Titanic tourist submersible goes missing

[IslandHopper]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-...sing/102498454

A submersible craft used to take people to view the wreck of the Titanic is missing and efforts are underway to bring its crew back safely.

Five people were on board the vessel when it went missing off the coast of south-eastern Canada, the US Coast Guard said.

Rear Admiral John Mauger said both the US and Canada were searching for the vessel in a remote area about 1,448 kilometres east of Cape Cod.

He called the search a "challenge", but said teams were were using visual and radar searches "to improve our search capability".......more in link

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by IslandHopper

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-...sing/102498454

This is a sketchy one. It can withstand the pressure of the titanic depth. Like it says in the graphic 96 hours. That’s a long time without food and water and proper toilets. But that’s a different point.

Hopefully they are located. They have some pretty fancy ground imaging software these days and it can’t have gone far from where it was operating.

You almost have to wonder why something like this doesn’t have a compressed air cylinder and an exterior bag that can blow up and just bring it right to the top in case of emergency. It’s not like a fancy nuclear submarine or anything. It’s more prone to accidents I would think.

[JPA Cate]

According to the Associated Press article I read, it does have a "drop bag", which should allow it to float up to the surface. I wonder what they're breathing? I can imagine some problems with an emergency ascent. The article also mentioned if it dropped the ballast, it would be found floating on the surface. Although tested at the depth of 13,000 feet 5 times, it could have got a hull leak, in which case it is unlikely to be found.

Prayers needed.

Ann

[MicHughV]

Ya, this story is all over the local news here...no mention if it has been located yet though...
For sure...prayers needed for their safe return...

[Messing About]

Frightening. May they be found safe. Miracles happen.

Just saw there was one pilot and four passengers who each paid two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per ticket. Wow. Wonder what the operator’s liability limits are.

[AKA-None]

Originally Posted by Chotu

This is a sketchy one. It can withstand the pressure of the titanic depth. Like it says in the graphic 96 hours. That’s a long time without food and water and proper toilets. But that’s a different point.

Hopefully they are located. They have some pretty fancy ground imaging software these days and it can’t have gone far from where it was operating.

You almost have to wonder why something like this doesn’t have a compressed air cylinder and an exterior bag that can blow up and just bring it right to the top in case of emergency. It’s not like a fancy nuclear submarine or anything. It’s more prone to accidents I would think.

Expanding some sort of bag would require significant pressure and the bag would become huge as it surfaced
Better is if it floats fully loaded but sinks due to a removable ballast
Drop ballast flow up

Works great unless you can’t drop ballast or you are beneath something

[Jim Cate]

^^^
Yep, at 13000 feet the pressure is circa 5800 psi. Storage vessels that are safe at such pressures are bulky and heavy and expensive, as are the required piping and valves.

One could fit a bleed valve that would keep it from over inflating as it rose.

Apparently they don't have such a safety device in the design... and likely for good reason. Droppable ballast seems more likely.

Hell of an adventure that those rich folks signed up for... good luck to them all.

Jim

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

^^^
Yep, at 13000 feet the pressure is circa 5800 psi. Storage vessels that are safe at such pressures are bulky and heavy and expensive, as are the required piping and valves.

One could fit a bleed valve that would keep it from over inflating as it rose.

Apparently they don't have such a safety device in the design... and likely for good reason. Droppable ballast seems more likely.

Hell of an adventure that those rich folks signed up for... good luck to them all.

Jim

From post #3 : According to the Associated Press article I read, it does have a "drop bag"

Since they use the word drop, it would seem to mean ballast.

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

According to the Associated Press article I read, it does have a "drop bag", which should allow it to float up to the surface. I wonder what they're breathing? I can imagine some problems with an emergency ascent. The article also mentioned if it dropped the ballast, it would be found floating on the surface. Although tested at the depth of 13,000 feet 5 times, it could have got a hull leak, in which case it is unlikely to be found.

Prayers needed.

Ann

The pressure in a submersible is likely to be at surface pressure and a normal gas mix. You only need special mixes and pressures when divers need to exit things like habitats.

[GordMay]

“Titan” is a [Carbon Fiber & Titanium] Cyclops-class manned submersible designed to take five people to depths of 4,000 meters (13,123 feet).

Real Time Hull Health Monitoring (RTM) systems provides an unparalleled safety feature that assesses the integrity of the hull throughout every dive.
Utilizing co-located acoustic sensors and strain gauges throughout the pressure boundary, the RTM system makes it possible to analyze the effects of changing pressure on the vessel as the submersible dives deeper, and accurately assess the integrity of the structure. This onboard health analysis monitoring system provides early warning detection for the pilot with enough time to arrest the descent and safely return to surface.

Titan has an on-board toilet.

More ➥ https://oceangate.com/our-subs/titan-submersible.html

Photo Gallery ➥ https://oceangate.com/gallery/gallery-titan.html

Titan’s tender, MV “Polar Prince” ➥ https://historyview.org/library/mv-polar-prince/

CBC News Video ➥ https://historyview.org/library/mv-polar-prince/

[Chotu]

So I was reading today that it has real time communication with the surface. That makes this a lot worse.

They lost communication and it didn’t come up.

[Franziska]

Originally Posted by GordMay

“Titan” is a [Carbon Fiber & Titanium] Cyclops-class manned submersible designed to take five people to depths of 4,000 meters (13,123 feet).

Real Time Hull Health Monitoring (RTM) systems provides an unparalleled safety feature that assesses the integrity of the hull throughout every dive.
Utilizing co-located acoustic sensors and strain gauges throughout the pressure boundary, the RTM system makes it possible to analyze the effects of changing pressure on the vessel as the submersible dives deeper, and accurately assess the integrity of the structure. This onboard health analysis monitoring system provides early warning detection for the pilot with enough time to arrest the descent and safely return to surface.

Titan has an on-board toilet.

More ➥ https://oceangate.com/our-subs/titan-submersible.html

Photo Gallery ➥ https://oceangate.com/gallery/gallery-titan.html

Titan’s tender, MV “Polar Prince” ➥ https://historyview.org/library/mv-polar-prince/

CBC News Video ➥ https://historyview.org/library/mv-polar-prince/

Horrible as it is, it's a weird fact that something supposidly fail proof might fail at the spot where an "unsinkable" ship sank.

Let's hope they make it back, unfortunately I have very little hopes.

[AA3JY]

Must be more to this story..

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-new...escue-30276195

..British tabloid.

[boatman61]

Reports here suggest that it's a cobbled together bit of kit relying solely on electronics controlled by a computer games consol you can buy for £50 in the mall..

[shimari]

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/cbs-ne...ing-submarine/

CBS reporter did a story on the company and the submarine. Hard to believe that people paid ~$200,000 USD for this.