My first thought was there have to be some heavy hitters onboard, dropping a couple hundred grand down like that for a few hours underwater tour isn’t doable for most of us.
Titanic tourist submarine missing 6-19-2023 (Debris field found, passengers presumed dead. 06-22-23)
It sounds really bad. Somehow those kids survived in the jungle, there’s still some chance here. Trouble is that communications were lost just 1-1/2 hours into it’s descent and I’m sure they would have immediately tried to come back up.
Someone on the news just mentioned that more people have been to space than this deep in the ocean.
Actually, not. If you fail up high on Everest, no cavalry is coming to save your asterisk. It is simply at too high altitude, and the air too thin, that if you cannot support your own weight on your own legs in any way shape or form, it ain’t happening. One can possibly be dragged down by rope, but this puts the rescuers in immense danger themselves. I doubt it has ever happened above Camp IV on the south route. Or if it has then it was a miraculous rescue, and an extremely rare event.
The BBC article gives the company’s advertising blurb. I fixed it for them.
"The company bills the eight-day trip on its carbon-fibre submersible as a “chance to step outside of everyday life and discover something truly extraordinary”.”
Not to dispute the general truth of this - but remarkably, a climber was carried and dragged down by two Sherpas from above Camp IV last month.
There will be a never-ending barrage of unbearable jokes and puns from this.
Anyhow, hope the sub makes it back safe, dying in a sub must be one of the most frightening ways to go.
Nonsense. A lot more people have made it to that depth than into space. Granted, most of them didn’t come back up…
My understanding is that there weather problems on the surface. If they came back up it’s possible that they’re on the surface and will be found.
I hope that turns out to be the case, but I suspect they imploded or are disabled too far down for rescue.
But then again perhaps not, since the Earth is in space.
Does anyone know how long it would take to get to the Titanic on a normal dive by this sub?
Hamish Harding holds the Guinness World Record for longest duration at full ocean depth by a crewed vessel:
The jokes will go on and on.
I just found it: 2 hours.
I guess I don’t see the point. Most wrecks that have been underwater this long don’t really look like much. You’d have to have a ton of money and a real interest in the Titanic to go for it. But there are a ton of Titanic nuts out there – my friend whose grandmother was a survivor said he was always shocked by how intensely some of these fans got into it.
That said, this doesn’t look like it’ll have a happy ending.
Riding the original Titanic would have been cheaper, even taking inflation into account. According to this article Titanic submarine tour company OceanGate Expeditions: What to know (msn.com) the submarine tour costs a whopping $250,000.
But hopefully not more survivable…
How long before they hit rock bottom, though? I think someone upthread said 2 hours?
And it got to the bottom faster.
I had been under the impression (apparently wrongly) that frivolous tourism to the Titanic wreck had been prohibited. Obviously not, since OceanGate has been operating such tours (but I suspect this is going to put them out of business). There certainly has been legislation like the RMS Titanic Maritime Memorial Act of 1986 (US Congress) and I believe subsequent international agreements intended to protect the site, but I believe these mostly had to do with prohibiting unauthorized salvage operations.
I’m a huge Titanic fan myself but there’s no way you’d get me into one of those submersibles, especially since quite honestly there’s not that much to see beyond the abstract experience of actually seeing “the real thing”, such as it is.
The documentaries on the search for the Titanic featured the submersible. James Cameron is featured in one of them.
The submersible seemed very sturdy and safe. It’s designed to withstand ocean pressures. The weak link is the engine. That’s true of any vehicle.
I hope they’re ok and just waiting for rescue. There should be some kind of beacon or transmitter to help locate it.