Titanic tourists likely goners

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I smell a lawsuit by the involved governments against the estates of the people who caused all those resources to be used.

Tax payers better not be on the hook for the costs of rich people's misadventures.

Of course we are - just as we’re on the hook for rescuing poor citizens as well. Highly doubt they’ll get charged the actual cost of searches.

And this was in the Grand Banks. Imagine if this was at Challenger Deep.

It seems the Titan imploded quickly and completely, sounds like the crew would have died instantly. Thank goodness. The one I feel most sorry for is the 19 year old boy. The other guys were old, they'd lived their lives, but the 19 year old had his life ahead of him.

I was looking up the Kursk submarine tragedy of a few decades ago, now that poor crew had horrible deaths.

As someone who has been fascinated by Titanic's wreck since it was discovered when I was six, I can understand the desire to go and see it for yourself. I'm never going to be in a position to spend $250k doing so but if someone offered me a free dive I'd have to at least consider it. Even though the idea of spending 8 hours in a space that small is nightmarish to me, even before you put 4 other people in it. I might come to a different conclusion after the events of the last few days though.

I don't think it's an ego thing, for me, but who knows. I know it isn't important that I see it, specifically. I can't bring any expert knowledge to it. I've just always been fascinated by it and the thought of Titanic being down there is, troubling in some way, for me. I know that doesn't make any sense.

The subs have windows but they are very small. I believe Titan's single porthole was the biggest window on any deep sea sub so you would have been able to see it with your own eyes, but still only a very limited view of it. You'd see a lot more from using cameras and screens, yes. There's no real reason for anyone to be down there anymore. There's not a lot left to learn about it that can't be done remotely.

Anyway, I'm so glad it imploded, the alternative scenario was so horrifying to me and I've been dwelling on it for days. I'm glad it wasn't that.

When I first wrote my comment I'd only seen the side view of Titan. I thought they only got to view Titanic using those camera-type things sticking out the side of the submersible. I didn't realise it had that front port window. I also thought they had to be strapped into seats like a rocketship, instead of moving around in that open space of the capsule (however nightmarish it may be).

I totally understand wanting to be as close to it as possible. I understand the degree to which these people were Titanic experts and they were enthralled with it, beyond the fact one was a worldwide explorer. I didn't even know "explorer" was still a career, but that Hamish dude sounds amazing. Now that I know there was at least a port window I can understand it better, although I can't for the life of me understand signing authorisation contracts that said it's not licensed and it's not adhering to any safety codes. That's on the families, unfortunately. It's shameful that the father signed for his underaged son to do that. Wasn't he only 17?

Rest in peace to all though. What a horrible yet preventable tragedy.

He was 19 - legal age for everything in Canada, and probably most of the world. I read that he didn't want to go and was terrified but his dad convinced him to go with him. That's the saddest info surrounding his death.. he wasn't stoked to be there like the others and Ok with accepting the risks. So, yeah, sucks a bit more than just because of his age that he died with them.

You're right. He was 19. I thought I'd seen 17. I didn't know he was terrified to go. JFC. That's horrendous. I can't even. My son is terrified of heights and there's no way I'd encourage force pressure him to do something if he wasn't comfortable. He actually refused to fly to Nashville with me when we saw Garfunkel. He had a ticket but it was snowing and he had a bad feeling, so he stayed home and we lost the airfare but I wasn't about to make him go if he'd changed his mind. That poor mother - assuming he had a mother?

The 19-year-old might have said "I don't want to go, what if something happened where my life became in danger?" and the father probably said "those things are very rare, it won't happen to us, especially not these days where everything is safety checked, just live a little!" And his worst fear did happen.

This is always my worst fear whenever doing something different to what I normally do that could also have risks. Why would it not happen to me? What makes me so special?

I hope at the very least they saw some Titanic debris before implosion.

I think the son only went as it was UK's Fathers day

James Cameron says it imploded because it was made of the wrong material.. and he IS a bit of an expert as he designed and built and had his own sub approved for going down there and has made 33 dives to the titanic. He says there's a reason that all the rest in the world are made of titanium, that carbon fibre has no compression force taking abilities and that world experts told this guy that what he was doing was very risky and unsafe. Whooooopsiedoodle!

I also saw a news item say the sub maker used hardware store parts like washers - don't know how true that is.

That makes it very much worse for sure.

It's true. There's a video tour of the sub I watched that's like 5 minutes long and they point out all the off the shelf parts they used for various things - but - that's fine. None of those parts are critical for safey.. so what if there's a handle on the ceiling that came from an RV supplier? That sort of thing isn't critical to the hull integrity.. it'd be like complaining about the brand of paint on a wall causing a house to fall down - totally irrelevant and a smart move to save money vs. engineering every last one of your own components. Even the video game controller May have been reliable enough for such a craft - plus they keep a couple spares on board. I'd worry more about the blue tooth potentially failing.. but whatever.

It's the DESIGN of the hull and more specifically the materials specified that were the Most Likely problem, as James Cameron pointed out. Carbon fibre can't take those compressive forces.. that's why every other vessel ever made is titanium. I guess they were hoping to go light weight just so they could get it out there easier w/o such a large transport vessel.

The Titan did make a couple other dives to the Titanic - iirc this was it's 3rd. I guess they figured it was fine if it didn't implode on the first attempt.. but it could have suffered some sort of compressive fatigue fracture or something that didn't present itself until after a couple dives. And somehow I doubt they were hauling it out and xraying it to check after every dive. But maybe even if they did they wouldn't have found anything and would have kept rolling the dice until it 'ploded; as it did.

Although, never know, maybe it wasn't even the hull structure that s**t the bed and got breached.. apparently the viewing port was only certified for a fraction of the depth they went to.. but OceanGate didn't care because they didn't plan on ever getting their craft inspected and certified by anyone, anyways. I'm not 100% sure on the physics.. but if the hull was fine (improbable) and the window broke (maaaaybe) would the whole thing instantly implode just the same as a hull fracture? I don't see a scenario where water would slowly trickle in at 6,000lbs per square inch.. I guess maybe the only way to ever know is if they find the viewing port completely intact.. but even then, the window could be fine but the seal right around it could have let go.

In any event, it seems it wasn't worth the weight & cost savings using carbon fibre instead of titanium.

Oh, and I read that James Cameron had his sub design scrutinized and approved by Some sort of regulatory body, and then then final product was inspected and approved as well. So it seems there is some sort of regulatory body and checks and balances for this industry.. which is part of why they've had such a great safety track record up until the carbon fibre Titan.

What makes you so special to be the one who things go wrong for?

If you're mundane, odds are your dice roll will also turn out mundanely.