Titanic tourist sub missing

[Johnny Vodka]

File under Stupid things people do when they have too much money.

 

[NoXion]

Yellow is most common for non-military subs, as it is the most visible at depth. The twat who ran this company didn't use it because he hates the song. Hopefully he is saved so he can spend the rest of his life in jail.

That's an incredibly idiotic reason for avoiding that colour.

 

[xenon]

There was a great website I used to read at work years ago called dangerous places. About going on holiday to Angola and stuff like that. So yeah, nothing you.

 

[pseudonarcissus]

Btw, should anyone want a read, this is the best article I’ve ever read about the Estonia.

A Sea Story

One of the worst maritime disasters in European history took place a decade ago. It remains very much in the public eye. On a stormy night on the Baltic Sea, more than 850 people lost their lives when a luxurious ferry sank below the waves. From a mass of material, including official and...

www.theatlantic.com

You can do the archive thing with the link, I can’t be arsed.

And you’ll never get on a ferry again.

I can count on one hand the number I’ve been on, and never go below deck. It’s the reason I once spent the whole night wide awake and with a clear sight line to the exit on a ferry between Aberdeen and Lerwick, despite having had a cabin booked by my employer, and knowing I had a full day of work ahead of me starting as soon as I arrived. And on the way back, I paid out of my own pocket to fly instead. Shetland is not a couple of hours hop by sea, so I couldn’t face the return to the mainland by ferry, only to have another journey to London by road straight afterwards.

it was a horrible accident, but a lot of people survived. That does not often happen with plane crashes. The biggest determinant for survival with the Estonia was the amount you had drunk.

 

[Tanya1982]

it was a horrible accident, but a lot of people survived. That does not often happen with plane crashes. The biggest determinant for survival with the Estonia was the amount you had drunk.

Planes don’t frighten me. The sea terrifies me. The biggest determinant on Estonia actually seems to have been gender - relatively few women survived due to not having the upper body strength to do things like pull themselves up staircases that were inverted. On the other hand, a lot of men who’d had a drink or two did survive, purely because they could physically get out even after it was on its side.

 

[Ax^]

I've been pondering casting choice for the inevitable movie adaptation of this sea disaster and coming up blank

even more confused about the composite character you have to show in for Mark wahlberg to lead the thing

 

[urbanspaceman]

I signed up to go on missing Titanic sub but pulled out because of safety fears

A BRIT who signed up for a dive in the missing Titanic sub pulled out — questioning if the firm running it was “cutting too many corners”. Thrill-seeker Chris Brown, 61, paid a deposit for the miss…

www.thesun.co.uk

Much of my interest in this sad story is from a Human Factors perspective about how people make (often remarkably poor) decisions about risky undertakings. Chris Brown, in the Sun story above, agreed with Hamish Harding (who is on the sub) to take this trip, when they were hanging out with Richard on Necker. But later he had an attack of common sense and pulled out. They all had the same access to same information, but he was able to process subsequent information and make the rational decision, in spite of the risk of losing face, appearing to be indecisive/coward, and FOMO. I wonder what makes his thought processes different.

The NewYork Times (paywall) has an interesting story, including an excoriating letter from the trade association (see attachment)

And the BBC has a 45 min 2022 video on Titan, which has some alarming moments; eg said by the CEO/Captain at 12,000 feet: "Oh, that's not meant to happen"

The Travel Show - Take Me To Titanic

A ground-breaking expedition to explore the world's most famous shipwreck.

www.bbc.co.uk

The New Republic has alarming technical details

"At the meeting Lochridge discovered why he had been denied access to the viewport information from the Engineering department—the viewport at the forward of the submersible was only built to a certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate intended to take passengers down to depths of 4,000 meters. Lochridge learned that the viewport manufacturer would only certify to a depth of 1,300 meters due to experimental design of the viewport supplied by OceanGate, which was out of the Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy (“PVHO”) standards. OceanGate refused to pay for the manufacturer to build a viewport that would meet the required depth of 4,000 meters."

Missing Titanic Sub Once Faced Massive Lawsuit Over Depths It Could Safely Travel To

Court documents reveal a former OceanGate employee had several safety complaints over the tourist submersible—and then he was fired.

newrepublic.com

 

[DotCommunist]

I've been pondering casting choice for the inevitable movie adaptation of this sea disaster and coming up blank

even more confused about the composite character you have to show in for Mark wahlberg to lead the thing

needs Tom Hanks in it somewhere

 

[Mr.Bishie]

And a link to the Scum for the cherry on top!

 

[andysays]

I did actually wonder about that when I saw it yesterday. Is there any logistical reason it can’t be done in luminous yellow or fire engine red? Surely these would’ve been more sensible choices. I get the aesthetic angle, but not to the extent of losing your life due to vanity.

The whole thing comes across as one colossal vanity project, with zero thought given to how they'd escape if anything went wrong.

Maybe the idea that anything might go wrong genuinely never occurred to them, so why would they need a winching point on the outside of the hull, or to be able to open the hatch from the inside, or send a distress signal or even to be visible on the surface of the fucking ocean?

Whoever mentioned hubris (probably kebabking ) was absolutely right.

These people don't deserve to die just because they're rich, they deserve to die because they're rich, arrogant and stupid.

 

[DownwardDog]

I've been pondering casting choice for the inevitable movie adaptation of this sea disaster and coming up blank

even more confused about the composite character you have to show in for Mark wahlberg to lead the thing

Peter Kay for Hamish Harding.

 

[danny la rouge]

Don’t link to the S*n, urbanspaceman You know why. Do not contribute to their revenue streams.

 

[skyscraper101]

I just read a bit more about it. That plane dropped sonobouys. These have a hydrophone which drops to around 450 m. on the surface this is attached to a transmitter which the plane picks up. some of them can send active signals, pings to locate objects. you need 3 to try and triangulate the position. compared to looking for a coin on a football pitch.

Cheers. Though now I’m a little disappointed they’re called a sonobuoy instead of a soundbwoy which would’ve been way better.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Sorry this is a stupid question but does white make it invisible?

It’s very hard to see things in the ocean and even harder if they match the colour of waves

 

[Johnny Vodka]

Someone was on the radio news earlier saying how millionaires are saving the planet by doing stuff like this.

 

[not a trot]

Peter Kay for Hamish Harding.

Ringo Starr for a good old singalong.

 

[A380]

If they've a surveillance plane that can hear banging from the depths they've cameras that can see camouflaged submersibles

Sonar bouys with a radio link to relay any audio signal to the aircraft.

Although there is a high chance any ‘aircraft’ described as getting signals might actually look a bit like.:

 

[Wilf]

The whole thing comes across as one colossal vanity project, with zero thought given to how they'd escape if anything went wrong.

Maybe the idea that anything might go wrong genuinely never occurred to them, so why would they need a winching point on the outside of the hull, or to be able to open the hatch from the inside, or send a distress signal or even to be visible on the surface of the fucking ocean?

Whoever mentioned hubris (probably kebabking ) was absolutely right.

These people don't deserve to die just because they're rich, they deserve to die because they're rich, arrogant and stupid.

I'm not quite at the 'they deserve to die' point, recklessly stupid, arrogant and entitled as they are. Perhaps dragging them out of the sea and then forcing them to donate every fucking pound of their billions to helping refugees live a decent life would be about right.

 

[danny la rouge]

I'm not quite at the 'they deserve to die' point, recklessly stupid, arrogant and entitled as they are. Perhaps dragging them out of the sea and then forcing them to donate every fucking pound of their billions to helping refugees live a decent life would be about right.

We’re mostly middle aged here now. You’d think we’d be past hyperbole about wishing horrible deaths on people by now.

 

[2hats]

Are there many breaking waves in the middle of the ocean?

When surface wind speed exceeds 10 knots, pretty much guaranteed.

 

[Tanya1982]

I've been pondering casting choice for the inevitable movie adaptation of this sea disaster and coming up blank

even more confused about the composite character you have to show in for Mark wahlberg to lead the thing

I think George Clooney as the captain. You have to have at least two hunks in a cast of five men. The second one should obviously be the son, a sympathetic character in reality as far as we know. It’s hard to think of a 19 year old Pakistani actor off the top of my head, so he’d likely have to be quietly aged up a few years. I nominate Hasan Khan to play him - and he may be able to pull off 19 without the beard. ‘Come to casting clean shaven’ should be the instruction for him, via his agent. That’s all ages catered to with men at two different points on the age scale.

 

[The39thStep]

I've been pondering casting choice for the inevitable movie adaptation of this sea disaster and coming up blank

even more confused about the composite character you have to show in for Mark wahlberg to lead the thing

Couldn’t we cast posters on here to play the parts ?

 

[frogwoman]

It’s very hard to see things in the ocean and even harder if they match the colour of waves

Wouldn't the colour be blue though?

 

[Tanya1982]

Couldn’t we cast posters on here to play the parts ?

That would be easy enough. There are a few who have shown themselves to possess the ruthless streak and the ‘your life is worth nothing to me and is of no further value in my worldview’ attitude so commonly associated with iconoclastic billionaires who can indulge their dangerous fantasies.

 

[MickiQ]

I think there'd still be a market for it, and other submersibles are available, it's just that having good safety features and using established tech means it costs more. E.g Rush, in that CBS video I think, says something along the lines of 'yeah $250k sounds a lot, but we've used $1m of fuel'. So doing it safely, in a 2 person submersible, probably slaps a $5m+ price tag on it. James Cameron has, after all, made it to Challenger deep, and another random billionaire has gone to the deepest points of 5 oceans.

I'm not so sure, OceanGate are out of business now, they've lost their presumably only submarine, even if they get it back no fucker is going down in it again. They're also going to be tied up in lawsuits for the the next few years, more so if there is no successful rescue. One thing about being a billionaire's grieving widow is you can afford suing the ass off them no matter what your dopey husband signed.
It will take a totally new player with a totally new sub which I suspect punters will insist on being designed by actual marine engineers and built in a proper shipyard. Going to take years and cost millions and all the time the Titanic is rotting away like a dodgy squat. Not impossible yes but I can't see it soon.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Wouldn't the colour be blue though?

White is the colour of waves breaking and sunlight bouncing off the water


Blue is also a bad colour

 

[DotCommunist]

Couldn’t we cast posters on here to play the parts ?

going to struggle to cast the 19 yo then

 

[Orang Utan]

Someone was on the radio news earlier saying how millionaires are saving the planet by doing stuff like this.

Which is kinda true, but only if they all get in the sea

 

[MickiQ]

I think George Clooney as the captain. You have to have at least two hunks in a cast of five men. The second one should obviously be the son, a sympathetic character in reality as far as we know. It’s hard to think of a 19 year old Pakistani actor off the top of my head, so he’d likely have to be quietly aged up a few years. I nominate Hasan Khan to play him - and he may be able to pull off 19 without the beard. ‘Come to casting clean shaven’ should be the instruction for him, via his agent. That’s all ages catered to with men at two different points on the age scale.

View attachment 380168

Surely any big name actors would be cast in the role of heroic rescuers? anyone cast as one of those aboard the sub is just going to have to sit around in a fibreglass tub pretending to put a good face on it.

 

[Tanya1982]

Surely any big name actors would be cast in the role of heroic rescuers? anyone cast as one of those aboard the sub is just going to have to sit around in a fibreglass tub pretending to put a good face on it.

A very good point. You’re hired.