Titanic tourist submersible gone missing

merlin

Gilly said:

merlin said:

A submersible loses contact with the home base and suddenly we're all self-appointed submersible experts.
A previously unknown virus become prevalent in our world killing millions and suddenly we're all self-appointed medical experts, specialising in epidemiology.
A war breaks out between two eastern-block countries and suddenly we're all self-appointed war/political experts. 

We know pretty close to fuck all, and quite possibly we ought to stop thinking that we know everything about everything. Let's just hope that as few folk suffer as can be hoped for. 

Who claimed to be an expert? I’m just musing out loud based on what I’ve heard in the news. I’ve actually learned quite a lot in this thread. 

Maybe get off your high horse? 

I'm sorry if I offended you @Gilly, I wasn't on a high horse, nor was I pointing fingers at anyone, especially not you, who I've never met on forum until now. 

I was simply commenting on a phenomenon that seems to happen on social media. My comment was not aimed at any particular individuals. Please, I hope no-one else takes offence or feels the need to be defensive, particularly when no-one is being attacked.

I just wish for the least amount of suffering for those folk and their friends and families. 

LionAquaLooper

I wouldn't necessarily call it a phenomenon, which implies it's rare. It's not new either. It's human nature.
And we all wish for the best for those 5 men and their families. Analysing the situation, pooling all our limited knowledge into this thread, and sometimes making assumptions about things we're not "experts" on doesn't mean people have lost all empathy does it. 

p90fool

Rob1742 said:

I just can’t believe that these sensible people made the decision to go down there in such a vessel. 

Never underestimate people's belief that misfortune only happens to others, especially that of very, very rich men. 

There's considerable overlap between mentalist inventors and the super wealthy when it comes to believing they're plucky go-getters, but for "billionaire adventurer" I usually read "bored dilettante".   

RocknRollDave

merlin said:

Gilly said:

merlin said:

A submersible loses contact with the home base and suddenly we're all self-appointed submersible experts.
A previously unknown virus become prevalent in our world killing millions and suddenly we're all self-appointed medical experts, specialising in epidemiology.
A war breaks out between two eastern-block countries and suddenly we're all self-appointed war/political experts. 

We know pretty close to fuck all, and quite possibly we ought to stop thinking that we know everything about everything. Let's just hope that as few folk suffer as can be hoped for. 

Who claimed to be an expert? I’m just musing out loud based on what I’ve heard in the news. I’ve actually learned quite a lot in this thread. 

Maybe get off your high horse? 

I'm sorry if I offended you @Gilly, I wasn't on a high horse, nor was I pointing fingers at anyone, especially not you, who I've never met on forum until now. 

I was simply commenting on a phenomenon that seems to happen on social media. My comment was not aimed at any particular individuals. Please, I hope no-one else takes offence or feels the need to be defensive, particularly when no-one is being attacked.

I just wish for the least amount of suffering for those folk and their friends and families. 

No; it was aimed at “all” of us!

dano

littlegreenman said:
And I regularly walk to the station down Hornby Boulevard! (yeah, OK, very local reference, but if you know, you)

Lol yes I know that one ! 

Dominic

p90fool said:

Rob1742 said:

I just can’t believe that these sensible people made the decision to go down there in such a vessel. 

Never underestimate people's belief that misfortune only happens to others, especially that of very, very rich men. 

There's considerable overlap between mentalist inventors and the super wealthy when it comes to believing they're plucky go-getters, but for "billionaire adventurer" I usually read "bored dilettante".   

I think this is true
Is it the 'world isn't enough ' mentality , super-ego ,Vain-glory or the Inquisitive Pioneering Gene and Maverick mentality that made them very rich men to begin with ?......Chicken or Egg ?
It's not just very rich men themselves though but often by proxy.....throughout History there are numerous pioneering people who have advanced humanity by the same mentality ....since Galen there have been physicians /chemists who have operated on themselves or injected vaccines into themselves in their quest .
From the C15 and throughout the Age of Enlightenment the Courts of European Kings and Nobles were propositioned daily by Explorers,Navigators, Astronomers ....often quite poor men looking for patronage in their pioneering quest for patronage for expeditions of discovery and Science . Likewise medical, archaeological ,Religious reasons .
It's how humanity has advanced ,learnt ,discovered ,benefitted 
Irrelevant today maybe.........until Elon Musk lands on Mars and makes friends with Little Green men who say " Oh,you've got a Climate Warming crisis .......we had one of those 7000 years ago during the reign of King Zorb .....here's the antidote ,whatever you don't listen to Sadiq Khan and the Ulez Strategy or think the electric cars are the way forward "

Gilly

merlin said:

I'm sorry if I offended you @Gilly, I wasn't on a high horse, nor was I pointing fingers at anyone, especially not you, who I've never met on forum until now. 

I was simply commenting on a phenomenon that seems to happen on social media. My comment was not aimed at any particular individuals. Please, I hope no-one else takes offence or feels the need to be defensive, particularly when no-one is being attacked.

I just wish for the least amount of suffering for those folk and their friends and families. 

I’m not offended in the slightest. I just don’t see the problem with people discussing something from the news in the off-topic section of a discussion forum. It’s literally what that section is for. If you don’t like it there’s always the option of ignoring it. 

By the way, here’s a quote today from the BBC from an ‘expert’, who presumably is qualified in your opinion to discuss the subject:

"If they're unconscious, they're not going to be able to do much to help themselves," says Dr Ledez.

Um, thanks for that Dr Ledez!

darthed1981

None of us are experts on submarines, though there have been experts in thread discussing carbon fibre for example.

However that does not invalidate our discussion or our interest, or our sympathy for the poor souls likely joining the ghosts of the Titanic in the deep, dark of the ocean.

munckee

Just been on the news there is a special  underwater sub which has been down and mapped the titanic, its leaving now from channel islands today which will take 60 hours to reach the area.

Would have been great 3 days ago!

Danny1969

The Russians have had very deep sea submersibles for a long time capable of more than the Titanic depth. James Cameron made something like 20 trips to the Titanic in one and actually went down in the Mariana Trench, which I think is the deepest point of any ocean 
But I guess getting down there is one thing, finding another sub in the pitch black and bringing it back is a whole other challenge. I think they will find them but I suspect the electrical system has some kind of failure and even if they have oxygen the carbon dioxide will kill them as the filtration system is likely not working.  

Haych

munckee said:

Just been on the news there is a special  underwater sub which has been down and mapped the titanic, its leaving now from channel islands today which will take 60 hours to reach the area.

Would have been great 3 days ago!

That kind of suggests to me that the mission is only a recovery operation now and, although they'd never admit it to a news crew, they've given up hope of realistically finding anyone alive.

Lessons will be learned from this incident, I think, I hope.  Why, why, why the mother ship does not have the ability to launch some kind of rescue mission immediately something goes wrong is beyond me.  

Yes, costs would increase massively just to have that redundancy on board, but the price for not having at least an ROV on board that can be sent down in an emergency to search for and possibly attach a tether to the stricken sub is going to be huge anyway.

mrkb

Any vehicle that might be able to do a recovery might not be seaready at short notice, they take some time to prep and get ready to transport (for example alot of the uk military submarines are having maintenance at any one time, not many at sea), then dive - it cant be rushed or you'll have an additional accident occurring soon after the first one.

LionAquaLooper

munckee said:

Just been on the news there is a special  underwater sub which has been down and mapped the titanic, its leaving now from channel islands today which will take 60 hours to reach the area.

Would have been great 3 days ago!

Was held up by admin and red tape apparently.  Always the way isn't it.

Haych

LionAquaLooper said:

munckee said:

Just been on the news there is a special  underwater sub which has been down and mapped the titanic, its leaving now from channel islands today which will take 60 hours to reach the area.

Would have been great 3 days ago!

Was held up by admin and red tape apparently.  Always the way isn't it.

Well, one should never allow common sense to stand in the way of a good disaster.

RaymondLin

Do these other subs capable of going down to this depth have the ability to recover them? either attach some surfacing gear, or tow?

tony99

RaymondLin said:

Do these other subs capable of going down to this depth have the ability to recover them? either attach some surfacing gear, or tow?

I think not, the ideas that I've heard is that -depending on the Titan's predicament - it's possible these other subs may be able to dislodge them if they're stuck / entangled.

lustycourtier

LionAquaLooper said:

munckee said:

Just been on the news there is a special  underwater sub which has been down and mapped the titanic, its leaving now from channel islands today which will take 60 hours to reach the area.

Would have been great 3 days ago!

Was held up by admin and red tape apparently.  Always the way isn't it.

Another Brexit benefit 

Sassafras

I haven't got much sympathy for people who deliberately take unnecessary insane risks.
The Darwin Awards were created for such situations.
Their little jaunt hasn't benefited mankind in any way.

Danny1969

I think all subs use ballast to descend ... so the only reason they wouldn't be able to come up is because they are stuck on something or they can't release the ballast. Maybe an electrical failure. 
The fact this sub lost contact fairly quicker makes me think the problem is electrical ... battery system failed completely maybe. 

Cirrus

munckee said:

Just been on the news there is a special  underwater sub which has been down and mapped the titanic, its leaving now from channel islands today which will take 60 hours to reach the area.

Would have been great 3 days ago!

For all you know it wasn't ready to go 3 days ago; maybe the company that owns this sub and the team that runs it have pulled out every stop to get it ready to go on this surprise rescue, and this is the absolute soonest it was ready to depart. Could have been in pieces in a warehouse on Monday afternoon, and dozens of people have gone 72 hours with no sleep to get it back together.

If you were one of those people, you'd probably want to throttle a critic of your efforts.