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Debris found came from missing Titan sub, says friend of passengers

bbc.com

161–170 of 1001 posts

Re: Debris found came from missing Titan sub, says friend of passengers

#161
post #151
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s definitely better for them, but its infuriating that this CEO died thinking he was a genius for building this shitty sub with very few safety precautions.

At least he died doing it and not someone he employed.

Well his actions lead to several other people dying too. Maybe the ticket they bought has a contract that exempts OceanGate (tragic name for a company going through their own #OceanGate a la Watergate) from any liability, but I hope this company gets annihilated in court with criminal and civil penalties.

Slacking this hard on safety for a submarine engineering company should not be tolerated in our rapidly advancing industrial society.

Re: Debris found came from missing Titan sub, says friend of passengers

#162
post #124

Complete speculation: They wanted to see something very very upclose through the glass. While getting in close they managed to scrap some wreckage compromising the carbon fiber body leading it to break and implode. The banging noises are some of the equipment dangling on the Titanic wreckage and blowing in underwater currents occassionally.

Sounds more like it imploded on the way down and the debris just kept going in about the same arch, landing 1600 feet from the titanic.

Re: Debris found came from missing Titan sub, says friend of passengers

#163
post #6

I wonder if U.S. agencies (e.g. the Navy) had picked up the sound of the implosion days ago, back when the Titan was said to have lost communication, and knew all this time that the Titan had likely already been destroyed. But there's no incentive for them to publicly say anything, as it would hint to their underwater surveillance capabilities. And the "rescue effort" is good practice for their crews. I watched most…

Possibly, but arguing against that are three factors: 1) the sub was tiny and its possible it wasn't actually loud enough; 2) the sub was at a depth that SOSUS doesn't listen at and sound propagation underwater is very complex; and 3) there's a lot of other potential sources of noise underwater, including both mechanical like ships and biological. Even if they did detect the Titan's implosion, there's enough sources of doubt that three days ago it would've been difficult to say definitely that it was gone.

Re: Debris found came from missing Titan sub, says friend of passengers

#164
post #137

Well that's better than slowly asphyxiating or dying of hypothermia, probably didn't even know what hit them.

It’s definitely better for them, but its infuriating that this CEO died thinking he was a genius for building this shitty sub with very few safety precautions.

Yes, if this other person I know from the internet had more mental or physical pain I would be happier.

Re: Debris found came from missing Titan sub, says friend of passengers

#165

This story is weird to me Considering the current geopolitical weather and the presence of Russian submarines, you'd think the US army would be able to locate the missing object in no time, even with a triangulated location, they failed Worrying times

While the US Air Force was part of the US Army until after WW2, the US Navy never was. And it is the Navy that operates ships, subs and such.

Re: Debris found came from missing Titan sub, says friend of passengers

#166
Stockton Rush (OceanGate's CEO) was known in the Seattle tech community [0]

My understanding (very much not first hand) is that he was seen as an expert in the specific engineering disciplines necessary to safely build and operate deep sea submersibles like Titan.

He was also apparently a father to members of the Seattle tech community, who are no doubt grieving at the moment.

Please remember that, for some members of the HN community, this one hits close to home.

[0] Talk at last year's GeekWire Summit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PGpjEDc96I

Re: Debris found came from missing Titan sub, says friend of passengers

#167
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it more likely that it immediately imploded rather than after a few days? The latter is more probable to me as it has never been tested under water for more than a few hours at a stretch. This will also be consistent with your banging hypothesis which was only heard after a day or two when it got lost. And also with the fact that no immediate sound disturbance was registered with the controlling ship. I of cou…

It unexpectedly lost communications about 2 hours into its decent. That is a possible/probable point in time where something went wrong.

It’s also the point where they pass the depth that the porthole was rated for.

They got lucky with that until they didn’t.

They even fired a guy for whistle blowing about the porthole.

Re: Debris found came from missing Titan sub, says friend of passengers

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do submarines commonly fail? Is the assumption of a violent implosion warranted? I would think another failure mode could be water rushing in without the overall structure catastrophically failing, which would actually relieve pressure on the structure as it happened and be much less energetic.

Just note that the body was experimental: while the hull indeed have a thick titanium body, it was mixed with (don't know exactly how and where though) carbon fibers, which are known to catastrophically break under pressure if there's even a microscopic impurity or damage. At least that's what the experts say. Carbon fibers is great for lightweight things that need to bend, terrible for things to be relied under pres…

>Carbon fibers is great for lightweight things that need to bend, terrible for things to be relied under pressure.

Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPVs) are fairly common in cases where a pressurized system needs to be relatively lightweight (e.g., spacecraft). To your point though, the failure mechanisms can be hard to model.

Re: Debris found came from missing Titan sub, says friend of passengers

#169
post #137

Well that's better than slowly asphyxiating or dying of hypothermia, probably didn't even know what hit them.

It’s definitely better for them, but its infuriating that this CEO died thinking he was a genius for building this shitty sub with very few safety precautions.

It's that Dunninger Kruger thing. And it's nigh ubiquitous.

I live in this little personal bubble.

Believing with great confidence that the edge of my bubble and the edge of reality are one and the same is actually quite empowering.

Those who Dunninger Kruger with greater intensity tend to win.

Re: Debris found came from missing Titan sub, says friend of passengers

#170
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least he died doing it and not someone he employed.

Well his actions lead to several other people dying too. Maybe the ticket they bought has a contract that exempts OceanGate (tragic name for a company going through their own #OceanGate a la Watergate) from any liability, but I hope this company gets annihilated in court with criminal and civil penalties. Slacking this hard on safety for a submarine engineering company should not be tolerated in our rapidly advancing…

My first thought was Heavens Gate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s_Gate_(religious_g...
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