the world's tallest building.

As the camera further pans through the digital depths, the video shows typhoon-class submarine's test depth (400 metres) and the bottom of the Southern Ocean (3,270 metres).

Missing Titanic Sub: Animation Shows Dizzying Depths It May Have Sunk To

Rescuers are racing against time to find the missing Titanic sub, which went off radar on Sunday.

www.ndtv.com

 

[AliceInPain]

It's 2:26 AM where I am and I just woke up from a nightmare about being trapped in the sub. I sincerely hope for peace for all the souls involved- whatever that ends up being.

I had a nightmare about this too, they were stuck at the wreck, pulled a lever and water came flushing in instead of dropping the ballast. Woke up with a severe anxiety attack, feeling it had actually happened and someone I knew was there.
I just hope for the best. Just saw 15 mins left of oxygen.

 

[JDG]

Titan submersible "is designed to come back up" after 24 hours, investor says​

From CNN's Emma Tucker

The Titan submersible that went missing en route to the Titanic wreck was designed to return to the surface after 24 hours, according to Aaron Newman, an investor in OceanGate who visited the site on the vessel in 2021.
Titan is held underwater by ballast — heavy weights that helps with a vessel’s stability — built to be automatically released after 24 hours to send the sub to the surface, Newman said.

CNN