Oceangate Titan debacle

[pondwater]

Surprised no one has posted about this yet. So you have this idiot billionaire Stockton Rush in a prior interview talking about his povertycel death trap controlled by a 3rd party wireless gaming controller and using off the shelf parts from Camper World. He then proceeds to brag about his team of "diversity" hires because he didn't want "50 year old white guys" with experience in the field because they weren't "inspirational". Kind of proves the point that diversity just for the sake of diversity is and idiot's game.

And as tragic as this is, with exception of the guy's son who got dragged into this underwater coffin by his father, it's hard to feel sorry for these people. And to think they paid a quarter of a million dollars each to a billionaire to either die instantly or slowly suffocate with no food or water surrounded by their own piss and shit.

Hopefully they imploded and died instantly. The alternatives seem worse to me.

[Sunstroke]

Number of shits given...less than one.

[Dave Gray]

Anytime people die from stuff like this, it's sad.

I don't think there's a ton of moxy.  These guys paid to take a trip.  I don't think they knew the were at serious risk of death.  I think it's just that they're so rich and it's an extravagant use of money.

I think this company is in trouble.  I saw a report the other day that a guy was fired for raising safety concerns about the quality of the vessel.

Even if they found the vessel, though, how would they go about retrieving it?

[pondwater]

Anytime people die from stuff like this, it's sad.

I don't think there's a ton of moxy.  These guys paid to take a trip.  I don't think they knew the were at serious risk of death.  I think it's just that they're so rich and it's an extravagant use of money.

I think this company is in trouble.  I saw a report the other day that a guy was fired for raising safety concerns about the quality of the vessel.

Even if they found the vessel, though, how would they go about retrieving it?

I think this is what France sent yesterday to help with the rescue that now has turned into a recovery. Seems to me, common sense would dictate that they should have designed the Titan like they did the Victor 6000. With a tether to provide oxygen, power, comms, and most importantly a means to haul that shit can up in case of an emergency that was eventually going to happen.


[/QUOTE]

[CF DolFan]

Anytime people die from stuff like this, it's sad.

I don't think there's a ton of moxy.  These guys paid to take a trip.  I don't think they knew the were at serious risk of death.  I think it's just that they're so rich and it's an extravagant use of money.

I think this company is in trouble.  I saw a report the other day that a guy was fired for raising safety concerns about the quality of the vessel.

Even if they found the vessel, though, how would they go about retrieving it?

They are so rich it’s hard for them to get excited and they become adrenaline junkies. They go to space, climb My Everest, take a very questionable sub to see the Titanic. They sign waivers for all of it so I’d have to think they knew the risks. The teenage boy dragged along by his father maybe didn’t but I have to believe the child there did.

[Brian Fein]

I am really interested in this story.  Not because of the people, to be honest.  Sure, its sad if they died, but I'm more interested in the science of what happened to the vessel.  I want to know if it was pilot error, if the vessel was shoddy, if they tried to do something dumb because they were arrogant and fearless.  I want to know what went on down there and I want them to find the sub and bring it back.

I am more interested in hearing about the story than examining the history, but sadly I think we'll never truly know what happened, unless someone in the sub had the foresight to write it all down should it ever be recovered. 

Plot twist bonus if one guy killed the other 4 to save oxygen for himself.

[CF DolFan]

The pilots wife … Wendy Rush is a great-great-granddaughter of Macy’s owner Isidor Straus, and his wife, Ida – two first-class passengers on the RMS Titanic’s maiden voyage, the New York Times reported, citing archival records. 

The Straus couple are known for their tragic love story, in which Isidor and Ida were directed to a lifeboat after the Titanic hit an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912.

"However, the ageing Isidor refused to board the lifeboat while there were younger men being prevented from boarding. Ida also refused to get into the lifeboat saying, ‘Where you go, I go,’" according to an account by the U.K.’s National Archives department.

"Her maid Ellen was put into the lifeboat and Ida gave Ellen her fur coat, saying she had no further use for it. Isidor and Ida were last seen together on deck holding hands before a wave swept them both into the sea," the account adds.“

[CF DolFan]

Interesting theories Brian!

[pondwater]

The difference between real submersible and a Walmart Great Value brand DIY sub kit. I cannot fathom a world in which this fruitcake is bragging about his groundbreaking submersible with only one physical button (green button in the top right corner) and a cheap wireless gaming controller to operate the whole vehicle. Imagine for a second, an airplane with only an "up and down" button and no other controls. Who the fuck would fly in that?

Obviously at this point it doesn't matter. I could be wrong, but in my opinion this thing imploded when comms went down and turned everyone into soup. The carbon fiber probably had been stressed to it's limit during previous dives. Carbon fiber has very high tensile strength but when it fails, it shatters.

Another stupid design flaw was that there was no means of egress from the inside. There were 17 bolts on the outside that had to be removed to exit the vehicle. Even if it did surface, they had no way to get more oxygen inside the cabin. It's hard to imagine that there's a possibility that they could find this thing floating somewhere on the surface with 5 dead bodies inside.

[pondwater]

I am really interested in this story.  Not because of the people, to be honest.  Sure, its sad if they died, but I'm more interested in the science of what happened to the vessel.  I want to know if it was pilot error, if the vessel was shoddy, if they tried to do something dumb because they were arrogant and fearless.  I want to know what went on down there and I want them to find the sub and bring it back.

I am more interested in hearing about the story than examining the history, but sadly I think we'll never truly know what happened, unless someone in the sub had the foresight to write it all down should it ever be recovered. 

Plot twist bonus if one guy killed the other 4 to save oxygen for himself.

I'm sure they all had cell phones with them. If they imploded, they probably won't find much because the currents would disperse the debris by the time it all gets to the bottom. However, if they find the vehicle intact, I'm sure they all recorded videos saying what happened and their goodbyes to everyone. 

[Spider-Dan]

The real reason why Rush didn't want "50 year old white guys" is because he didn't want anyone with actual experience telling him this nonsense was completely unsafe.  Instead, he wanted to hire naive college grads and tell them he was innovating too quickly for regulations to keep up.

There is plenty of diversity with experience from the Navy if that's what you're really going for.  But when you are cutting corners, you can't just come out and say that you want young people who will go along with your obviously dangerous schemes.  So instead, Rush spun it as wanting diverse young employees who will "inspire" customers.  It's diversity theater used as a smokescreen to justify evading regulations.

As far as the mission itself, at least Rush was in the craft when it went down.  The minimum moral benchmark here is for this guy who has so little concern for safety regulations to live his values (or, more accurately, die while living them).

[Brian Fein]

I'm sure they all had cell phones with them. If they imploded, they probably won't find much because the currents would disperse the debris by the time it all gets to the bottom. However, if they find the vehicle intact, I'm sure they all recorded videos saying what happened and their goodbyes to everyone. 

Great point, hopefully we get to see those videos some day.

[pondwater]

Great point, hopefully we get to see those videos some day.

Probably won't get to see any videos. From recent reports, it looks like it did indeed implode. Coast Guard has reported that they've found a debris field with one of Titan's landing skids and the rear fairing. I guess there's a small chance the capsule is somewhere still intact. But since they're out of oxygen, it's probably a moot point.

An expert on a live BBC feed said that the carbon fiber probably shattered and that they should have used titanium for the whole thing. There's a Coast Guard press conference at 3ET.

[pondwater]

As I thought, the Coast Guard have confirmed the likely catastrophic failure of Titan and notified the families of the occupants. On the bright side it happened in a millisecond and at least they didn't suffer. It was reported that at the time of losing comms they were trying to release ballast due to a probable decent that was too fast. 

[Brian Fein]

An employee for the company that made the Titanic tourist submersible was fired after raising concerns about sub's worthiness to descend extreme depths and refusing to greenlight manned tests of early models.  He was director of marine operations and responsible for safety of all crew and clients.

He discovered the viewing window on front of sub "was only built to a certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate intended to take passengers...to...4,000 meters...OceanGate refused to pay...to build a viewport that would meet the required depth of 4,000 meters"



I wonder how this plays out now that we know it was a hull failure, if we start seeing more drama play out related to this prior warning, or if the story just goes away as resolved.