Titanic firm submersible missing.

[Rockstar]

I read in another article the pressure hull had to be completely rebuilt due to flaws in the carbon fiber back in 2020.

Missing Titanic Sub Once Faced Massive Lawsuit Over Depths It Could Safely Travel To

Court documents reveal a former OceanGate employee had several safety complaints over the tourist submersible—and then he was fired.

https://newrepublic.com/post/173802/...avel-oceangate

The tourist submersible that went missing while exploring the Titanic wreck was previously the target of safety complaints from an employee of OceanGate, the parent company that owns the sub and runs tourist expeditions of the wreck. That employee complained specifically that the sub was not capable of descending to such extreme depths before he was fired.

That’s according to legal documents obtained by The New Republic. According to the court documents, in a 2018 case, OceanGate employee David Lochridge, a submersible pilot, voiced concerns about the safety of the sub. According to a press release, Lochridge was director of marine operations at the time, “responsible for the safety of all crew and clients.”

The concerns Lochridge voiced came to light as part of a breach of contract case related to Lochridge refusing to greenlight manned tests of the early models of the submersible over safety concerns. Lochridge was fired, and then OceanGate sued him for disclosing confidential information about the Titan submersible. In response, Lochridge filed a compulsory counterclaim where he alleged wrongful termination over being a whistleblower about the quality and safety of the submersible.

Lochridge, in his counterclaim, alleged that “rather than addressing Lochridge’s concerns, OceanGate instead summarily terminated Lochridge’s employment in efforts to silence Lochridge and to avoid addressing the safety and quality control issues.”

The counterclaim said that:

Given the prevalent flaws in the previously tested 1/3 scale model, and the visible flaws in the carbon end samples for the Titan, Lochridge again stressed the potential danger to passengers of the Titan as the submersible reached extreme depths. The constant pressure cycling weakens existing flaws resulting in large tears of the carbon. Non-destructive testing was critical to detect such potentially existing flaws in order to ensure a solid and safe product for the safety of the passengers and crew.

The counterclaim also details a meeting at OceanGate’s Everett, Washington, facility with engineering staff where “several individuals had expressed concerns over to the Engineering Director.” The OceanGate CEO, Stockton Rush, asked Lochridge to conduct a quality inspection of the Titan. Per the complaint:

Over the course of the next several days, Lochridge worked on his report and requested paperwork from the Engineering Director regarding the viewport design and pressure test results of the viewport for the Titan, along with other key information. Lochridge was met with hostility and denial of access to the necessary documentation that should have been freely available as part of his inspection process.

Lochridge initially verbally expressed concerns about the safety and quality of the Titan submersible to OceanGate executive management, but those concerns were ignored. Lochridge “identified numerous issues that posed serious safety concerns, and offered corrective action and recommendations for each.” Lochridge was particularly concerned about “non-destructive testing performed on the hull of the Titan” but he was “repeatedly told that no scan of the hull or Bond Line could be done to check for delaminations, porosity and voids of sufficient adhesion of the glue being used due to the thickness of the hull.” He was also told there was no such equipment that could conduct a test like that.

After Lochridge issued his inspection report, OceanGate officials convened a meeting on January 19, 2018, with the CEO, human resources director, engineering director, Lochridge, and the operations director. Per the complaint:

At the meeting Lochridge discovered why he had been denied access to the viewport information from the Engineering department—the viewport at the forward of the submersible was only built to a certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate intended to take passengers down to depths of 4,000 meters. Lochridge learned that the viewport manufacturer would only certify to a depth of 1,300 meters due to experimental design of the viewport supplied by OceanGate, which was out of the Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy (“PVHO”) standards. OceanGate refused to pay for the manufacturer to build a viewport that would meet the required depth of 4,000 meters.

For reference, the Titanic is estimated to sit on the ocean floor at a depth of nearly 13,000 feet.

Paying passengers wouldn’t know or be informed about Lochridge’s concerns, according to his complaints. They also wouldn’t be informed “that hazardous flammable materials were being used within the submersible.” Lochridge expressed concerns about the Titan again. But OceanGate didn’t address those concerns, and Lockridge was fired.

The case between Lochridge and OceanGate didn’t advance much further, and a few months later the two parties settled.

As of Tuesday, the Coast Guard said that 10,000 square miles have been searched since the Titan submersible went missing Sunday afternoon. Five people are said to be on board, and the submarine had the capability to be underwater for about 96 hours, according to The Guardian.

[Skybird]

Sounds as if I must not shed a tear for the company founder and CEO being aboard, too.

[Rockstar]

The whole game-controller, rv parts was a bit of a giveaway the bottom dollar was the main concern. Makes you wonder if similar shenanigans are going on behind the scenes in the space tourism industry?

Shortcuts that work... sort of. Most of the time.
Until one day they suddenly don't.

[Skybird]

Yes, i had the space tourism thing on my mind in the past days, too.



I just dont trust it.

[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.

[Rockstar]

First round is on me, let’s go I’ll carry you aboard.


In other news, a linked nastygram sent to Oceangate from the Marine Technology Society.

In a letter to Mr Rush unearthed by the New York Times, the Marine Technology Society said the company was making "misleading" claims about its design exceeding established industry safety standards.

https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttoo...b3764/full.pdf

[Exocet25fr]

Search relocated after noises heard

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65969476

[Jimbuna]

Fingers, eyes, arms, legs and everything else for a successful outcome.

[Skybird]

The knocking sound could be just anything. Of course one must chekc it out, but I do not hold any expectations.

A Swiss deep submersible pilot explained that such vehicles usually are super-safe and the bigger problem with them is to make them dive than to bring them up again - the latter they usually do all by themsleves, simple laws of physics. Electric sytems and batteries should be redundant and severla systems should be indpendent from each other, so if one breaks down, the others still operate. However, there were reports that the Titan was in not a good technical state, and lacked certifications.

But there seem to be two problems now with the Titan, the loss of comms and the loss of detection, and two such techncial problems simultaneously tell him that there was an implosion, killing the crew immediately within a split second, means: it probably all is already over.

He also explains that the detection system of the mothership operating such submerisbles only works within a very small radius, forcing them to stay right above the submersibles. Since Titan wanted to go down to Titanic, in order to detect Titan there the mothership must have sit right above the Titanic. That means that after implosion the wreck had a good chance to vertically fall right on top of the Titanic, break through the corroded iron structure and come to a standstill right inside the Titanic wreck. Then it could not be detected, and any emissions from it (however unlikely that is), would be blocked by the iron hull.

I think they ill bring in those deep diving robots they used years ago to discover and film the Titanic, and then check the location and vicinity as well as the wreck.

[Jimbuna]

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Skybird

"X Box Game Controller."
There is a reason why even a simple flip switch or a simple to-press-button for airliner cockpits cost several hundred dollars per piece.

And back in the late 90s when I had a PS1, one controller for it once stopped working in my hands while playing. Just so, out of the blue. Never came online again.



Who wants to dive in such a thing - and even pays for it...?

Exactly. Just crazy that the builder thought it was a good thing to brag about, a off the shelf game controller that was meant as a toy.

They keep talking about locating this sub, so... what's the plan if they find it? Lower a crane hook and reel it in?

I read several times where the builder said there were 7 ways to achieved positive buoyancy and get to the surface. So, did they all fail? More likely a pressure hull or hatch failed and the crew was wiped out instantly.

Even if the sub was to managed to get to the surface but isn't located for a while, do they have any way to access fresh air? My understanding is the only access hatch is bolted tight from the outside... so even if it was discovered on the surface, someone better get there quick with a wrench.

It would be crazy if the sub was to miraculously pop up on the surface...

[Subnuts]

Well, there goes my lifelong ambition to to spend $250,000 to stare at bits and pieces of the world's most heavily studied and photographed shipwreck in a shoddily constructed and unregulated submersible with a safety factor of 0.4.

[Moonlight]

I think these Rescuers and the Media should stop clutching at straws and tell it as it is, giving their families false hopes when they're already dead is just prolonging the agony for them.
I don't know who's going to raise this issue first but it needs to be told and fast, the chance of them being rescued is a big fat Zero and this is not a rescue mission anymore as its now a recovery mission.

[Rockstar]

Fifty year old white guy submariners are not inspirational? So hire a bunch of unquestioning kids who will do what they’re told and don’t really know any better instead. It’s obvious this CEO didn’t understand the dangers involved.

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

Fifty year old white guy submariners are not inspirational? So hire a bunch of unquestioning kids who will do what they’re told and don’t really know any better instead. It’s obvious this CEO didn’t understand the dangers involved.

This is probably how the end to us all occurs. Reactor meltdowns, virus walking out of labs, planes crashing into the ocean. Old guys are the glue barely holding our society together.