But unfortunately for him, when a crewed submersible breaks, it’s not merely an inconvenience and delayed app rollout - people die. It’s basic risk/reward analysis that was failed. The cost of a buggy release is vastly different from the cost of lost lives.
But hopefully that does lead to innovations and further refinements in safety regulations and in the use of carbon fiber in extreme environments
Where he went wrong was in thinking he could (1) call that sort of innovation process in deep sea submersibles into existence by sheer force of will and (2) not be personally subject to physical harm from the process.
That’s generally my first reaction, but people like this will never understand that they did anything wrong, no matter how many people they kill. I doubt he would have suffered much. “Eh, that’s the cost of innovation!”
Forcing people like that to face the consequences of their actions is like pulling teeth. Elizabeth Holmes will spend the rest of her life convinced that she was struck down moments from greatness despite her innovation being a total sham, and what’s worse is she will continue to convince other people of the same thing. If Stockton Rush wasn’t on that sub he would have followed the same path: Years of insisting he did nothing wrong, finally going to court and getting convicted, and never believing that he was a victim of people who resented him for innovating. Death was too good for him, but it’s still better justice than he would have got otherwise.
Agreed. I just listened to a podcast on John Landis, who got three people killed – two of whom were illegally-employed children – during the filming of the Twilight Zone move. Blamed everything on underlings. Was found not guilty by the jury, career didn’t slow down at all, no evidence at all of “karma.” Sometimes the bastards just keep riding high.
Shout out to whoever recommended Susan Casey, somewhere way up above. I’ve just started The Underworld about deep ocean exploration and it’s fascinating.
That’s what it looks like to me.
Here’s a pic showing front and back of a flotation vest that is not the same, but is similar enough I bet they’re different versions of the same idea:
Same color but they’re not looking cinched down to me like the ones in the stock photo. Also, putting a float on your back would make you tend to float face-down if you were incapacitated, not a good thing. There’s definitely something going over both their shoulders and presumably down their fronts.
Agree they’re definitely not the same equipment in the Titan recovery pic vs the Kiska pic I cited. I was hoping to find a frontal pic of the exact same thing but was unsuccessful.
I’m pretty sure the flap on the back is not flotation. Just a high visibility sign so they’re easy to spot on the deck and in the water. Exactly an “If found please return” tag. For the person / body wearing it, not for the equipment itself.
Looking at what little we can see of the structure across the back of their necks it looks a lot thicker and stouter there than is the backflap. Suggesting the front part is also larger and heavier.
OK zooming in on the first pic, those look like a pull-over-the-head type and that back panel is simply that, a flat backflap from which then stretch down a strap that connects to a waist cinch (kind of like some of those in airliners) and yes, in the last, closer picture you can see that going around the back of the neck is filled material. The full-vest ones in the second picture meanwhile look designed to be zipped/buckled in front. Thing is, the USCG probably has every type of authorized PFD in the inventory and will wear each depending on where and what is the mission.
Not if there is a larger float on the front. Every life vest I’ve seen with a smaller float on the back has that float specifically to cause an unconscious person to float face up with their head still above water so there’s at least a theoretical possibility they won’t drown before someone can recover them.
It’s also possible (though I kind of hope it’s not the case) that they are self-inflating life vests, which would explain why they don’t appear to have the bulk of a traditional life vest. I say “kind of hope it’s not” because such self-inflating life vests are notoriously unreliable. Or at least the kind they gave us in the Navy were. Inherently buoyant is the way to go IMHO.
Not sure how long ago your experience was, but these days self inflating life jackets are almost ubiquitous in commercial settings. By regulation we have to have them serviced annually, I’m not aware of reliability issues any more. Inherently buoyant PFDs (personal flotation devices) are now virtually limited to recreational pursuits like dinghy sailing, kayaking etc. This is based on my UK experience in the commercial sector, not military though.
didn’t you have cute young ladies with fancy hand-gestures, stressing the mouthpiece in which you can blow in order to top up the air of your flotation device, in case of an unlikely emergency?
I got out 4 years ago. But my last relevant experience was more like 8 years ago, and I have less than fond memories of inspecting the things (oh, and that time closer to 20 years ago when my boat capsized during launch, 4 out of 5 of us ended up in the water, and one person did in fact end up momentarily unconscious—his vest did not inflate, though fortunately he did not die). There were simply too many modes of failure for them, not least of which was their reliance on people to perform regular maintenance in order to ensure that all the components that needed to work properly to automatically inflate them were in good condition.
Oh, and also, all those parts are susceptible to being damaged in the same event that leads to a person ending up in the water unconscious in the first place (for example, blunt force trauma).
