Titanic Submersible Tour - Missing

K

KDG

Well-known member
Horrific story regarding this
  • A vessel that takes tourists to see the Titanic shipwreck is missing with five passengers on board.
  • The vessel is considered a submersible, not a submarine, because it needs a ship to help it launch.
  • The missing submersible is equipped with oxygen for five people for 96 hours.

Not looking good and what an awful way to die.
 
It sounds just horrific. It's already been suggested that the usual vessels used to rescue people trapped in submarines won't be able to go as low as this one could be.

The main hope is that they have resurfaced and are just bobbing around somewhere on the surface waiting to be spotted.
 
I haven't really looked into this but don't these things have transponders or something attached? Quite expensive bit of kit to drop it in the water and not be able to track it.
 
Someone who was on it last year or previously said it doesn't have any navigation on it , its guided by the launch ship above in text and voice comms . They said they lost comms on their trip for over an hour and it turned into a failed attempt and they resurfaced and aborted. It takes 2hrs of descent just to arrive at the wreck about 3.5km depth and this current voyage lost comms after 1.45
The only thing they are really able to do now is call in aerial assistance and they have ability to scan underwater from these planes. Not sure how or to what depth but the most recent spokesperson mentioned this. Certainly looks really bad at this point
 
It sounds more likely that it's on the surface somewhere from my inexpert point of view?

Unless it has somehow had a failure and let in water under the tremendous pressure.

It's designed to float back up if it encounters issues so it's hopefully just done that.
 
Boro_Interlinked said:
Someone who was on it last year or previously said it doesn't have any navigation on it , its guided by the launch ship above in text and voice comms . They said they lost comms on their trip for over an hour and it turned into a failed attempt and they resurfaced and aborted. It takes 2hrs of descent just to arrive at the wreck about 3.5km depth and this current voyage lost comms after 1.45
The only thing they are really able to do now is call in aerial assistance and they have ability to scan underwater from these planes. Not sure how or to what depth but the most recent spokesperson mentioned this. Certainly looks really bad at this point
Click to expand...


That depth is just beyond scary. Travelling under water for 2 hours...vertical. Wow

Lets hope it has floated to the surface somewhere.
 
Read this morning that they are actually bolted in to the submersible and can’t get out without external help to release them. 🙁
Never get me in one of those even if I had the money. My worst nightmare.
 
12,500 feet down. I wouldn’t say this unless I was certain none of the relatives of those on board don’t read fmttm but I would suspect a catastrophic failure for them to lose all contact.
 
I saw GMB report this morning and they use a cheap games controller to operate some of the sub. People have to sign a waiver beforehand. Nothing is certified for the depth they went to. I can't fathom (no pun intended) how anyone would risk their lives in such a risky thing that is clearly not well made. One guy took his son, no matter how taken in I was I would never have done that, especially with no immediate safety recovery plan in place.

Less than 1% chance of being saved. Miracles do happen though 🤞 they make it. Hollywood will be all over this in time, thoughts and prayers are with them, their fear right now must be through the roof.
 
Boro_Interlinked said:
Someone who was on it last year or previously said it doesn't have any navigation on it , its guided by the launch ship above in text and voice comms . They said they lost comms on their trip for over an hour and it turned into a failed attempt and they resurfaced and aborted. It takes 2hrs of descent just to arrive at the wreck about 3.5km depth and this current voyage lost comms after 1.45
The only thing they are really able to do now is call in aerial assistance and they have ability to scan underwater from these planes. Not sure how or to what depth but the most recent spokesperson mentioned this. Certainly looks really bad at this point
Click to expand...
The guy on this clip says it is steered by something similar to a Playstation controller made by Logitech.

Wrong link - See Yorkshire Terriers above.
 
Unless the people charging a quarter of a million dollars a trip are real cowboys the submarine should have radio, radar and satellite beacons/transponders that allow it to be found on the surface, so there's hardly any chance it's surfaced and just needs finding.
 
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Just reading on the BBC website and an article about what may of happened...i'm confused.

Prof Alistair Greig from University College London said ; One theory is that it released a "drop weight" after an emergency, in order to bring it to the surface.

He told BBC Science Correspondent Pallab Ghosh: "If there was a power failure and/or communication failure, this might have happened, and the submersible would then be bobbing about on the surface waiting to be found," he said.

I cannot believe there isn't some form of 'manual' release though of this type of 'drop weight' they can release to bring themselves back up to the surface....this Professor hasn't mentioned whether this release of this 'drop weight' is a manual procedure or a needs to be done through some electronic device (which could obviously fail!) and these critical snippets of info aren't being shared....perhaps they want some aspects to remain confidential.

Question 2 ; if they have emerged onto the surface is it normal that they havent yet spotted them given the amount of vessels and planes searching ?
Question 3 ; I just cannot fathom why there isnt some kind of transponder on board that automatically kicks in to alert the search parties. Surely this is like the first aspect you would ensure is built into this type of small and risky submarine design ?
 
Ex Footy Legs said:
I cannot believe there isn't some form of 'manual' release though of this type of 'drop weight' they can release to bring themselves back up to the surface....this Professor hasn't mentioned whether this release of this 'drop weight' is a manual procedure or a needs to be done through some electronic device
Click to expand...

I was reading something earlier about these weights being held on by electromagnets. So in an emergency or loss of power they would automatically drop off and the sub would rise to the surface on its own.

Obviously I’m no expert and fingers crossed this has a happy ending
 
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