Originally Posted by :
A search and rescue operation is currently underway to locate a submarine that went missing during an expedition to the Titanic.
The U.S. Coast Guard was looking for the submarine Monday morning after it disappeared during the expedition from St. John's, N.L. The infamous 1912 wreck is located more than 600 kilometres southeast of the province in the North Atlantic Ocean.
The trip to the Titanic was being run by OceanGate Expeditions, a U.S.-based company. It uses a five-person submersible named Titan to reach the wreckage 3,800 metres below the surface. OceanGate's website advertises a seven-night voyage to the Titanic for US$250,000 per person, or approximately CA$330,000.
"We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely," an OceanGate spokesperson said in an email to CTV News. "Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families."
Those tours are a series of five eight-day missions to the Titanic with the money raised by tourists going towards Titanic research. Posts on social media show the ship launched from the St. John's area last week.
Did they really have 5 people in this?? Or do they have a larger version??
Originally Posted by Frazod:
It was probably pretty quick. Knowing it was coming would have been the worst part.
And having time to think about the obscene amount of money they spent to get explosively compressed into a corpse that could neatly fit into a beer can would likely have been quite annoying.
That's presuming a catastrophic failure.
Seems equally, if not MORE likely, that something failed and it's either stuck in wreckage or just sitting there on bottom while they slowly asphyxiate.
I mean it's designed to handle the pressures of that depth. Yeah, something could've failed that led to an implosion, but it could also just be disabled and sitting there well within its operational limits.
I mean you're cruising a wreck - how hard would it be to have snagged a cable or something? If that's the case, I'm just not sure what they can get out there in time. There are just a handful of submersibles that can operate at that depth and fewer still that can manipulate items. There's no way they can get something on scene on time - is there?
EDIT: Evidently the Alvin is still in Massachusetts at Woods Hole. Is there anything else like it in the world? And I have to believe the process of making it seaworthy for that kind of dive is a matter of months, not days. (EDIT) Nope - nevermind. Woods says the Alvin is on the West Coast. So it's out.
If you all want to read the gnarliest description of a worksite incident ever, look up the explosive decompression known as the Byford Dolphin Incident. [Reply]
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins:
If you all want to read the gnarliest description of a worksite incident ever, look up the explosive decompression known as the Byford Dolphin Incident.
There are PHOTOS.
And yeah - it's a pretty incredible demonstration of what pressure can do. 'Spaghettification' does not sound like much fun... [Reply]