Oceangate Titan debacle

[pondwater]

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.

I hadn't thought about the porthole window. I guess that's a good possibility also. I'm sure they'll recover the front hatch eventually. If the window is still somewhat intact, it would point to the carbon fiber tube being the failure point.

[Brian Fein]

I thought the Coast Guard guy said they found the tail cone and the front bell.  So whether or not they try to retrieve them to the surface hasn't been stated yet.

[Dave Gray]

Wouldn't debris indicate complete and total structural failure?  I would think there isn't a "them" if we're dealing with implosion.  Would you just be instantly squished into fish food?

[pondwater]

Wouldn't debris indicate complete and total structural failure?  I would think there isn't a "them" if we're dealing with implosion.  Would you just be instantly squished into fish food?

Instant soup. Lol'd @ the rear admiral noping out of the press conference when someone asked the last question "what about the bodies? Will they be brought up??"

He was like aww fukk bye

[CF DolFan]

Wouldn't debris indicate complete and total structural failure?  I would think there isn't a "them" if we're dealing with implosion.  Would you just be instantly squished into fish food?

Titanic Five died instantly when craft suffered 'catastrophic implosion' 1,600ft from the bow of the wrecked liner: Coastguard has found multiple parts of the destroyed sub but CANNOT say if bodies can be recovered Can't imagine much will be left intact.


Kind of a crazy comparison but true by James Cameron

James Cameron breaks silence on deadly Titanic Five sub disaster and says it reminds him of Titanic sinking because the 'captain was repeatedly warned' but 'steamed full-speed ahead'

[Dave Gray]

I am always saddened by human suffering.  We make light of things like that, and that's fine -- and there's some level of Darwin Award going on here, for putting yourself at unnecessary risk and all that.

But we all die.  If they did implode and they didn't see it coming and they were just living out the dream of seeing the Titanic and the next minute, there just ceases to be a minute, that isn't all that sad.  They probably went out in a way more pleasant than most of us will.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

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.

There will be some drama but not much.  The families of the three passengers will sue Oceangate and the estate of Rush.  Oceangate will go bankrupt and cease operations.   

[Brian Fein]

Wouldn't debris indicate complete and total structural failure?  I would think there isn't a "them" if we're dealing with implosion.  Would you just be instantly squished into fish food?

The "them" I was referring to is the pieces of submersible, not the people.  I'm more interesting in learning more about failure analysis and what caused it, although it seems some people think they already know

[Downunder Dolphan]

Wouldn't debris indicate complete and total structural failure?  I would think there isn't a "them" if we're dealing with implosion.  Would you just be instantly squished into fish food?

If you read about the Byford Dolphin accident (where there was an instantaneous pressure drop from nine atmospheres to one at 155m) I think that's an insight.

An instantaneous change of around 400 atmoshpheres at 4000m would turn the five occupants into chum. Death in theory should have been instantaneous and painless, but there will be virtually nothing left of them to recover.

[pondwater]

If you read about the Byford Dolphin accident (where there was an instantaneous pressure drop from nine atmospheres to one at 155m) I think that's an insight.

An instantaneous change of around 400 atmoshpheres at 4000m would turn the five occupants into chum. Death in theory should have been instantaneous and painless, but there will be virtually nothing left of them to recover.

Actually, I saw this the other day and it kinda makes sense. Seems like pressure in addition to the heat generated turns the capsule into a disposable single use crematorium. Maybe there's some larger bone fragments, teeth, or unburned chunks that were expelled before they got burned.

What happens in an implosion?

When a submarine hull collapses, it moves inward at about 1,500 miles per hour - that’s 2,200 feet per second.

The time required for complete collapse is 20 / 2,200 seconds = about 1 millisecond.

A human brain responds instinctually to stimulus at about 25 milliseconds. Human rational response (sense→reason→act) is at best 150 milliseconds.

The air inside a sub has a fairly high concentration of hydrocarbon vapors.

When the hull collapses it behaves like a very large piston on a very large Diesel engine.

The air auto-ignites and an explosion follows the initial rapid implosion. Large blobs of fat (that would be humans) incinerate and are turned to ash and dust quicker than you can blink your eye.

[Spider-Dan]

pondwater, can you provide a link to that statement?  I'd like to reference it.

I have a coworker that insists that the bodies are still down there to be found because, and I quote, "Water is slow" and there's no way bones could be instantly destroyed by water.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Oceangate is an interesting choice of a name, first time I saw a headline I immediately thought it was a made up term to describe some sort of scandal.  Ever since watergate gate is synonymous with scandal.

[pondwater]

pondwater, can you provide a link to that statement?  I'd like to reference it.

I have a coworker that insists that the bodies are still down there to be found because, and I quote, "Water is slow" and there's no way bones could be instantly destroyed by water.

Just Google: Dave Corley What happens in an implosion? This quote is from the BBC article, but I've seen several over the week. I'm more interested in the failure in the sub and how they died. Actually, it makes sense. At that depth and pressure, it would act exactly like a combustion chamber. All of the combustible gasses in the chamber and blobs of fat being compressed that fast.

Either way, dust or chum, they're dead. Let that be a lesson boys and girls. Don't do stupid shit.......

[Fau Teixeira]

The best analogy i saw was that bodies at that depth stop being biology and start being physics

[Pappy13]

I don't think they knew the were at serious risk of death.o about retrieving it?

I think you would be surprised that most of the people that died knew there were risks, but they went anyway. I mean they signed a waiver that explicitly states you could die in it several times. The very fact you have to sign a waiver is a dead giveaway that there are serious risks. Because they ignored them you don't think they were aware? No. They were aware and they felt invincible because up to this point they have been. Ok, no harm in that. People die of doing stupid shit all the time because they don't think about the consequences.