Live data from Hacker News

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

bbc.com

171–180 of 1001 posts

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

#172

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 o…

[flagged]

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

#173
post #53

If it did implode in multiple pieces it means the experts were right; many said that carbon fiber was a poor choice because while it's light, it breaks like glass, contrary to steel which tends to "open" slowly.

Carbon fiber seems like a weird choice for this application anyway because its big advantage is in its tensile strength compared to its weight. Here, it’s in compression, not tension. And its light weight doesn’t matter.

Carbon fiber is a lot easier to work with than metal in this case because welding metal creates failure points. I don't think they could afford building a titanium pressure vessel. Weight is a factor too, carbon fiber is lighter so you can make the pressure vessel thicker and still have enough buoyancy to reach the surface(probably a good thing).

From their perspective it kinda made sense even though its not safe at all.

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

#174
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…

Saying that you absolve yourself of liability doesn’t excuse gross negligence though.

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

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This quote shines light on his hiring philosophy: “When I started the business, one of the things you’ll find, there are other sub-operators out there, but they typically have, uh, gentlemen who are ex-military submariners, and they — you’ll see a whole bunch of 50-year-old white guys,” Rush told Teledyne Marine in a resurfaced interview. “I wanted our team to be younger, to be inspirational and I’m not going to insp…

Ah, I see he's got the 'Elon Musk school of thought' in regards to cutting corners in vehicles carrying people's lives and seeing safety regulations as a nuisance hindering his "visionary progress" that these pesky gray-beard engineers just can't grasp. Fucking idiot CEO, took 4 innocent people with him. Aero, naval, automotive, all have a a history written in blood, and all those rules and regulations aren't to hind…

They'll stop doing it when it stops being profitable.

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

#176
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.

Do you have any particularl inside info on this other than what you’ve read in the news over the last couple of days? They’re pretty strong accusations you're making.

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

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a shame they openly did not hire SMEs.

This quote shines light on his hiring philosophy: “When I started the business, one of the things you’ll find, there are other sub-operators out there, but they typically have, uh, gentlemen who are ex-military submariners, and they — you’ll see a whole bunch of 50-year-old white guys,” Rush told Teledyne Marine in a resurfaced interview. “I wanted our team to be younger, to be inspirational and I’m not going to insp…

Translation:

"50 year old white guys have a lot of experience but would cost a fuck ton of money. I prefer to exploit, er, um, employ, 25 year old white guys and gals because they are about 1/4 the cost."

When you take all the BS justifications out of it, that's really what the guy was saying. Elon Musk school of capitalism. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

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

#178
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, I see he's got the 'Elon Musk school of thought' in regards to cutting corners in vehicles carrying people's lives and seeing safety regulations as a nuisance hindering his "visionary progress" that these pesky gray-beard engineers just can't grasp. Fucking idiot CEO, took 4 innocent people with him. Aero, naval, automotive, all have a a history written in blood, and all those rules and regulations aren't to hind…

They'll stop doing it when it stops being profitable.

It's the government's job to regulate people not being allowed to pay for trips to the bottom of the ocean in submarines that look like they were built on Linus Tech Tips.

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

#179

What I don't understand is, if it imploded, why didn't the boat hear the implosion? Surely that would be really loud. Louder than the 15 min audio ping that the boat is normally listening for.

I don't know. But sea water isn't a homogeneous medium as far as sound propagation is concerned. There are layers of changing salinity, temperature etc and these can effectively cut off sound propagation. Submarines (used to?) depend on such effects to avoid detection.

Also, would the implosion necessarily be that loud? It would be like crushing a large tin really. Maybe blends in with background noise.

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

#180
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Carbon fiber seems like a weird choice for this application anyway because its big advantage is in its tensile strength compared to its weight. Here, it’s in compression, not tension. And its light weight doesn’t matter.

I don't know and I'm not an SME, but it would seem weight always matter? For carrying, for bubbling up, etc.?

The main problem with steel is that it can only withstand such pressures if it's of spherical shape (i.e. a bathysphere). This usually only leaves enough room for two to three people (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSV_Alvin).

So it seems it's more a matter of cost and passenger space than just weight alone.

Post reply on HN