Submersible Titanic Tourist craft goes missing

This is a foreboding stat.:

'The depth of the area where they went missing could pose a challenge. The deepest ever underwater rescue was that of Roger Chapman and Roger Mallinson, who were rescued from the Pisces III submersible at depths of 1,575 feet in 1973. They were trapped for 76 hours before finally being hauled to the surface.

The Titanic wreckage is much deeper, sitting nearly 13,000 feet below sea level."

 

I was always an air guppy. I dove high pressure steel 100s with DIN valves. Those aluminum 80s were like corks as they got empty. 30 minutes BT at 100 feet using aluminum 80s is impressive.

 

The HP steel 92 were great also. They could hold a ton of air.

 

Technology is vastly superior, and the urgency wasn't there at the time, but the idea that it took 73 years to find the Titanic and hoping to find that tiny sub in 4 days tops...

 

Disregard my previous info where I stated that no deep diving craft (like Alvin) will make it to the site in time for a rescue. There will be two such craft present onsite tomorrow.

US Navy sends salvage system to site of Titanic sub to join French crew which can dive to 20,000ft | Daily Mail Online

 

Assuming you were using the old tables, that's pushing it very close to the decomp limits. I know they erred on the side of caution, but that's still quite a while at that depth.

Even then I'd feel it if I ran too close. It always took me a while to "normalize" after a deeper dive. You know that feeling I mean, just feeling not quite right for a bit while the nitrogen bleeds out of you.

 

In my prime dive days 44 years ago I could skip breathe and have my steel 72 tank last me 60 minutes at 60 feet, which to my recollection was the max time at that depth without deco back then. Rarely dove deeper than 72 feet because we didn’t have loran nor a bottom machine, so we located our dive targets using land fixes. That was about as deep as there were easy to find dive spots off PC. Only ever had to do one free ascent. It was at stage II after tying a safety line to the bottom of the stage and striking out to retrieve my anchor after a jerk charter captain cut my anchor line trolling too close. Found it and didn’t think to put some air in my BC so I struggled with the anchor and chain back to the stage. Heard that regulator 2nd stage whine as soon as I got back to the stage. It wasn’t a true free ascent since I got another breath out of the tank as I went up, blowing tiny bubbles. No panic, though, since it was at stage II that we learned free ascent in dive class. A matter of minutes after we got the anchor in the boat a charter boat idling at the stage letting tourists catch bait hooked a shark on the deck hands rod set off the bow with half a bonita on it. They landed a huge hammerhead that made the paper the next morning. I just know that shark had followed me bouncing along the bottom rattling that damn chain and struggling.

 

I say this not referencing any other incident in particular, but I think what you reference is more accurately described as the deepest unclassified rescue ever.

 

Yep I know what ya mean.

We would almost always do 10-15 minute stops at 10-15 ft to help off gas. Regardless if the table called for it or not.
Didn’t make sense to take a tank back with much air in it…..

 

I would not be surprised the navy has the tech to raise the submersible from the bottom if given time, doing it within a 3-4 day window and with the occupants still alive is another matter.

But if they can indeed get some gear on site by tomorrow it at least provides a slim window of hope. Supposedly best case they might have 24 hours of air left if the vessel is sound. Locating the vessel, and whether it’s even intact are obviously the first barriers. Given the apparent haphazard nature of the whole thing, my guess is something went badly awry and the craft came apart or got crushed by the pressure, hopefully I’m wrong.

 

If that executive quoted earlier is still alive (wasn’t part of the crew that went down), then that dude needs to be looked at for manslaughter. The whole thing is ridiculous, but to be cutting corners in a deep water vehicle is just insane. The passengers probably signed wavers about the risk, but that CYA doesn’t work if there was criminal malfeasance, and it sounds more and more like a possibility.

 

Banging sounds were supposedly heard. If so, it’s the ultimate race against time and basic physics.

 

Banging sounds heard during Titan search, according to internal US government memo | CNN

 

If you want to know more about this submersible then this is a short video you should see. The CEO of that company hate white males in their 50's. Learn more about this person and how he ran his company.

 

I have to think there is an extremely small chance they recover this vessel at all, let alone with them still alive. It also means they experiencing a true nightmare. Awful to even think about.

 

I dunno. If you gave me a choice between an unknown sudden death, and an expected death dragged out over a few days with people around me, I think I'd want the latter. Yes, the ending would be scary, but I still think I'd rather know, talk, have hope, etc.

 

Slowly suffocating to death sitting in your own shit and piss? Yeah give me the quick scary death all day.

 

I didn't think about the shit and piss part.

 

The submersible does have a toilet although it's probably past full.

What it’s like inside the missing Titan submersible vessel - The Boston GlobeWhat it’s like inside the missing Titan submersible vessel - The Boston Globe