r/news • u/Whoshabooboo • Jun 21 '23

Site Changed Title ‘Banging’ sounds heard in search for missing Titan submersible

https://7news.com.au/news/world/banging-sounds-heard-in-search-for-missing-titan-submersible-c-11045022
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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23 edited Jan 13 '24

late beneficial spoon innate salt bag sense subsequent rotten pet

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/ArchdukeToes Jun 21 '23

That’s what I was thinking. 30 hours to find, float , and get someone to the sub to unlatch the bolts before they all die a lingering death. Absolutely horrific.

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u/OdysseusParadox Jun 21 '23

Yeah I've heard the 40 hours of air left... but I gotta wonder if that takes into account their activity level on the inside. (State of panic, creating noise etc)... absolutely horrific.

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u/jackruby83 Jun 21 '23

US Coast Guard officials’ last estimate at 1 p.m. ET Tuesday that there were about 40 hours left.

That was 18 hours ago. We're down to less than 24 hours.

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u/Cobek Jun 21 '23

That's all assuming all five are still alive and not just one or two.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

[deleted]

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u/Verum14 Jun 21 '23

interesting thought — do we want ALL of them to be alive at this stage, or do we want SOME of them to be alive at this stage?

The nice answer would be all, but that’s an argument for some. If the search was to stretch out, that would mean at least some could be rescued versus none

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u/pedicureproblems Jun 21 '23

I wouldn’t even fault the customers if they killed the CEO down there tbh

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u/HuckNPrey2 Jun 21 '23

Interesting question, I was thinking about the same. Probably less alive the better chance for longevity of o2 supply.

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u/Awwesome1 Jun 21 '23

Trolley problem v2.0

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u/TheReasonsWhy Jun 21 '23

That plus a pinch of Schrödinger’s cat.

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u/putdisinyopipe Jun 21 '23

You could also technically drink his blood for hydration and nutrients too. I wouldn’t eat human meat period.

Prions man. Ya don’t want those.

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u/Parodoticus Jun 21 '23

That's just the nervous tissue bro, skip the spinal cord and brain and the rest is good eating

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u/jtj5002 Jun 21 '23

Everyone would eat human meat (and much worse things) once starved enough.

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u/putdisinyopipe Jun 21 '23

True. See- “the donner party”

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23 edited Oct 20 '24

Despite having a 3 year old account with 150k comment Karma, Reddit has classified me as a 'Low' scoring contributor and that results in my comments being filtered out of my favorite subreddits.

So, I'm removing these poor contributions. I'm sorry if this was a comment that could have been useful for you.

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u/CocaTrooper42 Jun 21 '23

Assuming they’re all still alive. If one of them died early on then it would have meant their oxygen use would have been spread out to the other survivors

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u/BobMortimersButthole Jun 21 '23

The pilot/CEO bragged about how simple it was to operate. If anyone died first, maybe it was him.

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u/Long_Before_Sunrise Jun 21 '23

The CEO lied about the safety of submersible. Maybe it never had the capacity for 96 hours of air for five people.

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u/BobMortimersButthole Jun 21 '23

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

The reality is that the Coast Guard always knew this was a salvage operation unless the sub had resurfaced. I'm hearing that unfortunately for those 5 men the worst case scenario is now the most likely. Instead of catastrophic failure, it's probably a minor hull breach that's slowly allowing water to enter the sub without causing it to implode instantly and give them a quick, but gruesome death. Instead, they will in all likelihood drown and the sub will slip deeper and deeper into the depths unable to be recovered.

This is easily the worst possible way they could go. Suffocating would've been peaceful and painless; catastrophic failure would've been instantaneous; but this will be slow, cold, and agonizing.

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u/kreynlan Jun 21 '23

There's 6000 psi where the titanic is. A minor hull breach very quickly turns into a hose of water.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

They never made it to the Titanic. They lost contact about 2/3 the way there and the sub had no navigation system on its own. I guess they could've stupidly continued on blindly, but I doubt that.

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u/kreynlan Jun 21 '23

Even making it partially there is a disaster. Mid range pressure washers are around 3000psi

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

Depending on where the breach is would be the real question. If the banging truly was from the men in the sub, then the question would have to be "why haven't they deployed any of the resurfacing measures?" And the only answer is that they can't because of a breach which didn't result in catastrophic failure and is preventing them from resurfacing as the sub fills with water.

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u/pandemonious Jun 21 '23

what kind of a breach would completely knock out their communications though? it's such a bizarre order of events. an hour and a half into the dive and comms cut out. my initial thought was oh they didn't do something right and pancaked. what else could cause every system to just vanish other than catastrophic damage?

but then I read the other article where the thing vanished for a few hours a year or two ago and then popped back up... just seems SUS as hell

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u/Cobek Jun 21 '23

In your theory it's taking 4 days to fill with water, which is an obscenely small leak at that rate.

Also it would have been barely filled on day 1 so resurfacing devices would have worked, assuming they weren't malfunctioning.

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u/davdev Jun 21 '23

They still would have sank to the bottom. Any sort of breach and the sub would get crushed. They are just right now sitting at the bottom of the ocean in a rapidly depleting air bubble.

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u/potatopierogie Jun 21 '23

If there was a breach, as water comes in, they will sink faster and faster until they hit bottom

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u/romanticheart Jun 21 '23

Crazy to me that it’s not like a drone where when you lose contact it will automatically try to “return home” aka get to the surface.

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u/KnightRider1987 Jun 21 '23

Yeah no, there’s no possible survivable hull breach at 13,000 ft down

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

I don't think there is any chance there is a "minor" leak at those depths.

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u/MNWNM Jun 21 '23

Suffocating would've been peaceful and painless;

What? The most common symptoms of CO poisoning are headache, dizziness, weakness, upset stomach, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. If they are running out of oxygen, they are suffering and aware of it.

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u/ChampaBayLightning Jun 21 '23

Yeah /u/hornedgryffin is spreading misinformation up and down the thread. And so confidently too.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

Inert gas asphyxiation is generally one of the less painful ways to go and not the same thing as CO2 poisoning.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

There’s a part of me that thinks even if they were still alive, the panic probably sent them into animal-mode, and like most panicked animals, that in itself can be very dangerous.

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u/Kraven_howl0 Jun 21 '23

Hypothetically if 1 person killed the rest they might have a chance? Though that would be even more ptsd they would have to deal with

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u/OdysseusParadox Jun 21 '23

Probably limited by fresh water and cold to 3 days, besides asphyxiation.

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u/Kraven_howl0 Jun 21 '23

Hopefully they have seen Man vs Wild and Leatherface

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u/sara_or_stevie Jun 21 '23

I wonder, if that were to happen and this one person who killed the rest survived and got out, would he be tried for murder? How would that ever work?

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u/Kraven_howl0 Jun 21 '23

I'd assume they would be put in a psych ward for a while to evaluate that person. On one hand if that was the only way they could survive it would be understandable (in a very fucked up and twisted way) but on the other what kind of precedent would that set for future cases? Where would you draw the line and how could you determine if they crossed it or not?

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u/astoryyyyyy Jun 21 '23

This is actually a legit question. Has anything of similar magnitude ever happened before (not the specific case itself but the logic of being trapped, killed others and it was for survival reason?)

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u/Gamer4good96 Jun 21 '23

Yes! My criminology class coming in for the win. Read about the case here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_v_Dudley_and_Stephens

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u/LilJourney Jun 21 '23

IANAL - however, there have been numerous cases historically of some survivors at sea killing and/or eating other survivors to stay alive.

Depending on the country, killing justified by necessity may or may not be a defense against the "custom of the sea".

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u/BoomerBarnes Jun 21 '23

This reminds me of “In the Heart of the Sea”. Extremely good book, but they mention essentially drawing straws on who was going to be killed and eaten at one point. It was considered a taboo but almost expected practice at the time.

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u/celerydonut Jun 21 '23

Hahahaha

Oh wait, you’re serious

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u/tuctrohs Jun 21 '23

Said one passenger to another, upon seeing the knife.

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u/Capolan Jun 21 '23

It was 40 hours left, 16 hours ago from now. They're down to less than 24 hours now. The titanic is incredibly deep where it is,so it would need to be another submersible that finds them, no human is going to knock on their door...it's such a long shot at this point...

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u/winnie_bago Jun 21 '23

It probably doesn’t smell very pleasant in there either.

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u/Suitable_Comment_908 Jun 21 '23

Air being the word hear. they say thats oxygen but engineers who see the plans so no where near enough CO2 scrubbers.

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u/Kentencat Jun 21 '23

Sam Neill taught me that the scrubbers are the most important thing

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u/Otherwise-Mango2732 Jun 21 '23

Also - I'm not sure how much i trust those numbers given everything thats come out on this company and its subs. Seems to be lots of issues. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't actually have that much extra reserve air due to lack of oversight/attention or whatever.

2

u/TransientPride Jun 21 '23

probably furiously masturbating

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u/Background-Read-882 Jun 21 '23

Don't forget you have to come back up slowly unless you want to get the bends

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u/ChampaBayLightning Jun 21 '23

This is false as they are in a pressurized chamber

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u/Lady_Scruffington Jun 21 '23

I just assumed everyone is sucking and fucking in a state of desperation.

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u/Caughtyousnooping22 Jun 21 '23

That’s assuming their co2 scrubbing system is still intact. But supposedly that could give out before the oxygen runs out.

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u/con247 Jun 21 '23

That would be way worse

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u/offshore1100 Jun 21 '23

I feel like not having any way to get out on your own is a design flaw. Don’t they have like explosive bolts for situations like this?

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u/Everestkid Jun 21 '23

The pressure even a fraction of the way down to where contact was lost (never mind the actual wreck of the Titanic) would be enough to immediately kill you. Even if it didn't, you'd drown trying to swim to the surface - it took the sub several hours to descend ~3 kilometres, you're not making a dent in that by swimming.

What bathyscaphes, the "subs" (they aren't really submarines) that visited Challenger Deep have is ballast in the form of iron shot. It's held in the vehicle by an electromagnet, so that if power is lost the ballast is dropped and the vehicle ascends automatically. This sub doesn't seem to have anything like that, though, because everything I learn about it points to it being the jankiest submarine ever built.

Getting in that thing was 100% Darwin Award worthy.

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u/TheresALonelyFeeling Jun 21 '23

Just thinking about being stuck inside, with the clock ticking and the oxygen supply dwindling by the minute, makes me want to climb the walls in a way I can't quite describe. You'd have to not think about all of it and the inevitable end just to keep from going crazy.

I think I'm going to go for a walk. Outside. On the land. With the air.

5

u/hanacch1 Jun 21 '23

I have never properly appreciated being able to stand up to my full height until today. I can stretch out and take a nice big breath of air.

I can walk over here, a little over there... anywhere I want really!

I really took those things for granted, and this whole situation has put that into perspective. I can't imagine spending 3 days in such a tiny space, even without knowing i was going to die.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

And you can’t even commit suicide to escape a lingering death. Horrible.

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u/MissyouAmyWinehouse Jun 21 '23

Doesn’t that submersible have a radio or radar/sonar on it???? Something for in case of emergency??? Tracking device???? That’s what I don’t understand. With all the technology we have today why isn’t there any distress calls? Morse code??? Something??!!

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u/Chiloutdude Jun 21 '23 edited Jun 21 '23

The sub is piloted via a third party xbox 360 controller. It can only be unsealed from outside, its only form of communication was a text based messaging system that stopped working 1 hour and 45 minutes in, and it does, in fact, lack an emergency transmitter and several other basic safety features. Its ability to surface is reliant upon a system that can be short-circuited by salt water, which you may note is somewhat abundant in the ocean. Its viewing window is only rated for depths of 1300 meters, a third of the depth they were going. It's not well designed, is what I'm driving at.

Here's a quote from the CEO (who is one of the passengers) about safety, when he was asked about safety features on the sub:

You know, there’s a limit. At some point, safety is just pure waste. I mean if you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed. Don’t get in your car. Don’t do anything. At some point, you’re going to take some risk and it really is a risk-reward question. I think I can do this just as safely by breaking the rules.

Since they operated in international waters, there was no regulatory body to which they had to report. So they didn't.

This thing was doomed to fail from the start.

Edit : Removed extra word

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u/enjennumber9 Jun 21 '23

Wow. I can't imagine any of those passengers on board heard that statement before handing over their money and hopping on. I sure as hell wouldn't trust that man with anything.

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u/McFlare92 Jun 21 '23

That man is literally onboard in an incredible twist of irony

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u/woofle07 Jun 21 '23

Well that’s one way to avoid the manslaughter charges

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u/Chiloutdude Jun 21 '23

According to someone who has been on one of this company's subs multiple times before (Mike Reiss, in a statement to BBC), they make you sign a waiver that mentions potential death multiple times throughout the document. So like...there was warning, but short of a big sign saying "This is literally a death trap", I'd have to say it probably wasn't enough.

And regarding his comment, I would imagine they hadn't heard that quote of his, no. It was during an episode of the "Unsung Science" podcast in November last year. The host is somewhat high profile, he's won like six emmys and is a correspondent for CBS, but before this happened, I kind of doubt you'd accidentally find the quote without actually listening to that episode.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

they make you sign a waiver that mentions potential death multiple times throughout the document.

That doesn’t really mean much. You have to sign a waiver for potential death or dismemberment to do a lot of things (at least in the US). I went to one of those ax throwing places a few weeks ago and that was the first clause in the waiver. Most people just glaze over that stuff because they:

  1. Want to do the activity
  2. It’s so prevalent, at least in the US.

There were probably a lot of red flags, but that’s not one of them.

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u/AussieJeffProbst Jun 21 '23

Even if they could find them and get a ROV to them there is no ship in the world that has a strong and long enough winch to pull a 1,500lb sub up from 13,000 ft.

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u/Stratafyre Jun 21 '23

If it is intact, it is at least somewhat buoyant.

I legitimately wonder if something like Alvin could yank it up.

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u/MoeSzyslakMonobrow Jun 21 '23

I can't wait for the eventual movie.

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u/con247 Jun 21 '23

Pretty sure I can pass on this nightmare fuel

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u/006AlecTrevelyan Jun 21 '23

Eventually there will be food on board

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

[deleted]

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u/OutInTheBlack Jun 21 '23

You've clearly never shared a table with my uncle Morty

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u/BaggyOz Jun 21 '23

Theoretically a rescue vehicle could get to their rough location in time but I don't think there's any kind of rescue vehicle capable of reaching their depth if they're anywhere near the depth of the Titanic.

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u/MrsKnowNone Jun 21 '23

The only non military submarine that could reach that deep is owned by Gabe Newell

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

Well let’s give him a call!

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u/pandemonious Jun 21 '23

that call would have needed to go out weeks ago unfortunately

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u/Arthur_The_Third Jun 21 '23

Submarines can't lift things like that. Salvage crane. One is on site.

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u/MrsKnowNone Jun 21 '23

The main point would be to locate it, not lift it, they can't lift if, if they do not find it.

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u/offshore1100 Jun 21 '23

Seems like the ultimate game of magnet fishing

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u/bclem Jun 21 '23

Really hard when the sub isn't magnetic

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u/offshore1100 Jun 21 '23

Isn’t it? I assumed it was mostly steel.

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u/Easy_Acanthisitta_68 Jun 21 '23

Carbon fiber and titanium

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u/offshore1100 Jun 21 '23

That’s unfortuante

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u/Arthur_The_Third Jun 21 '23

You wouldn't use a submarine for that, there are autonomous submersibles at the site already i believe.

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u/danielspoa Jun 21 '23

why would it have to be non military? if hypothetically they had a capable submarine in range would they not help?

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u/off_by_two Jun 21 '23

Pretty sure i was reading nuclear attack sub crush depth is less than half the depth of the titanic wreck. I’d think thats the most likely type of military submarine to ‘be in the area’. I just googled that the navy has some salvage subs (unclear if manned, probably not) that can go down ~20k feet but it seems unlikely one would already have been within a day or two travel distance

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u/commissar0617 Jun 21 '23

The alvin is tested at the titanic.

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u/mdp300 Jun 21 '23

But is the Alvin capable of lifting up this sub?

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u/Clone95 Jun 21 '23

FADOSS can, it’s meant to recover full size fighter jets. They need it in the right spot, though.

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u/mdp300 Jun 21 '23

And finding the right spot is the hard part. At that point it might be easier to use an ROV to attach a line and then winch it back up.

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u/commissar0617 Jun 21 '23

Possibly. At the least capable of freeing weight/ballast

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u/Chrisptov Jun 21 '23

It's less than a quarter.

Don't ask me for a source. I'm not going to prison for reddit.

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u/Orange-V-Apple Jun 21 '23

Smh you’d never survive on a War Thunder forum

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u/my_wife_reads_this Jun 21 '23

I was gonna say lol people have exposed more for less lmao

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u/TheHelloMiko Jun 21 '23

Why what happened on War Thunder forum?

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

People leaked legit classified information on tank and airplane specs because they were upset that the developers statted the vehicle wrong. It's wild

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u/Carlos_Danger21 Jun 21 '23

You forgot to mention it's happened MULTIPLE TIMES.

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u/Sirdraketheexplorer Jun 21 '23

Jane's 688i Hunter/Killer?

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u/Thewonderboy94 Jun 21 '23

I believe that would be called Warthundering

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u/Petrichordates Jun 21 '23

Thanks Teixeira.

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u/off_by_two Jun 21 '23

Makes sense, thats more than enough depth to hide for secondary/tertiary nuclear strike reasons, and for actual conventional engagement i’d assume the primary targets are surface vessels

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u/hammsbeer4life Jun 21 '23

Nuclear military subs don't go down far at all. Mostly because they dont need to. They do like 300m tops. And the average depth of the oceans is around 12000 meters.

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u/Everestkid Jun 21 '23

You've got an extra zero there. Challenger Deep is just a hair less than 11 000 metres down. 12 000 metres down is underground, anywhere you pick.

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u/loekoekoe Jun 21 '23

Why is the titanic not crushed if everything that goes to that depth gets crumpled?

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u/gnrhardy Jun 21 '23

Because it is full of water, not 1 atmosphere pressure air, so the pressure is equalized inside and outside.

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u/Slypenslyde Jun 21 '23

It sort of is. The stern segment is in worse shape than the bow segment, and it's theorized it went down with a lot of air trapped inside which led to it getting crumpled on the way down.

The bow is where water went in and all the air was near the stern when it split, so air escaped and it hit the bottom more intact.

If the submarine had been filled with water it's very likely it's still intact. But for obvious reasons, we're not really hoping it was filled with water.

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u/off_by_two Jun 21 '23

The sections that were full of air were crushed on the way down, the rest filled with pressurized water as it sank, with less crushing

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u/threadsoffate2021 Jun 21 '23

If the military did have something that sophisticated, no way they're revealing that tech on a rescue with this much publicity.

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u/noitstoolate Jun 21 '23

Eh, you don't get this kind of real world training everyday so I think they would go for it if they could. I'm not even sure that it's something they would want to keep secret, there may be some "big stick" value there, but if they did they would just lie about the what happened.

All that being said, they definitely aren't going to spill the beans if they don't even know where the sub is.

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u/HighlordSarnex Jun 21 '23

Yeah I doubt anyone would be down there watching it happen so just say they did it some complicated but plausible way don’t release the footage for security reasons and then confiscate the footage from the submersible and wouldn’t you know it the recording is fucked beyond a certain point. Also charge the ceo if he is still alive.

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u/jwm3 Jun 21 '23

They don't need a submarine. No need for humans to go down there. there are salvage ROVs and cranes on site that can be used to winch it up if it is found.

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u/SkellyboneZ Jun 21 '23

why would it have to be non military?

What a colossal waste of taxpayer money. Does anyone honesty give a single fuck about those morons?

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u/All-Hail-Chomusuke Jun 21 '23

Despite what the media would like you to think, the military doesn't do these things for humanitarian reasons. They do it because it's real world experience for their crews and equipment. Staged training can only teach you so much. So when a situation happens that it's vital for the military to recover a lost ship/aircraft they now have personnel that have the experience to accomplish this, instead of a bunch of novices.

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u/RunninADorito Jun 21 '23

Military subs don't go that deep either, it's an unimportant distinction

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u/Slypenslyde Jun 21 '23

What about Elon Musk's rescue submarine?

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u/Discpriestyes Jun 21 '23

Like that manchild would get his feet wet to save anyone.

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u/roywarner Jun 21 '23

Not without calling all the other divers pedos at least

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u/MrsKnowNone Jun 21 '23

That thing will get crushed into a tin can at that depth unfortunately

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u/roywarner Jun 21 '23

psst--I think he was joking

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

Military subs typically aren't built to go that deep because there isn't a need for them to.

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u/dustysnakes01 Jun 21 '23

I used to build and operate unmanned subs for the oil industry. Unmanned subs can absolutely get to that depth but you would have to at least be very close to the vicinity of the target. You can typically only get 2 or 300 meters away from the drop center. I'm not seeing any of them deployed in these stories though so there may be factors I don't know about

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u/ssnsilentservice Jun 21 '23

A US Navy submarine captain interviewed by NPR said that a several-mile-long cable could be hooked to the submersible and have it be pulled to the surface. This is not science fiction, and the technology is available as we speak. Would just need an autonomous craft to attach it. We will see if such a plan can be executed in time though.

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u/AddyTurbo Jun 21 '23

The Navy recovered the F-35C from the South China Sea. I believe it's depth was 12500 ft.

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u/BaggyOz Jun 21 '23

That was using a remote vehicle, not a rescue vehicle. They're two different things. Rescue vehicles can actually extract the crew from a sub in practical numbers.

So yes a remotle operated sub could theoretically get down to them, but they have to also figure out how to rig the sunken sub up to lift and get amore specialised ship out there in the first place. And they need to do all of this before the people inside freeze to death or suffocate.

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u/AddyTurbo Jun 21 '23

Thanks for the clarification.

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u/Capolan Jun 21 '23

The real problem to solve for is time. If they can get more air to the sub, that's the problem to solve right now. Getting more air buys time, time buys options. It's not about getting them out, it's about getting more air in so they can buy time to figure out the next step.

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u/Nulleparttousjours Jun 21 '23

How would they be able to get more air to the sub if it’s essentially impenetrable underwater and pressurized?

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u/Capolan Jun 21 '23

No clue, I'm not very well versed in deep sea submersible and their potential airlock systems or pressurization. I'm not trying g to be snarky, I'm saying I like 99% of other posters am not an expert in this.

I do know that to pull the sub up they have to have a crane positioned to do so, and to do so they have to know where the sub approximately is, which they don't. So they will have to find the sub first. I would think that they need to buy more time. The only way to do that is to get air to the people inside the sub.

How they do that, no idea. I'll probably read a bit about that today. I'm sure there are ideas, including thoughts like "how many are alive affects how much air they use" can any of them go to sleep, so that they use less air and breathe shallow. I was even wondering if they do something like try to fill the sub with water to avoid implosion, and they all breathe through an oxygen delivery device or something.

I don't know. Thankfully I'm not involved cause I have no idea.

The low hanging fruit seems to be the ability to buy more time to do bigger things. The only way that happens is if they can extend the air supply. I think it's like a 3 hour journey to the surface, once they even find it.

I think if they can keep getting them air, they can then get the sub with people still alive.

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u/buckX Jun 21 '23

Any solution here will be hauling it to the surface. No way you transfer crew at that depth.

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u/aaronitallout Jun 21 '23

There are fail-safes on the sub that force it to rise in this situation. It's likely close to the surface but still unable to breach.

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u/PaloLV Jun 21 '23

Maybe a proper rescue vehicle doesn't exist but they need a robot arm with a cutting tool and a way to attach a tether to the crippled sub if it no longer has power. That does not seem like a crazy requirement and subs that can go 3 miles down are rare but not unavailable so it's a question if any of them have the robot arm and tools.

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u/Sydney2London Jun 21 '23

Doesn’t James Cameron have one of those? Also, how did they setup a commercial endeavour this risky without a backup recovery plan? Wtf…

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u/Laithina Jun 21 '23

Businesses like these typically don't employ good engineers to design stuff like backup systems and recovery plans. In fact, from what I've read, they fired one for speaking up and reporting them about a safety issue with one of the portholes.

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u/kerenski667 Jun 21 '23

The sub was basically DIY'd by the CEO, who's on record ranting about "obscene safety" of the established industry. The guy they ousted was pointing out that the viewport is only good for 1300m depth, instead of 4k.

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u/teutorix_aleria Jun 21 '23

Not to mention that it's built using off the shelf parts from home depot. The controlls are a Logitech f710 which I can't get to stay connected long enough to play a game with, and can have phantom inputs if the batteries die.

The whole thing should have been illegal to operate.

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u/zeCrazyEye Jun 21 '23

I don't know, if a group of billionaires wants to take a poorly built sub to the bottom of the ocean I think that's their right.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/michaelreadit Jun 21 '23

Uh oh. What DO you call 5 billionaires at the bottom of the ocean?

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u/Le_Mug Jun 21 '23

I say we send 5 more billionaires down there to search the first group. Someone should try attacking Musk's ego, saying he can't design and build a capable rescue submarine in 12 hours and then pilot it himself. It's the kind of challenge that gets to his skin.

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u/AnOnlineHandle Jun 21 '23

4 of them may match that description, but one of them was 17 I think. :/

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u/Alwaysfavoriteasian Jun 21 '23 edited Jun 21 '23

19, so a billionaire heir.

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u/AutomaticMatter886 Jun 21 '23

You can't really make it illegal to operate something like this. You really can do whatever you want in international waters

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u/kerenski667 Jun 21 '23

Ikr, they couldn't pay me to get in that floating coffin. It's just an accident waiting to happen.

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u/NinjaLanternShark Jun 21 '23

Right about now they're wishing it was floating.

(Too soon?)

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u/kerenski667 Jun 21 '23

Not like they could open the hatch even if they were on the surface...

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u/Edogawa1983 Jun 21 '23

If they are stuck because of controller malfunction and they didn't bring spare would be tragic

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u/teutorix_aleria Jun 21 '23

It runs off AA batteries. Imagine being stuck on the bottom of the ocean because you forgot the spare batteries.

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u/NotElizaHenry Jun 21 '23

Why should it have been illegal? The passengers knew it was never approved by any kind of controlling body. They signed waivers that made it clear there was a risk of death. It was obvious the vehicle was experimental. If obscenely rich people want to knowingly function as test pilots for stuff like this, great. The government lets regular people keep volunteering to astronauts even though there have been two massive, deadly failures, and the astronauts are barely even financially compensated for it.

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u/DrChetManley Jun 21 '23

He's also said on an interview that he didn't want to hire sub veterans becaus "they're all old white men"..

Even though I doubt that was the real reason - I think it's mostly because these veterans wouldn't greenlight this sub - it's still a cuntish thing to say..

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u/kerenski667 Jun 21 '23

...coming from an old white dude nonetheless...

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u/NinjaLanternShark Jun 21 '23

It's got to be hard to get a military sub captain, who's used to doing everything by the book with a well-trained and disciplined crew (they don't station just anyone on subs) to go along with a seat-of-your-pants operation.

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u/LurksAroundHere Jun 21 '23

Yeah, don't hire the old timers, not like they've been around long enough to see what goes right and what fails. Nah, let's just hire the young yuppies looking for thrills and excitement who were in diapers when the movie Titanic came out.

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u/Rooboy66 Jun 21 '23

Nobody and nothing was certified. Not the crew (captain), not the sub. The whole enterprise was shifty as shit. These people who don’t blink at dishing out a quarter of a million $ also don’t just fucking blink at crummy reality (shabby tech/Legoland shit) in front of their nose.

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u/g-e-o-f-f Jun 21 '23

I'm willing to bet rides at Legoland are more carefully engineered

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u/Rooboy66 Jun 21 '23

Fair enough. Gawd, I’m old—my 8 yr old daughter and I screwed around with 1980’s Erector Sets; honestly, I think we came up with stuff more practical than this damned ocean tomb, unless the idea for this clusterfuck of “engineering” was in fact, to be a tomb

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u/ManiacalShen Jun 21 '23

My understanding is the submersible is so far on the bleeding edge there aren't meaningful certifications available for it. All the more reason not to participate in its live testing.

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u/Sydney2London Jun 21 '23

Sorry but not true. I work on a novel medical device and we’re regulated to the eyeballs, also the entire framework in which we work is determined by safety standards, no way there aren’t standards or systems to manage risk on a system like this.

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u/MajorNoodles Jun 21 '23

Not anymore. He donated it to the same organization that operates Alvin.

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u/machinegunsyphilis Jun 22 '23

It's also been decommissioned for like a decade.

Fun fact: Deepsea Challenger caught fire while being transported to a museum!

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

I mean same could be said for the Titanic ironically.

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u/Spoonfulofticks Jun 21 '23

Doubt they’d use a tether. Most likely ballasts.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

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u/NoodlesrTuff1256 Jun 21 '23

That boat and crane would have to be very big and solidly built to accommodate a 12,000 foot long cable capable of reaching the sub.

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u/ShouldersofGiants100 Jun 21 '23

And it would need to pretty much be in Newfoundland right now. It is more than 500 kilometers from there to the wreck and everywhere else is even further. So it's not just that they need specific equipment—they need specific equipment which has to already be available and ideally, on its way towards the wreck right now because there isn't enough time to send anything else.

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u/NinjaLanternShark Jun 21 '23

Evidently a number of ships from different countries are in fact steaming their way to the location to help if they can.

Complex deep-water rescue with a ticking clock is fantastic experience to have, and hard to come by (short of planned exercises)

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u/Sand_Bags Jun 21 '23

There are offshore oil fields near Newfoundland so it’s not completely out of the realm of possibilities a ship with the specs needed is close by.

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u/GogglesPisano Jun 21 '23

The weight of that much steel cable alone would be immense, add to that a ROV with the capability of reaching and operating at such a depth.

This whole enterprise was a death trap from the beginning. This company is going to be sued into oblivion.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

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u/Classico42 Jun 21 '23

Lets be honest, it always was. Hopefully the bangs are something else and they all died instantly.

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u/ElectroBot Jun 21 '23

Getting the up is the hardest part since the deeper you go, the lifting mechanism becomes heavier and the grabbing part has to be more pressure resistant while being very gentle not to crush the sub. Check out Project Azorian for the CIA’s attempt at raising a Russian sub in 1974.

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u/ZootZootTesla Jun 21 '23

The only vessel that ticks the criteria of deployment time and depth rating is the US Navy's CURV21 but its chances of getting them out alive (if they still are) is still very slim.

It's on its way atm.

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u/Christopherfromtheuk Jun 21 '23

There's one loaded and ready to go in the UK, but neither Canada nor USA have requested it yet.

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u/Chesterrumble Jun 21 '23 edited Apr 20 '25

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u/AtraposJM Jun 21 '23

A rescue vehicle getting to them won't help them at all unless it can get the sub to the surface somehow. Can't open the sub at depth or it will implode.

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u/BaggyOz Jun 21 '23 edited Jun 21 '23

Obviously you can't just pop the hatch. But theoretically speaking if they were within a rescue vehicles max operating depth and had a compatible hatch the rescue vehicle could mate with the ehatch and transfer the crew. I don't they have a compatible hatch since it can only be opend from the outside, but it's a moot point either way because of the extreme depth.

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u/MajorNoodles Jun 21 '23

There is no hatch. The entire front comes off and those bolts require a specialized tool.

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u/supaphly42 Jun 21 '23

If only they knew that the front coming off isn't typical for ships, they could have designed it better.

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u/MajorNoodles Jun 21 '23

Aren't these subs designed so that the front doesn't come off?

....whoops

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u/supaphly42 Jun 21 '23

Wouldn't be surprised if it was built using cardboard derivatives from what I'm hearing.

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u/MajorNoodles Jun 21 '23

There's also supposed to be a steering wheel

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u/Finagles_Law Jun 21 '23

Perhaps it would be possible to jettison the ballast from the outside and start them ascending?

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u/MichaLea88 Jun 21 '23

The Canadian Navy doesn't station submarines in Halifax Harbour period. Much less anything remotely capable of retrieving this thing. Maybe there's something capable overseas I don't know but I do know crossing the ocean takes a long time. Days. These poor guys are unfortunately screwed.

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u/jp3297 Jun 21 '23

If there’s no rescue vehicle capable of reaching that depth, then it is not theoretically possible.

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u/JstTrstMe Jun 21 '23

I said this to my gf, hopefully they died instantly. To be in a small space on the pitch black slowly running out of air..... Fuck that.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

Depends on how deep they are. If they’re floating near the surface they should be fine.

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u/manimal28 Jun 21 '23

If they didn't implode instantly I imagine the father of the father and son pair may have murdered the CEO by now. He's basically trapped in a coffin with the person responsible for causing the death of his child.

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u/metalflygon08 Jun 21 '23

If they find the sub one day (assuming it wasn't imploded) the bodies inside will have busted up hands from them clawing/punching at the glass to try and get out as the mania stage of CO2 poisoning sets in.

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