Titanic firm submersible missing.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by ET2SN

Just FYI, but the only way I get on board a tourist sub is if I'm already passed out.




"Mind over matter" just met the Atlantic.
And lost.

The only way I would get on is if I was a barnacle.

[Skybird]

At least my confusion on the frontal window is solved. Press has mixed up photos of the Titan with that of another boat by he same company, Cyclops I.

[Jimbuna]

It's not like the press to mix things up or get them wrong.....surely!

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

The only way I would get on is if I was a barnacle.

No one who's been in a MRI machine 3 times in one year(prostate, diverticulitis, and stroke) would even dream of getting into this contraption! but like your avater: " Lucky Jack Aubrey says: "What a fascinating modern age we live in"??!!

For these depths we are looking at perfect spheres…to withstand such pressure,” he said. Any defect could cause a pressure hull implosion, which would take place in milliseconds and would be large enough to be picked up by seismometers that detect earthquakes, he said.

The craft's contact was lost 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent; no such seismograph report has been recorded; but if it's in the bottom mud on its skids, the passengers cannot shift to one side to rock the lead pipe ballast off of the 'shelving' to give the craft ascent buoyancy imho...

[Rockstar]

Looks like condensation forming around that viewport, to be expected, I guess. But I doubt game pads and pc's from walmart are rated for such environments. Thats what happens when gullible people jump on the latest bandwagon without thinking.

2 former OceanGate employees voiced safety concerns years ago about the hull of the now-missing vessel

Celina Tebor
By Celina Tebor, CNN
Updated 11:16 AM EDT, Wed June 21, 2023

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/21/us/ti...ees/index.html

CNN
—
Two former OceanGate employees separately voiced similar safety concerns about the thickness of the now-missing Titan submersible’s hull when they were employed by the company years ago, and a statement from a research lab appears to show conflicting information about the engineering and testing that went into the development of the vessel.

David Lochridge, the company’s former director of marine operations, claimed in a court filing he was wrongfully terminated in 2018 for raising concerns about the safety and testing of the Titan, which vanished Sunday with five people on board during a trip to view the wreckage of the Titanic.

Search crews heard banging sounds while scouring the Atlantic for a manned submersible now running out of oxygen.

Details about Lochridge and another former employee’s concerns come as officials scour a swath of ocean about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, racing to locate the submersible and rescue the crew inside. If the vessel is intact, they have a dwindling supply of oxygen, with perhaps less than a day of breathable air as of early Wednesday, based on a US Coast Guard officials’ estimate.

Lochridge worked as an independent contractor for OceanGate in 2015, then as an employee between 2016 and 2018, according to court filings.

The company terminated his employment and sued Lochridge and his wife in 2018, claiming he shared confidential information, misappropriated trade secrets and used the company for immigration assistance then manufactured a reason to be fired. The lawsuit noted Lochridge is not an engineer, calling him a submersible pilot and a diver.

Lochridge said in a countersuit he was tasked by Stockton Rush – OceanGate’s CEO, who is among the five onboard the Titan – to perform an inspection of the submersible.

Lochridge brought up concerns that no non-destructive testing had been performed on the Titan’s hull to check for “delaminations, porosity and voids of sufficient adhesion of the glue being used due to the thickness of the hull,” the suit says. When Lochridge raised the issue, it says, he was told no equipment existed to perform such a test.

The lawsuit was settled and dismissed in November 2018. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, and Lochridge could not be reached for comment.

Court filings from the company indicate there was additional testing after Lochridge’s time at OceanGate, and it’s unclear whether any of his concerns were addressed as the vessel was developed.

Another former OceanGate employee who worked briefly for the company during the same time period as Lochridge had similar concerns, he said, speaking to CNN on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly.

The former employee became concerned when the carbon fiber hull of the Titan arrived, he said, echoing Lochridge’s concerns about its thickness and adhesion in his conversation with CNN. The hull had only been built to five inches thick, he said, telling CNN company engineers told him they had expected it to be seven inches thick.

The former employee worked at the submersible company for two and a half months in 2017; he was an operations technician who assisted with towing submersibles out into the ocean and preparing them for the diving operation.

He said more concerns were raised by contractors and employees during his time at OceanGate, and Rush became defensive and shied away from answering questions during all-staff meetings. When the former employee raised concerns directly to Rush that OceanGate could potentially be violating a US law relating to Coast Guard inspections, the CEO outright dismissed them, the former employee said, and that’s when he resigned.

CNN has reached out to OceanGate for comment.

OceanGate touted safety features of Titan in 2021 court filing

In a 2021 court filing, OceanGate’s legal representative touted the specs and a hull monitoring system built into the Titan that he called “an unparalleled safety feature.” The legal representative informed the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia – the court that oversees matters having to do with the Titanic – of the company’s expedition plans at the time.

The filing lays out the Titan’s testing details and its specifications, including that it had undergone more than 50 test dives and detailing its five-inch-thick carbon fiber and titanium hull.

The filing says OceanGate’s vessel was the result of over eight years of work, including “detailed engineering and development work under a company issued $5 million contract to the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory.”



A file photo shows the RMS Titanic shipwreck from a viewport of an OceanGate Expeditions submersible.


But according to the University of Washington, the laboratory never dealt with design or engineering for OceanGate’s Titan vessel.

The lab’s expertise involved “only shallow water implementation,” and “the Laboratory was not involved in the design, engineering or testing of the TITAN submersible used in the RMS TITANIC expedition,” Kevin Williams, the executive director of UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory, said in a statement to CNN.

In 2022, the legal representative updated the Virginia court on OceanGate’s expeditions in another court filing.

“On the first dive to the Titanic, the submersible encountered a battery issue and had to be manually attached to its lifting platform,” the filing reads. “OceanGate decided to cancel the second mission for repairs and operational enhancements” after the vessel “sustained modest damage to its external components,” it reads.

There were not any submersible-related issues that canceled dives on the third, fourth, or fifth missions, according to the court filing.

OceanGate explains choice not to class the Titan submersible

In a 2019 blog post on OceanGate’s website, the company said most marine operations “require that chartered vessels are ‘classed’ by an independent group such as the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), DNV/GL, Lloyd’s Register, or one of the many others.”

But the Titan is not classed, the blog post says, adding that classing innovative designs often requires a multiyear approval process, which gets in the way of rapid innovation.

Classing agencies “do not ensure that operators adhere to proper operating procedures and decision-making processes – two areas that are much more important for mitigating risks at sea. The vast majority of marine (and aviation) accidents are a result of operator error, not mechanical failure,” it says.

“Classing assures ship owners, insurers, and regulators that vessels are designed, constructed and inspected to accepted standards. Classing may be effective at filtering out unsatisfactory designers and builders, but the established standards do little to weed out subpar vessel operators – because classing agencies only focus on validating the physical vessel,” it reads.

“By itself, classing is not sufficient to ensure safety,” the blog post says.

CNN’s Dakin Andone contributed to this report.

[ET2SN]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

No one who's been in a MRI machine 3 times in one year(prostate, diverticulitis, and stroke)

*Ahem*

My first ride in an MRI was a one hour brain scan.
Half way thru, the MRI tech starts banging on my feet and says, "Tell me you aren't falling asleep!"

I later explain that on my first boat (Barbel) that tube would have been considered a prime bunk for E6 and above.




Meanwhile, I usually don't agree with Aaron/SubBrief but I think he may have it right.
There's "96" hours worth of O2 in tanks, but NO WAY to scrub the atmosphere.

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by ET2SN

*Ahem*
but NO WAY to scrub the atmosphere.

There is a way you could drastically reduce the carbon dioxide being expelled inside.

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by em2nought

There is a way you could drastically reduce the carbon dioxide being expelled inside.

I'm thinking the Co2 scrubber units would be able to keep up but not sure the units can keep up with 5 people in the submersible. I haven't seen any information on the scrubber units employed on this submersible. Aktung had mentioned the psychological effects and impact of being under water like they have been. I agree with his assessment. Nuclear Submariners do that all the time for longer periods without any Ill effects. However, the circumstances in this instance are different.

Still, many Navy people wouldn't have any part of being a Submariner.

[ET2SN]

Originally Posted by Commander Wallace

Still, many Navy people wouldn't have any part of being a Submariner.

That's why we get paid a lot more.



I haven't read or heard anyone talking about Lithium Hydroxide.

Its cheap and also really passive. Just pour some on a tray and let it do its thing. That takes care of most of your CO problems.

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by ET2SN

That's why we get paid a lot more.



I haven't read or heard anyone talking about Lithium Hydroxide.

Its cheap and also really passive. Just pour some on a tray and let it do its thing. That takes care of most of your CO problems.

I failed to mention that Service people in my humble opinion are a special breed. That also includes our cousins across the pond like Germany and the U.K and their military forces, just to name a few countries and forces. Submariners are themselves a special breed among the military forces, especially in the U.S, having essentially been on a war footing during the Cold War and well after as too. This includes, perhaps especially, the " Hide with pride " gang as well.


I'm pretty sure you will agree.

[Jeff-Groves]

Originally Posted by em2nought

There is a way you could drastically reduce the carbon dioxide being expelled inside.

Did they take any straws with them for the drawing?

[iambecomelife]

What do you guys make of the tapping noises they say the equipment has picked up? I'm not sure it's survivors; I suspect it has been too long for anyone to have survived. I think the noise could be pieces of Titanic's wreck banging in the current... The wreck of the "Amoco Cadiz", for example, is current-affected & "groans" loud enough for wreck divers to hear; they say it's a very loud, eerie noise. The sound may also be marine life - certain animals like shrimp can make a huge amount of noise underwater, despite being small.

I understand they want to keep the families' spirits up, but I wish the news ppl were realistic. At this point, I'm honestly hoping that they just imploded and felt nothing......that's probably the ideal outcome, rather than suffering for hours.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

I understand they want to keep the families' spirits up, but I wish the news ppl were realistic. At this point, I'm honestly hoping that they just imploded and felt nothing......that's probably the ideal outcome, rather than suffering for hours.

Agreed

As of thirty minutes ago the BBC are reporting that the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) I is currently at Jersey Airport and due to be flown to the search site later today.

The ROV - called Juliet - scanned the Titanic wreck last summer and is an Argus Worker XL and is able to dive to 6,000m - well beyond the depth required in the search area.

Sadly, the company now estimates it will take about 50 to 60 hours to get to the site.

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

What do you guys make of the tapping noises they say the equipment has picked up? …

“Ahab Beckons.”

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

Did they take any straws with them for the drawing?

Rock, paper, scissors, Spock.