Titanic tourist sub goes missing in Atlantic Ocean, June 2023

[BetteDavisEyes]

I once visited a museum that featured a real submarine you could go inside. I felt uncomfortable being inside, even above water. And I was inside by myself, just imagining what it would be like to be in close proximity to other passengers.

Chicago? We toured a submarine at a museum in Chicago. Probably sometime in the early '80s. Fascinating, but I would not want to spend more than a few minutes cooped up in that underwater can

 

[JDG]

The claustrophobic conditions inside missing Titanic vessel

Thanks to previous reports on the Titan's deep-sea missions, we have a clear idea of what it is like for those possibly trapped in the cramped submarine that has gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[JDG]

Pictured: UK-based father and son trapped on lost Titanic submarine

Shahzada Dawood, 48, a board member of the Prince's Trust charity, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, were on board the tiny submarine when it went missing in the Atlantic Ocean.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[JDG]

Inside race against time to save Titanic sub

US and Canadian ships and planes have swarmed the area about 900 miles east of Cape Cod but are yet to find them as the search enters a third day today.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[IceIce9]

“This is the day that we have been fearing for a long, long time – when you lose a sub in really deep water,” Joe MacInnis, a member of the first expedition to locate the wreck of the Titanic in 1985, told the Guardian on Monday night. “It doesn’t look good.”

‘We’ve feared this’: veteran Titanic explorer tells of concern for missing submersible

Joe MacInnis, a member of the first expedition to locate the wreck of the Titanic, says the deep sea exploration community has been left ‘shattered’

www.theguardian.com

 

[JDG]

LIVE UPDATES:

Titanic submarine missing LIVE: Parents of Pakistani man and son speak

TITANIC LIVEBLOG: Follow MailOnline's live coverage after the Titan submersible's catastrophic implosion on its voyage to the Titanic wreckage in the Atlantic Ocean.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[JDG]

** Coast guard press conference at 1 pm EST

 

[TootsieFootsie]

The maker of the lost Titanic sub said 'innovation' was the reason the vessel wasn't checked to see if it was up to industry standards

OceanGate said the Titan submersible would've taken years to get approval and that "innovation often falls outside of the existing industry paradigm."

www.yahoo.com

The maker of the lost Titanic sub said 'innovation' was the reason the vessel wasn't checked to see if it was up to industry standards​

 

[IceIce9]

LIVE UPDATES:

Titanic submarine missing LIVE: Parents of Pakistani man and son speak

TITANIC LIVEBLOG: Follow MailOnline's live coverage after the Titan submersible's catastrophic implosion on its voyage to the Titanic wreckage in the Atlantic Ocean.

www.dailymail.co.uk

From the article:

'Worst situation is something happened to the hull and our fear is that it imploded at around 3,200 meters,' (10,000 feet) Harris said.

At those depths, the weight of the water would exert extreme pressure on the missing submersible - around 6,000 pounds on each square inch of its hull.

An implosion would mean any hope is already long gone. If any part of the submersible's carbon-fiber and titanium hull had suffered a small crack or fault, a deadly implosion would have followed after.

'When you're talking 6,000 pounds per square inch, it is a dangerous environment. More people have been to outer-space than to this depth of the ocean. When you're diving in these situations you have to cross your T and dot your Is. You have to do everything absolutely perfect and by the book.'

'Throw in a bunch of tourists in a new sub, which was just created in the last couple of years,' Harris continued. 'It's not looking good

 

[TootsieFootsie]

 

[StarryStarryNight]

The maker of the lost Titanic sub said 'innovation' was the reason the vessel wasn't checked to see if it was up to industry standards

OceanGate said the Titan submersible would've taken years to get approval and that "innovation often falls outside of the existing industry paradigm."

www.yahoo.com

The maker of the lost Titanic sub said 'innovation' was the reason the vessel wasn't checked to see if it was up to industry standards​

Sounds like an excuse to justify bypassing basic standards.
”We are smarter than everyone else so…”

 

[ifindedout]

Anyone remember the Glomar Explorer? IIRC it was built for the purpose of retrieving a Soviet sub from the ocean floor? It was funded by the Hughes corporation and that is all I remember, I was a kid at the time it was built.

Yes, I too remembered it as a kid. It's gone now.

Glomar Explorer - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Oh, I really hate this. I panic driving through tunnels - I hate the idea of anything being above me like that and being trapped. I have my own personal thoughts on the ethics of companies offering trips to the Titanic wreck (it's a hard no from me), but I really was hoping for a positive outcome to this. I'm not so optimistic anymore. I just hope they weren't scared and didn't suffer if it does take the inevitable turn that I think it will. I continue to hope I am wrong.

Ditto x2 on the hard no. Gotta count in imstilla.grandpa too. When I went out there to his garage yesterday and told him about this. He said well, I can’t tell y’all what he said. After 48 years, I’ve learned just to walk away and not get him started. He can stay out there and talk to the walls about how we had no business down there in the first place. Again, again and again…

 

[ifindedout]

BREAKING​

Expert says pipe-laying ship on scene​

BBC News has been speaking to marine scientist and expedition leader David Mearns, who has been keeping a close eye on developments off Newfoundland.

Mearns has explored and photographed the wreck of the battlecruiser HMS Hood, sunk by the German battleship Bismarck in the Battle of the Denmark Strait in May 1941 (and of course the handle of one of our members).

 

[CoverMeCagney]

The maker of the lost Titanic sub said 'innovation' was the reason the vessel wasn't checked to see if it was up to industry standards

OceanGate said the Titan submersible would've taken years to get approval and that "innovation often falls outside of the existing industry paradigm."

www.yahoo.com

The maker of the lost Titanic sub said 'innovation' was the reason the vessel wasn't checked to see if it was up to industry standards​

I’m starting to feel a bit angry, actually. I know they were apparently undertaking scientific research as well as fulfilling dreams to see the Titanic, but this just increasingly screams of more money than sense.

 

[Herat]

I’m starting to feel a bit angry, actually. I know they were anpparently undertaking scientific research as well as fulfilling dreams to see the Titanic, but this just increasingly screams more money than sense.

Yes. A sense that immense wealth can buy you immense safety even when taking huge risks.

 

[JDG]

OceanGate took EIGHT HOURS to report missing submersible

The company's Titan sub submerged at 8am on Sunday morning around 400 miles southeast of St John's, Newfoundland. At 9.45am - an hour and 45 minutes into the dive - it lost contact.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[JerseyGirl]

OceanGate took EIGHT HOURS to report missing submersible

The company's Titan sub submerged at 8am on Sunday morning around 400 miles southeast of St John's, Newfoundland. At 9.45am - an hour and 45 minutes into the dive - it lost contact.

www.dailymail.co.uk

OceanGate Expeditions, the tourist company responsible for the missing submersible with five people on board, took eight hours to report it to the Coast Guard on Sunday, DailyMail.com can reveal.

The company's Titan sub submerged at 8am on Sunday morning around 400 miles southeast of St John's, Newfoundland. At 9.45am - an hour and 45 minutes into the dive - it lost contact with its mothership, the Polar Prince.

But it wasn't reported as missing to the US Coast Guard until 5.40pm, eight hours later. Canada's Coast Guard wasn't alerted until even later - 9.13pm on Sunday night.

 

[JDG]

I’m starting to feel a bit angry, actually. I know they were anpparently undertaking scientific research as well as fulfilling dreams to see the Titanic, but this just increasingly screams more money than sense.

I’m so glad you said that. Well put.

 

[Telltale]

Haven't seen this posted, apologies if I've missed it. There is an interview with the CEO when they were building it 6 years back.

CEO: "I think when we're done testing it, it'll be pretty much invulnerable"

Reporter: "You know that's pretty much what they said about the Titanic"

CEO: "That's right... haha... And I'll go on all the first dives, put my money where my mouth is."


... Yeah I'm not one for superstitions but good grief.

***

Then there is also this article from 2022 written by a reporter who went down in the sub, it's not... reassuring reading. Some quotes:

If all went well, I would be spending about 12 hours sealed inside on a dive to the Titanic. Not gonna lie; I was a little nervous, especially given the paperwork, which read, "This experimental vessel has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, emotional trauma, or death." Where do I sign?

This is not your grandfather's submersible; inside, the sub has about as much room as a minivan. It has one button. "That's it," said Rush. "It should be like an elevator, you know? It shouldn't take a lot of skill."

-

And yet, I couldn't help noticing how many pieces of this sub seemed improvised, with off-the-shelf components. Piloting the craft is run with a video game controller. Pogue said, "It seems like this submersible has some elements of MacGyver jerry-riggedness. I mean, you're putting construction pipes as ballast."

-

Our dive in the OceanGate submersible had made it down only 37 feet when floats came off the platform. And that wasn't supposed to happen. The mission was scrubbed.

-

There's no GPS underwater, so the surface ship is supposed to guide the sub to the shipwreck by sending text messages. Rush recalled, "I said, 'Do you know where we are?' '100 meters to the bow, then 470 to the bow. If you are lost, so are we!"

The submersible is guided to the shipwreck by way of text messaging directions. But on this dive, communications somehow broke down. The sub never found the wreck. "We were lost," said Shrenik Baldota. "We were lost for two-and-a-half hours.