That sub thing

That submersible that was lost while going for a sight-seeing trip to the Titanic was not a great choice.

Missing Titanic submersible live updates: Navy likely detected implosion sound Sunday

Past Titan Dives Suffered From Potentially Catastrophic Problems, Passengers Confirm

Quote :

At least one passenger pulled out of a trip—and lost his $88,000 deposit—when OceanGate failed to properly address his safety concerns. Of course, the CEO of OceanGate and one of the men currently lost in the Titan, Stockton Rush, wasn’t much for safety, as he said on the podcast Unsung Science:

Quote :

“You know, there’s a limit. At some point safety just is 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.”

The Titan also lacked basic safety features, such as a locator for the accompanying ship the Polar Prince to locate the sub. One former employee alleges that OceanGate never properly tested the vessel, which would go far deeper than any carbon-fiber constructed submersible before it. Not to mention a hatch sealed by bolts that can only be opened from the outside with no way for a fellow sub to dock.

Nightmare Submarine Game Gets Popular As Search For Titanic Sub Continues

The company that built the submersible is about 5 miles from my house.  It was all carbon fiber -- not steel -- so all the usual ways of locating steel underwater wouldn't work.

On top of that, for some unknown reason, the Canadian Coast Guard commander who took charge of the search would not allow any remote controlled submersibles that could actually reach the depths of the Titanic to be used, until today when the sub ran out of air and it would have been too late anyway.  

Two of the passengers were a Pakistani billionaire and his son*.  Good use of your money dude.  Like Pakistan doesn't have any other needs that could have been addressed.  I guess if it's a choice between 12 minutes of low-earth orbit, or eight hours at 5000 feet underwater, it might be easier to get a seat on the untested unregulated known-safety-problems submersible.

I'm kinda bummed that they're littering the Titanic wreck site with a "debris field" though.

https://www.reuters.com/world/james-cameron-says-he-wishes-hed-sounded-alarm-over-lost-submersible-2023-06-23/


* - The teenaged son was terrified to go, but agreed to do it as a father's day gift to his dad.

And Republican assholery wants to get in on the act.

Troy Nehls is an idiot