The lost Titanic tourist submersible? Some encouraging news!

[thewayne]

A Canadian anti-submarine aircraft dropping sonobuoys reported hearing banging on one of them at 30 minute intervals!

The tourist submersible, with a crew and passenger compliment of five, takes four passengers on tours of the wreckage of the Titanic at a cost of $250,000 a head. The pilot of this particular cruise was the head of the company that operates said submersible. Normally there are two communications links between the mothership and the submersible: a voice/data link, and a location tracking link. Something happened at an hour and 45 minutes into Sunday's trip and both links stopped sending information simultaneously. The Coast Guard was contacted immediately.

The craft set off with 96 hours, or four days, of oxygen. Today is day three of that air supply. By reducing pressure, they can stretch it out a bit longer, but we don't know what happened or what sort of damage the craft might have sustained.

Rescuing the submersible is going to be tricky. If it's resting on the sea bed, that's below the operating limit of many of the U.S. Navy's remote-operated vehicles. The deeper-diving crafts may not be in the area, there's not much information on that right now. But there's one very problematic aspect, and that is of access. THERE IS NO HATCH. The people enter the craft, and then the cover is BOLTED ON. This makes the possibility of rescuing them with some sort of diving bell or bathyscaph almost impossible: it can't attach.

I don't know if this is going to end in a rescue or a recovery. But at least they have an idea as to the location, and that's huge progress.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/titanic-submersible-missing-searchers-heard-banging-1234774674/


Now, here's the terrifying part: the submersible was steered by a LOGITECH GAMEPAD CONTROLLER. A $30 part released to the market ten years ago and available on Amazon. Personally, if I'm involved in the design of a submersible, I'm absolutely screaming for the use of Mil-Spec components and controllers throughout it! There's one thing to be said for saving money by using COTS (commercial off the shelf components), but when you're doing something as dangerous as diving to the bottom of the sea and multiple people's lives depend on it, AND you're charging a quarter mil a head, I think you can afford something better than COTS!

I'm not saying the $30 controller is responsible. I'm saying the attitude to use such a device is unacceptable to me.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/06/submarine-missing-near-titanic-used-a-30-logitech-gamepad-for-steering/

Comments

[mtbc]

I haven't much followed this but hearing banging? Does the thing not have some emergency speaker that pings loudly every half hour or something? And, say, some floating beacon on some strong long thin wire that it can release? It's hardly unknown for submarines to become unable to surface. But gamepad controller? Maybe the tourist ticket prices aren't fed back into making this thing safe.

Knowing the craft's lost, they've also had some time now to get a deeper-diving craft into the area in case it's found. I'd imagine that the Navy has equipment for lifting interesting lost (foreign government) things off the seabed.

In short, the main thing this story's teaching me so far is that what I might imagine or guess appears to be quite far from reality.

[moxie_man]

It would have been more merciful to the occupants if the thing had imploded at the time communications was lost. Quick, instant death, vs. the fear they must be going through as their oxygen supply runs low at a possible depth they can't be rescued from.

[murakozi]

Even if they managed to get to the surface, they still couldn't get fresh air since they're bolted into the craft. I don't know which'd be worse: being stuck on the bottom in pitch blackness while the air ran out, or being on the surface, able to see outside and know that there's fresh air just inches away that you can't get to.

[murakozi]

In general, there's nothing wrong with using COTS parts/equipment for some things. The military often specifies that something should be built using COTS parts. However, there are situations where you really don't want to use them. Such as in a critical system with no backup. I'd sure want some kind of mechanical backup system in a submersible.

The more I've read about the situation, the more apparent it becomes that the company was just pushing to get a product out without thinking things through. The thing wasn't even pressure tested to the depths it went to before being used for tourism. They just did the math to prove that it could withstand the conditions.

[thewayne]

I agree there are places for COTS, but I definitely wouldn't want them in a submersible that goes to the bottom of the ocean!  Apparently the hull/chamber is carbon fiber and well-developed, and I guess it has been pressure-tested in that it has been there and back again a few times.  I think...  I have no idea how many trips it's made.

[disneydream06]

Such a sad event, but it's annoying that because there is a billionaire on board that's what's getting so much of he headlines. :(
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

I don't think that's the thing driving the headlines.  I think it's the infatuation people have with the wreck of the Titanic that's the main driver.  It's tragic that people are likely to die/be dead from this, but it was a high-risk tour.  Myself, I have a photographer's interest in the ship - pre-wreck - but the "romance" of the wreck holds little interest to me.

[disneydream06]

I did the "museum" display in Las Vegas.
That's good enough for me. :o

[thewayne]

I saw the movie twice.  That was good enough for me.  I also have toured the Queen Mary, which is on permanent display in Long Beach, CA.  Very cool.  It's a hotel now, the Spruce Goose used to be next to it.  I'd love to stay there some day.

[disneydream06]

That would be cool to stay there.
Do you know, is it still like it was or did they gut it to make it more "hotel"?

Where did the Goose go? :o

[thewayne]

The Spruce Goose was moved to an aviation museum in Oregon, IIRC.  I don't recall where. No, the QM is pretty much as she was on her final voyage.  Remodeled, sure.  But the rooms are largely as they were when she sailed.  I think the remodel was to modernize the utilities mainly: improved electrical delivery and plumbing.

[disneydream06]

That would be so cool to stay on the QM. :)

[thewayne]

Book your room now! They start at $150, depending on dates, and go up to $400 or so for suites. Quite reasonable, IMO. I'm thinking about maybe taking Russet there next year for her birthday.
https://queenmary.com/

The history of the ship and its various modifications to become a hotel are quite interesting, and the refits were quite extensive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Queen_Mary

Pity the Spruce Goose is no longer there. I'm glad that I got to see it once or twice while it was in Long Beach, don't know if I'll ever get up and see it again.

[disneydream06]

Well, that's not good, I try very hard not to pay more then $100 per night for a hotel. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thewayne]

Well, I guess you don't travel much then.  $130-150 is pretty much the lowest I see for decent accommodations.  Anything under a hundred I've found is pretty much a dive.

[disneydream06]

It's getting hard to find anything cheap but good any more.
Add into the equation that I haven't traveled since Jan. 2019. lol........
I usually try to book packages hotel/airfare. :)