Titanic tourist submersible: Search for missing vessel has covered over 10,000 square miles

[Stevicus]

Highlights from Day One as the search for the missing Titanic submersible continues

Coverage on this live blog has ended. Please click here for the latest updates.

www.nbcnews.com

There is less than 40 hours of oxygen supply left on the missing vessel, named Titan, which is carrying five people, a U.S. Coast Guard official said Tuesday as the search continues.

The submersible is part of an OceanGate Expeditions tour that offers passengers a once-in-a-lifetime experience to explore the Titanic wreckage. It went missing Sunday after it lost contact with the research vessel Polar Prince.

There's five people on board with less than 40 hours of oxygen left. They lost contact with them on Sunday and can't find them.

What to know about the missing vessel, Titan​

• The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for the missing research submersible, named Titan, that disappeared Sunday.
• The wreckage of the Titanic, the iconic ocean liner that sank more than a century ago, is 900 nautical miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
• The sub had up to 96 hours of oxygen supply and by 1 p.m. ET Tuesday was down to 41 hours, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
• The price of a spot on the submersible was $250,000. It was on only its third trip since OceanGate Expeditions began offering trips in 2021.

British billionaire Hamish Harding, owner of Action Aviation, was also among the five people on the vessel, along with French dive expert Paul Henry Nargeolet and prominent Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman.

The U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday released an image showing the search patterns for the missing submersible Titan.

The U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday night that it and other agencies and searchers are operating under a unified command as the search for the missing submersible Titan continues.

More than 10,000 square miles had been searched by Tuesday morning, the Coast Guard said, and weather and visibility have improved.

Three Canadian coast guard ships, as well as a commercial vessel and a French research vessel with remote-operated vehicles, and a Canadian navy ship with a mobile decompression chamber were on the way, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The Bahamian research vessel Deep Energy and a U.S. Air National Guard C-130 are also searching, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

They suggested the possibility it might have gotten tangled in the wreckage of the Titanic, in which case it would be easier to find.

 

[Stevicus]

The article mentioned that the Titanic is 13,000 feet below the surface, while Navy subs typically only go 2000 to 3000 feet.

The wreckage of the Titanic is also at a depth of 13,000 feet — too deep for typical U.S. Navy subs, which typically go down to 2,000 or 3,000 feet, to descend to.

Canadian aircraft dropped a sonar buoy into the ocean listening for tapping or talking in an effort to pinpoint the submersible.

 

[Estro Felino]

It's heartbreaking.
I am praying.

 

[Mock Turtle]

Very sad, given they are most likely not to survive unfortunately, unless they are on the surface and even then there is the time issue - since time is running out fast and the vessel is probably trapped on the seabed in some manner and possibly due to some particular failure or being snagged. And the amount of information coming out about this vessel and the company (as to safety issues) might see a ban on such excursions if such is possible. But, you pays yer money and makes yer choice.

 

[We Never Know]

Highlights from Day One as the search for the missing Titanic submersible continues

Coverage on this live blog has ended. Please click here for the latest updates.

www.nbcnews.com

There's five people on board with less than 40 hours of oxygen left. They lost contact with them on Sunday and can't find them.

They suggested the possibility it might have gotten tangled in the wreckage of the Titanic, in which case it would be easier to find.

Why would they not have GPS on that sub? Its on cars so one would think they would have put it on the sub in case something like this happened.
Hopefully they find them in time.

 

[Revoltingest]

Why would they not have GPS on that sub?

Satellite signals won't reach underwater.
Even ELF signals won't reach the depths
this submersible operates in.

Communication with submarines - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Revoltingest]

I'd pay money to not go down in a submarine/submersible.
(It's a claustrophobia thing.)
So cramped....so many ways to die.

 

[We Never Know]

I'd pay money to not go down in a submarine/submersible.
(It's a claustrophobia thing.)
So cramped....so many ways to die.

"So many ways to die"

Reminded me if that old TV show "A Thousand Ways to Die"

 

[Debater Slayer]

I hope they find the submarine. I can't imagine how terrifying it must be to get stuck in such a cramped place miles underwater.

 

[Stevicus]

It appears that the sonobuoys have picked up banging sounds: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/21/us/submersible-titanic-oceangate-search-wednesday/index.html

CNN —
Banging sounds have been picked up from the Atlantic Ocean in the hunt for the submersible that went missing while touring Titanic wreckage with five people onboard, signaling “continued hope of survivors,” according to a US government memo, even as the craft’s oxygen dwindles.

As rescue efforts keep ramping up, the underwater sounds were detected Tuesday by sonar devices deployed to find the 21-foot vessel that lost contact Sunday. The banging first came every 30 minutes and was heard again four hours later, the internal government memo obtained by CNN states.

While the underwater noises, detected by a Canadian P-3 aircraft, prompted the relocation of resources to explore their origin, “searches have yielded negative results,” the US Coast Guard tweeted early Wednesday, as less than a day of breathable air may be left on the vessel, based on agency officials’ latest estimate.

“Additional acoustic feedback was heard and will assist in vectoring surface assets and also indicating continued hope of survivors,” according to a Coast Guard update Tuesday night.

It was unclear when exactly the banging was heard Tuesday or how long it lasted, based on the memo. Rolling Stone was first to report news of the banging.

As the search for the Titan continues, CNN has learned of at least two former OceanGate employees who expressed safety concerns about the vessel’s hull years ago, including the thickness of the material used and testing procedures. The 23,000-pound craft is made of highly engineered carbon fiber and titanium.

But the central focus now is the massive search: The US is moving in military and commercial assets as aircraft from the Canadian Armed Forces, the US Coast Guard and the New York Air National Guard continue to look above and below water, and France’s president has dispatched a research ship with an underwater robot to join the search Wednesday.

If crews find the missing submersible deep in the ocean, authorities would face a highly complex mission to recover it and any survivors, said retired Navy Capt. Ray Scott “Chip” McCord, whose 30 years of experience includes overseeing several salvage operations.

They say that, even if they find it, it will be a very complex mission to recover it.

 

[pearl]

They say that, even if they find it, it will be a very complex mission to recover it.

Plus even if they find it and bring it to the surface, it can only be opened from the outside, and with the air so close to running out,
every second counts.

 

[We Never Know]

It appears that the sonobuoys have picked up banging sounds: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/21/us/submersible-titanic-oceangate-search-wednesday/index.html









They say that, even if they find it, it will be a very complex mission to recover it.

View attachment 78842

I watched that earlier this morning. They aren't sure what it is but its gives them hope.
Hopefully its the sub and they can find it soon.

 

[Stevicus]

Why would they not have GPS on that sub? Its on cars so one would think they would have put it on the sub in case something like this happened.
Hopefully they find them in time.

I think they had some method of communication, but they lost contact 1 hour and 45 minutes after they started off.

 

[We Never Know]

I think they had some method of communication, but they lost contact 1 hour and 45 minutes after they started off.

Thanks to Rev pointing it out, evidently GPS doesn't work under water.

 

[Stevicus]

I found this video which has more information on the submersible. The producer of this video believes it's possible there might have been a leak, although if there's banging sounds being heard, it doesn't appear to have imploded.

I saw some other videos (which I won't post in this thread) which describe what happens when a submarine hits hull crush depth and implodes. It's not pretty, and it sounds like one of the most terrifying ways to die.

 

[Nakosis]

Continuing live updates.

 

[Mock Turtle]

I think they had some method of communication, but they lost contact 1 hour and 45 minutes after they started off.

It appears that they only had sonar pings to communicate with - so very limited as to what was conveyed.

 

[Stevicus]

Missing Titanic Sub Company OceanGate Expeditions Was Warned About Safety

OceanGate heard complaints from ex-employees and industry experts about its vessels well before this weekend’s ill-fated mission.

www.thedailybeast.com

The company in charge of the submersible mission to the Titanic that disappeared this weekend received several prior warnings that its approach may be too risky, including lawsuits from former employees and warning letters from fellow industry professionals.

But the company had previously been cautioned about the safety of its vessels by an ex-employee. In response to a lawsuit accusing him of breach of contract, British submersible pilot and diver David Lochridge alleged he was fired by OceanGate in 2018 for raising “critical safety concerns regarding OceanGate’s experimental and untested design of the Titan”—the same submersible currently lost at sea.


Lochridge alleges he raised concerns in a January 2018 report and in a subsequent meeting about OceanGate’s refusal to conduct “critical, non-destructive testing of the experimental design of the hull.” He added that he disagreed with the company’s desire to “dive the submersible without any non-destructive testing to prove its integrity, and to subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible.” He claims he was fired shortly thereafter.

OceanGate claims Lochridge was fired because he refused to accept their engineer’s assurances of the safety of the vessel and said he could not accept the company’s research and development plans moving forward. The lawsuit and Lochridge’s counterclaim were first reported by The Daily Mail.

Lochridge’s report was not the last warning OceanGate would receive. Later that year, more than three dozen industry leaders sent a letter to Stockton expressing their “unanimous concern” about the Titan and urging him to test the vessel with an accredited outside group. The letter, organized by the Manned Underwater Vehicles committee of the Marine Technology Society, warned of negative outcomes ranging “from minor to catastrophic” that could occur if the company continued with its “experimental” approach. The signatories included oceanographers, submersible company executives, and deep-sea explorers, according to The New York Times, which first reported the letter.

“The submersible industry had significant concerns over the strategy of building a deep sea expedition submersible without following existing classification safety guidelines,” Will Kohnen, the chairman of the committee, told the Times.

Kohnen said Rush responded by calling him and complaining that industry regulations were stifling innovation.

 

[Rachel Rugelach]

This kind of deep-dive tourism is not something I would consider to be wise, even if I was a billionaire and could afford the ticket. I can't even imagine anyone seriously operating a submersible to go to those ocean depths (or even a rocket to go into outer space) for any reason other than for necessary scientific study, requiring up to a year or more of careful planning for the mission. I can't help but think that turning such missions into tourism for billionaires is going to end badly.

That said, I'm sorry for the lives lost. And I think that, at this point, those lives are already lost and there is no hope for rescuing any survivors.

 

[Stevicus]

This kind of deep-dive tourism is not something I would consider to be wise, even if I was a billionaire and could afford the ticket. I can't even imagine anyone seriously operating a submersible to go to those ocean depths (or even a rocket to go into outer space) for any reason other than for necessary scientific study, requiring up to a year or more of careful planning for the mission. I can't help but think that turning such missions into tourism for billionaires is going to end badly.

That said, I'm sorry for the lives lost. And I think that, at this point, those lives are already lost and there is no hope for rescuing any survivors.

There's still some hope, as they have enough oxygen left until tomorrow morning (assuming that it didn't leak, although the banging sounds would indicate that they're still alive and inside this thing). They still have one more full day to search.

But it is disturbing that this company didn't really properly test this thing before sending it on manned missions.