Titanic Submersible missing

[countrryboy]

They were on about it on radio today but JV was getting a bit muddled up wether it had a umbilical, all R2 couldnae manage to work its phone lines when experts were on.


It did sound a quite heath Robinson build, as has been mentioned hatch bolted shut on them and impossible to open from inside.
They could of made it to the top and still suffocate if no one finds them.

Dunno how much propulsion it has and how controllable it is but a reporter who went down on it said it was quite literally an X box controller wired to it.

I couldn't quite understand how the ballast thing standing to 1 side worked, until I read a post above.
Sounds mental but ingenious.

U couldnae pay me 250k to get in that machine.
Bugger that, not that I would be interested in seeing it anyway.
But it will be so dark ud get a better view from a few unmanned vessels watching from a nice comfy seat on the boat with a beer in ur hand

Some of the experts they did get on said communication is a nightmare at those extreme depths.
Stupid question but if they hit the Hull ( dunno if much sound of carbon fibre) or a metal pipe with a spanner would it help other sonar ops to find them.
U always see that in the old war/ submarine type films gives away a subs position.

 

[Len the dog]

The US Coastguard are on location with various other agencies frantically searching for them, just heard on the news that banging was heard every 30 minutes for 4 hours, so sounds like they are still alive.
Realistically though, even if they locate the sub do they have an ROV that is capable of doing anything other than just filming them and giving them false hopes with its headlights?
If it is trapped in the wreck or underneath fallen debris, or even just incapacitated, then it would need the intervention of an ROV with a powerful manipulator, does one exist that works at that depth?

 

[John Gryphon]

Hammering noises have been picked up.

 

[Liveonce]

If it is trapped in the wreck or underneath fallen debris, or even just incapacitated, then it would need the intervention of an ROV with a powerful manipulator, does one exist that works at that depth?

Military or oil industry may have something, but can it arrive on site in time?

 

[gixer1]

Sounds like there is hope and I assume there are boats all around the world that are capable of looking for and travelling to navy subs so you would think in the Atlantic something would be fairly close by.

I was once on a sub in the Caribbean and will say, I immediately didn’t like it as it went deeper…I can imagine 5 people trapped in this little thing isn’t much fun!

Fingers crossed they find them and it’s a happy ending.

Regards,
Gixer

 

[sikamalc]

Reading this mornings reports, it appears the suitability and construction of the subs safety was questioned by one of their employees sometime back. This ended in a court case and an out of court settlement. Also the company refused an independant report on the subs safety and construction.

It does not look good for their survival at the moment.

 

[Len the dog]

I doubt if anyone, military or civilian has an ROV capable of being able to do anything useful at that depth. Neither the military or oil industry have any need to operate at that depth and the design and build of these things are driven by the requirement to carry out specific jobs.
The oil industry don’t operate anywhere near that depth, the military possibly have something capable of recovering a lost nuke or for laying explosives to deny others access to lost equipment, but to pick up a 10 ton sub that doesn’t even have lifting padeyes, doubtful.

Studying photos of the vessel I was struck by the fixed thrusters, without being able to azimuth they are essentially useless if even one malfunctions. It has 4 thrusters in total, two vertical and two horizontal, if say one of the horizontal thrusters failed then the other thruster could do nothing other than send it around in circles, if a vertical thruster failed then the other would want to flip you over.

If you can then only surface by ditching ballast, what happens if you meet an overhead obstruction, having ditched your ballast you would not be able to descend again.

Quite frankly, this system was designed by an incompetent idiot at best. It doesn’t even appear on any photographs to have something as simple as a radar reflector to help locate it on the surface. This thing could already have surfaced and by now could be hundreds of miles away, a radar reflector would make it an awful lot more visible to an AWACS.

 

[wytonpjs]

I doubt if anyone, military or civilian has an ROV capable of being able to do anything useful at that depth. Neither the military or oil industry have any need to operate at that depth and the design and build of these things are driven by the requirement to carry out specific jobs.
The oil industry don’t operate anywhere near that depth, the military possibly have something capable of recovering a lost nuke or for laying explosives to deny others access to lost equipment, but to pick up a 10 ton sub that doesn’t even have lifting padeyes, doubtful.

Studying photos of the vessel I was struck by the fixed thrusters, without being able to azimuth they are essentially useless if even one malfunctions. It has 4 thrusters in total, two vertical and two horizontal, if say one of the horizontal thrusters failed then the other thruster could do nothing other than send it around in circles, if a vertical thruster failed then the other would want to flip you over.

If you can then only surface by ditching ballast, what happens if you meet an overhead obstruction, having ditched your ballast you would not be able to descend again.

Quite frankly, this system was designed by an incompetent idiot at best. It doesn’t even appear on any photographs to have something as simple as a radar reflector to help locate it on the surface. This thing could already have surfaced and by now could be hundreds of miles away, a radar reflector would make it an awful lot more visible to an AWACS.

Raises an interesting question which is out of my sphere of responsibility but I know someone who is What certification did this manned submersible have?

I certify UK warships for Escape, Evacuation and Rescue - one of a number of key hazards considered in issuing a ship's safety certificate, the MOD equivalent of the MCA's certification for UK-flagged commercial vessels. We jump through hoops to assure the vessel's safety compliance against Naval Ship Rules, Def Stans, IACS rules and have as a baseline, being as good as SOLAS unless there is a genuine military need to be different.

I'm struggling to believe that a civilian operator can hazard civilians lives at sea without passing minimum certification requirements.

This is going to run............

 

[gixer1]

I would think the mention of the waivers is what keeps this out of court…they have essentially said they accept all liability for boarding the sub.

Regards,
Gixer

 

[NoIDeer]

I doubt if anyone, military or civilian has an ROV capable of being able to do anything useful at that depth. Neither the military or oil industry have any need to operate at that depth and the design and build of these things are driven by the requirement to carry out specific jobs.
The oil industry don’t operate anywhere near that depth, the military possibly have something capable of recovering a lost nuke or for laying explosives to deny others access to lost equipment, but to pick up a 10 ton sub that doesn’t even have lifting padeyes, doubtful.

Studying photos of the vessel I was struck by the fixed thrusters, without being able to azimuth they are essentially useless if even one malfunctions. It has 4 thrusters in total, two vertical and two horizontal, if say one of the horizontal thrusters failed then the other thruster could do nothing other than send it around in circles, if a vertical thruster failed then the other would want to flip you over.

If you can then only surface by ditching ballast, what happens if you meet an overhead obstruction, having ditched your ballast you would not be able to descend again.

Quite frankly, this system was designed by an incompetent idiot at best. It doesn’t even appear on any photographs to have something as simple as a radar reflector to help locate it on the surface. This thing could already have surfaced and by now could be hundreds of miles away, a radar reflector would make it an awful lot more visible to an AWACS.

Almost rule one of technical scuba diving is if you need one take two. They appear to have failed on this in a few areas? I can't believe the craft isn't pinging, transponding and whatever other noises a vessel in distress makes?

 

[Hook'N'Bullet]

.

 

[Cyres]

Appears passengers have too much money and no common sense! Prehaps this unfolding tragedy will bring people to their senses. You have also got to question Bransons space tourism enterprise which is hardly environmentally friendly and wholly unnecessary and will undoubtedly end up on another tragedy.
D

 

[Len the dog]

Appears passengers have too much money and no common sense! Prehaps this unfolding tragedy will bring people to their senses. You have also got to question Bransons space tourism enterprise which is hardly environmentally friendly and wholly unnecessary and will undoubtedly end up on another tragedy.
D

He’s already abandoned that, probably had a premonition of him standing in the dock.

 

[Firefly]

It’s the hatch bolts torqued up from the outside which would freak me out.

 

[Len the dog]

It’s the hatch bolts torqued up from the outside which would freak me out.

It would be a bit of a bummer if you washed up on some remote shore and were found in the nick of time by a passerby, and they didn’t have the right size of spanner.

 

[Tim.243]

Almost rule one of technical scuba diving is if you need one take two. They appear to have failed on this in a few areas? I can't believe the craft isn't pinging, transponding and whatever other noises a vessel in distress makes?

Quite, I have had with me for 100m dives x2 12ltr back gas 10/50 x2 10ltr 40/80 deco gas also 1x12ltr bail out mix clipped on the back lower D/ring so it was behind me on my right.

The R/B people rave about their kit but always take back up gas.

 

[Hook'N'Bullet]

It would be a bit of a bummer if you washed up on some remote shore and were found in the nick of time by a passerby, and they didn’t have the right size of spanner.

Hope its not 10mm

 

[camodog]

Hope its not 10mm

Worse still, Imperial, and you only have Metric !

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Call international rescue "oh they have".

 

[NoIDeer]

back gas 10/50

Easy trimix, just add He. Must have been quite narky at that depth.

The R/B people rave about their kit

Trained on the Inspiration in 1997 with Dave Thompson the bloke that built it and sold it to AP. Never really dived deep on it but did the advanced mix course so I could buy trimix diluent, narcosis free diving was a revelation.
Never raved about it, the fecking thing was always trying to catch you out and kill you.

Two of the six on my course were killed by it and more than a few of the people I met through diving a rebreather met the same fate, always a mistake by the operator!