Titanic

[Noel]

Time seems to be running out.
Hindsight etc but was there a viable back-up/emergency system of some sort that would have helped in this situation?
I'm in two minds about treating what is essentially a graveyard as a tourist attraction, albeit to those that can afford it.

 

[Torx]

Quite a lot of graveyards are tourist attractions, if you think about it…

I can see some new regulations being introduced, it seems it is very much a prototype.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

They deserve a Darwin Award.

 

[Fergie 307]

Wouldn't be surprised if it has got tangled in wreckage in the debris field. There are some whopping pieces of the ship all over the place, many much larger than the submersible. I suspect the problem will be that any other craft that can operate at that depth will not be powerful enough to free it if it is stuck, they are primarily aimed at research, collecting small samples etc, not salvage operations.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I heard a chap saying he'd booked the trip but backed out when he realised how badly designed the vessel is - there is (apparently) no facility to dump the ballast (old scaffold tubes?) and it has no lifting eyes. No pre arranged safety back up, either.

 

[Fergie 307]

Does increasingly sound like a bit of an amateurish operation, not really the sort of approach you want to have if you are going two and a half miles down! If you look at how Robert Ballard operated with Alvin to find the ship in the first place, altogether much more professional approach.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

They keep telling how long the air will last, but there's supposedly no mechanism for scrubbing the CO2 - apparently that will kill them before the air runs out. Best of luck to them but it doesn't look good.

 

[Stigmorgan]

The news last night was saying that at 17hours of air left the coastguard was still calling it a search and rescue mission despite the fact that it could take days even after they've found it.

 

[Bingy man]

Not to wish death upon anyone , I just can’t imagine why anyone no matter how well off they are would want to go thousands of feet under water to basically rubber neck at the graveyard of hundreds of people who lost their life many years ago. Why not organise coach trips of other major catastrophes around the world . I don’t have any issues with a well made, informative documentary about such events with any profits going to the victims families etc but this is imho ridiculous. We all know what happened to these men women and children even if the exact circumstances are clouded in conspiracy. It’s similar to those people that are incredibly stupid and thoughtless while they film a accident or a serious fight etc and post it online but at no point think of helping the person involved or using their phone to call for help . It’s wrong and if you meet your maker trapped under hundreds of feet of water, or you end up with cancer because you went on holiday to Chernobyl, or you fell into an active volcano- well at least you will know exactly how all those unfortunate people lost their life. This is just my opinion as I truly believe that the dead should be left Alone other than the need to determine what caused any particular event where people have lost their lives.

 

[Jacob]

Not to wish death upon anyone , I just can’t imagine why anyone no matter how well off they are would want to go thousands of feet under water to basically rubber neck at the graveyard of hundreds of people who lost their life many years ago. Why not organise coach trips of other major catastrophes around the world . I don’t have any issues with a well made, informative documentary about such events with any profits going to the victims families etc but this is imho ridiculous. We all know what happened to these men women and children even if the exact circumstances are clouded in conspiracy. It’s similar to those people that are incredibly stupid and thoughtless while they film a accident or a serious fight etc and post it online but at no point think of helping the person involved or using their phone to call for help . It’s wrong and if you meet your maker trapped under hundreds of feet of water, or you end up with cancer because you went on holiday to Chernobyl, or you fell into an active volcano- well at least you will know exactly how all those unfortunate people lost their life. This is just my opinion as I truly believe that the dead should be left Alone other than the need to determine what caused any particular event where people have lost their lives.

I agree. Massive resources mobilised to rescue thrill-seeking wealthy tw ats doing something dangerous but useless. I hope the silly sods make it back of course.
In terms of life saving - these resources would be better spent in the Med where people seem to be drowning every day in large numbers

 

[Bingy man]

I agree. Massive resources mobilised to rescue thrill-seeking wealthy tw ats doing something useless. I hope the silly sods make it back of course.
In terms of life saving - these resources would be better spent in the Med where people seem to be drowning every day in large numbers

Absolutely-I too hope they save them but should they make it back to surface they then should be given the thrill of paying for their rescue.

 

[mwinfrance]

Absolutely-I too hope they save them but should they make it back to surface they then should be given the thrill of paying for their rescue.

Unfortunately , the reason why so much effort is being made to rescue these 1diots as opposed to the poor people dying weekly in the med, is either (1) because these people could pay the cost of the rescue and not notice it. Either that or (2) rich peoples lives are considered to be worth more ( and thus more worth saving ) than the lives of poor people.
Probably , which shows how immoral the world is (2)

 

[recipio]

They succumbed to their curiosity- let us not be too hard on them and pray for their recovery. One look at that video controller for the entire control of the sub should have sent warning bells clanging. Likewise no backup sub or even a hoist for lifting would have me running a mile.

 

[paulrbarnard]

Unfortunately , the reason why so much effort is being made to rescue these 1diots as opposed to the poor people dying weekly in the med, is either (1) because these people could pay the cost of the rescue and not notice it. Either that or (2) rich peoples lives are considered to be worth more ( and thus more worth saving ) than the lives of poor people.
Probably , which shows how immoral the world is (2)

Not completely right to compare to people in the med. They are being rescued when they are found. The problem is they are trying hard not to be found.

 

[raffo]

They lost contact with the sub about 1h45m after it went under. The company is such a mickey mouse operation that that was not unusual and decided to wait after the round trip time before asking for help. They were warned years ago about their lack safety and operational competence, but they brushed off the criticism. The release form signed by the tourists states it's "an experimental submersible vessel that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma or death." As the saying goes, if they build it, they will come, or however it goes. There are plenty of thrill seekers in the world, lots of people die every year climbing the Everest, for example.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

The vessel was not built to high standards - back up systems, comms, oxygen recovery etc etc.

That it seems to have failed should not be a huge surprise.

That apparently rational folk chose to pay huge sums of money to go an visit the Titanic is no different to those who spend large sums to ascend Everest - they are clearly obsessed despite the obvious risks.

That they are visiting a grave site is irrelevant. They may be motivated by simply seeing the "unsinkable". Folk also visit Auschwitz, war graves, American civil war sites, to name but a few, for reasons meaningful to themselves.

The huge sums being spent on what now seems a recovery rather than rescue operation. The military probably justify it as a training exercise which exposes weaknesses in their capability so improvements can be made. They get brownie points for success, and lose none for trying.

 

[Cozzer]

Just watching a news "update" on the BBC.
Baffling, how the sub that actually got down to the Titanic last year should have been flown out two days ago, but wasn't because of "permissions". (?)
Anyway, supposed sorted this morning, so the sub was loaded onto the huge yank plane at Jersey Airport.
Bear in mind it's going to take 48 hours to get on scene. (Horse? Bolted?)
Now we have a slight problem reported at lunchtime. The plane's not big enough to hold everything, so they've taken the sub off again. (Thinks : wouldn't someone have checked?!)
Another even bigger plane is going to be flown it, but it can't until the existing big 'un is out of the way. Apparently it has to wait until permission is granted for it to fly to Belgium....

 

[Terrytpot]

Pretty safe to say rescue is no longer an option, recovery is all that's viable now. Even if equipment capable of getting them to the surface now was actually on site, the time that would be needed to do it without killing them..would.

 

[paulrbarnard]

Just hear on the radio they claim to have found wreckage, I assume not the Titanic.

This probably suggests implosion so a quick end if it is true.

 

[Terrytpot]

Just hear on the radio they claim to have found wreckage, I assume not the Titanic.

This probably suggests implosion so a quick end if it is true.

If what I heard about the quality of the material used for the viewing port is true, then I wouldn’t be at all surprised. The only thing that does surprise me is people are happy to risk their life in what is so blatantly a dodgy task. Climbing Everest is the other example cited but whilst the atmosphere is incredibly thin up top and there’s not a huge amount of the bits you need to carry on successfully breathing, there is actually enough to sustain life..it may get very cold and blowy but is potentially survivable. Two and a half miles under water that’s just not the case..unless you’re an aquatic species designed for the pressure down there you need to be damn sure whatever you use to get down there will maintain you in a cosy bubble and be equally capable of getting you back topside in the same fashion. In this instance, several unfortunate individuals have no doubt expired and those responsible for sending them down in the first place and anyone else contemplating similar actions should be thinking long and hard.