Major search underway for missing Titanic wreck submarine

petros

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View attachment 18585
Not that I know what I’m talking about, but it does look suspicious. If the carbon fibre wrap inside the titanium hull was irrelevant it wouldn’t be there, and if it wasn’t, popping screws through it probably wasn’t a great idea.
Operational stresses.

Remember back in the day when airliners seemed to crash every two weeks and now 1 every 18 months with 100X the flights?

It would still be every two weeks if engineering didnt learn from mistakes.

How many fuck ups did the US and Soviets make in the early days of space travel?

Even that Bronson guy from Virgin had fuck ups. Musk's Space X makes fuck ups.

Shit happens.
 
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spaminator

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OceanGate ripped for leaving up job posting during Titan disaster
Author of the article:postmedia News
Published Jun 27, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 1 minute read

Talk about a titanic oversight.


Beleaguered exploration company OceanGate is getting roasted online for leaving up an advertisement for an “immediate opening” for a submersible pilot on Indeed as recently as Friday, according to Business Insider.


OceanGate operated the Titan submersible that imploded with five people on board, including the company’s CEO Stockton Rush, in the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month en route to the wreckage of the Titanic cruise ship.

The incident is being investigated by officials from Canada, the United States, France and the United Kingdom with evidence being collected at the Port of St. John’s in co-ordination with the RCMP and the Transportation Safety Board. Newfoundland and Labrador is about 700 km north of the Titanic’s final resting place on the floor of the North Atlantic.

While the Indeed job posting is no longer available and is believed to have existed since at least August 2020, according to the Snopes fact-checking site, Business Insider reported that the company was looking for a “committed and competent individual with combination of strong mechanical and interpersonal skills who can work on sensitive marine equipment.”



The ideal candidate, the report said, would be comfortable working in confined spaces and is “positive and energetic with (a) good sense of humour.”

OceanGate did not respond to a request for comment, Business Insider said. The Seattle Times reported that the company’s office in Everett, Wash., had closed indefinitely on Thursday.

Social-media users made light of the incident by posting macabre jokes, including one that said, “I can’t work under that kind of pressure,” according to the New York Post.

A TikTok user piled on by adding, “This literally proves what everyone says about companies filling your position the second you die,” Business Insider reported.


 
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Ron in Regina

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For people brave enough and with the financial means to book a trip to visit the Titanic wreck in person, the next opportunity is a year away.

OceanGate Expeditions, the tourism and expedition company based in the Seattle area, is still advertising the deep-sea adventure on their website more than a week after their Titan submersible imploded in the Atlantic Ocean during its descent on June 18.
 

Jinentonix

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Thats great. Whats your point? There arent carbon fibre pressure vessels?
No, the point is that NO submarine or submersible has ever had a carbon fiber hull and that the technology was entirely untested for such use. YOU came back with "A pressure vessel is a pressure vessel".
Thats all I said is that they exist.
And then posted pics of submersibles that didn't have carbon fiber hulls.
Youre the one who hit the ditch and floored it trying to get out.
That's right, tap out and blame me.
Speed kills.
Yeah? Tell that to Stockton Rush who sped through design and testing of an experimental design. Oh wait, you can't.
 

Jinentonix

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Operational stresses.
4 trips. That was the lifespan of the Titan. It was a piece of shit from the get-go.
Remember back in the day when airliners seemed to crash every two weeks and now 1 every 18 months with 100X the flights?

It would still be every two weeks if engineering didnt learn from mistakes.
Or if govts didn't step in and quit letting them self-certify their aircraft and created regulatory agencies. Ya know the kinds of things Rush eschewed because it "slows down innovation".
How many fuck ups did the US and Soviets make in the early days of space travel?
How many paying passengers were killed in those fuck ups?
Even that Bronson guy from Virgin had fuck ups. Musk's Space X makes fuck ups.
Again, no paying passengers were killed in those fuck ups.
Shit happens.
Especially when you're the kind of arrogant asshole who ignores every safety concern, thinks you know more than everyone else who builds or has built submersibles, and thinks that "speeding up innovation" takes precedence over passenger safety.
 

petros

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No, the point is that NO submarine or submersible has ever had a carbon fiber hull and that the technology was entirely untested for such use. YOU came back with "A pressure vessel is a pressure vessel".

And then posted pics of submersibles that didn't have carbon fiber hulls.

That's right, tap out and blame me.

Yeah? Tell that to Stockton Rush who sped through design and testing of an experimental design. Oh wait, you can't.
A sub is a pressure vessel. Full stop.
 

spaminator

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Coast Guard says ’presumed human remains’ found in wreckage of Titan submersible
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Patrick Whittle
Published Jun 28, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 4 minute read

PORTLAND, Maine — Human remains have likely been recovered from the wreckage of the submersible that imploded on a voyage to view the wreckage of the Titanic, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.


The announcement came hours after the announcement that debris from the Titan, collected from the seafloor more than 12,000 feet (3,658 meters) below the surface of the North Atlantic, had arrived in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Twisted chunks of the submersible were unloaded at a Canadian Coast Guard pier.


Recovering and scrutinizing the wreckage is a key part of the investigation into why the Titan imploded last week, killing all five people on board. The multiday search and eventual recovery of debris from the 22-foot (6.7-meter) vessel captured the world’s attention.

“There is still a substantial amount of work to be done to understand the factors that led to the catastrophic loss of the Titan and help ensure a similar tragedy does not occur again,” Coast Guard Chief Capt. Jason Neubauer said in a statement released late Wednesday afternoon.


The return of the Titan debris to port in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador on Wednesday is a key piece of the investigation into why the submersible imploded. Twisted chunks of the 22-foot submersible were unloaded at a Canadian Coast Guard pier.

The U.S. Coast Guard said late Wednesday it had recovered debris and evidence from the sea floor and that included what it described as presumed human remains.

“I am grateful for the coordinated international and interagency support to recover and preserve this vital evidence at extreme offshore distances and depths,” U.S. Coast Guard Chief Capt. Jason Neubauer said in a statement. “The evidence will provide investigators from several international jurisdictions with critical insights into the cause of this tragedy. There is still a substantial amount of work to be done to understand the factors that led to the catastrophic loss of the TITAN and help ensure a similar tragedy does not occur again.”


The Canadian ship Horizon Arctic carried a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, to search the ocean floor near the Titanic wreck for pieces of the submersible. Pelagic Research Services, a company with offices in Massachusetts and New York that owns the ROV, said on Wednesday that it has completed offshore operations.

Pelagic Research Services’ team is “still on mission” and cannot comment on the ongoing Titan investigation, which involves several government agencies in the U.S. and Canada, said Jeff Mahoney, a spokesperson for the company.

“They have been working around the clock now for ten days, through the physical and mental challenges of this operation, and are anxious to finish the mission and return to their loved ones,” Mahoney said.


Debris from the Titan was located about 12,500 feet (3,810 meters) underwater and roughly 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the Titanic on the ocean floor, the Coast Guard said last week. The Coast Guard is leading the investigation into why the submersible imploded during its June 18 descent. Officials announced on June 22 that the submersible had imploded and all five people on board were dead.

The Coast Guard has convened a Marine Board of Investigation into the implosion. That is the highest level of investigation conducted by the Coast Guard.


One of the experts the Coast Guard consulted with during the search said analyzing the physical material of recovered debris could reveal important clues about what happened to the Titan. And there could be electronic data, said Carl Hartsfield of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.


“Certainly all the instruments on any deep sea vehicle, they record data. They pass up data. So the question is, is there any data available? And I really don’t know the answer to that question,” he said Monday.

Representatives for Horizon Arctic did not respond to requests for comment.

Ocean Gate CEO and pilot Stockton Rush was k illed in the implosion along with two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

Representatives for the National Transportation Safety Board and Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which are both involved in the investigation, also declined to comment. The National Transportation Safety Board has said the Coast Guard has declared the loss of the Titan submersible to be a “major marine casualty” and the Coast Guard will lead the investigation.


“We are not able to provide any additional information at this time as the investigation is ongoing,” said Liam MacDonald, a spokesperson for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

A spokesperson for the International Maritime Organization, the U.N.’s maritime agency, has said any investigative reports from the disaster would be submitted for review. Member states of the IMO can also propose changes such as stronger regulations of submersibles.

Currently, the IMO has voluntary safety guidelines for tourist submersibles which include requirements they be inspected, have emergency response plans, and have a certified pilot on board among other requirements. Any safety proposals would not likely be considered by the IMO until its next Maritime Safety Committee which begins in May 2024.

OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owned and operated the Titan, is based in the U.S. but the submersible was registered in the Bahamas. The OceanGate company in Everett, Washington closed when the Titan was found. Meanwhile, the Titan’s mother ship, the Polar Prince, was from Canada.

The operator charged passengers $250,000 each to participate in the voyage. The implosion of the Titan has raised questions about the safety of private undersea exploration operations. The Coast Guard also wants to use the investigation to improve safety of submersibles.
 

spaminator

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Was Titan damaged when it was towed out to sea before Titanic descent?
Submersible had no dedicated mothership

Author of the article:Jane Stevenson
Published Jul 17, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 1 minute read

A month after the Titan submersible disaster which killed five people, there’s a new theory it may have imploded after being dragged out to sea, reports British tabloid The Sun.


Experts are now telling the New York Times that Titan had no dedicated mothership and it may have been damaged after being towed through rough North Atlantic waters by a smaller chartered vessel — the Polar Prince.


That’s unlike the Alvin — a U.S. government research sub with an all-titanium hull that has done more than 4,500 deep-sea dives since 1973 with no accidents — which is transported on the deck of a dedicated mothership before a large crane puts it in the ocean.

Arnie Weissmann, editor-in-chief of Travel Weekly, took an OceanGate voyage in May, using the same Polar Prince mothership and said: “I thought the sub and platform were being tossed around pretty roughly.”




Wiessman wrote a Travel Weekly column that told a tale of a “near-disaster for the sub and platform.”

“At the end of the rope that linked the stern of the ship to the platform, we saw that the front of the platform and the sub were underwater,” he wrote.

Asked if towing Titan risked damage, a company spokesperson told the Times:“OceanGate is unable to provide any additional information at this time.”

The Titan disappeared less than two hours into its June 18 descent to the Titanic wreckage and three Brits — Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleiman Dawood — along with OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet — all died on board.
 

spaminator

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Titan sub crew knew they were going to die before implosion, claims $50M lawsuit
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Patrick Whittle And Holly Ramer
Published Aug 07, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read

The family of a French explorer who died in a submersible implosion has filed a more than $50 million lawsuit, saying the crew experienced “terror and mental anguish” before the disaster and accusing the sub’s operator of gross negligence.


Paul-Henri Nargeolet was among five people who died when the Titan submersible imploded during a voyage to the famed Titanic wreck site in the North Atlantic in June 2023. No one survived the trip aboard the experimental submersible owned by OceanGate, a company in Washington state that has since suspended operations.

Known as “Mr. Titanic,” Nargeolet participated in 37 dives to the Titanic site, the most of any diver in the world, according to the lawsuit. He was regarded as one of the world’s most knowledgeable people about the famous wreck. Attorneys for his estate said in an emailed statement that the “doomed submersible” had a “troubled history,” and that OceanGate failed to disclose key facts about the vessel and its durability.


According to the lawsuit, the Titan “dropped weights” about 90 minutes into its dive, indicating the team had aborted or attempted to abort the dive.

“While the exact cause of failure may never be determined, experts agree that the Titan’s crew would have realized exactly what was happening,” the lawsuit states. “Common sense dictates that the crew were well aware they were going to die, before dying.”

The lawsuit goes on to say: “The crew may well have heard the carbon fiber’s crackling noise grow more intense as the weight of the water pressed on Titan’s hull. The crew lost communications and perhaps power as well. By experts’ reckoning, they would have continued to descend, in full knowledge of the vessel’s irreversible failures, experiencing terror and mental anguish prior to the Titan ultimately imploding.”


A spokesperson for OceanGate declined to comment on the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in King County, Washington. The defendants must respond to the complaint in the coming weeks, court papers state. The lawsuit describes Nargeolet as an employee of OceanGate and a crew member on the Titan.

The suit also criticizes Titan’s “hip, contemporary, wireless electronics system, and states that none of the controller, controls or gauges would work without a constant source of power and a wireless signal.”

Though OceanGate designated Nargeolet as a member of the crew, “many of the particulars about the vessel’s flaws and shortcomings were not disclosed and were purposely concealed,” the attorneys, the Buzbee Law Firm of Houston, Texas, said in their statement.


Tony Buzbee, one of the attorneys on the case, said one of the suit’s goals is to “get answers for the family as to exactly how this happened, who all were involved, and how those involved could allow this to happen.”

Concerns were raised in the aftermath of the disaster about whether the Titan was doomed due to its unconventional design and its creator’s refusal to submit to independent checks that are standard in the industry. Its implosion also raised questions about the viability and future of private deep-sea exploration.

The U.S. Coast Guard quickly convened a high-level investigation, which is ongoing. A key public hearing that is part of the investigation is scheduled to take place in September.

The Titan made its last dive on June 18, 2023, a Sunday morning, and lost contact with its support vessel about two hours later. After a search and rescue mission that drew attention around the world, the wreckage of the Titan was found on the ocean floor about 984 feet (300 metres) off the bow of the Titanic, about 435 miles (700 kilometres) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.


OceanGate CEO and cofounder Stockton Rush was operating the Titan when it imploded. The lawsuit describes Rush as “an eccentric and self-styled ‘innovator’ in the deep-sea diving industry” and names his estate as one of the defendants.

In addition to Rush and Nargeolet, the implosion killed British adventurer Hamish Harding and two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood.

The company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic is in the midst of its first voyage to the wreckage site in years. Last month, RMS Titanic Inc., a Georgia-based firm, launched its first expedition to the site since 2010 from Providence, Rhode Island.

Nargeolet was director of underwater research for RMS Titanic. He was part of an expedition to visit the Titanic site in 1987, shortly after its location was discovered, and had supervised the salvage of innumerable Titanic artifacts, the lawsuit states. His estate’s attorneys described him as a seasoned veteran of underwater exploration who would not have participated in the Titan expedition if the company had been more transparent.

The lawsuit blames the implosion on the “persistent carelessness, recklessness and negligence” of Oceangate, Rush and others.

“Decedent Nargeolet may have died doing what he loved to do, but his death — and the deaths of the other Titan crew members — was wrongful,” the lawsuit states.