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Titanic tourist mini-sub missing

www.insider.com

The people lost in the missing Titan submersible are dead-bolted in with at least 17 bolts and have no way out unless they're found

"The crew closes the hatch, from the outside, with 17 bolts. There's no other way out," the CBS journalist David Pogue reported in November.
www.insider.com www.insider.com

"The crew closes the hatch, from the outside, with 17 bolts. There's no other way out," Pogue said in his November report.

Pogue told the BBC on Monday that, to his knowledge, the pod had at least seven functions that could help it resurface. But there's no solution to the submersible being trapped underwater, or a way out if water were to start leaking into the compartment, Pogue added.

"There's no backup, there's no escape pod," Pogue told the BBC. "It's get to the surface or die."
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If it's just a communication equipment failure, they should surface as they normally would at the end of the tour, but if the sub's hull was compromised they were dead right away. The lack of a distress call could suggest a scenario like that.

The company doesn't appear to have a back-up sub on-site, either.
 
I heard a talking head state that more people have been in outer space than have descended that deep in the ocean. Pretty sure there is a reason that none of our military subs have a big window on their nose.
 
Sounds like banging is every 30 minutes. Like they are trying to signal from inside the sub. Still a long shot to find them. And if they did, it sounds like there is no equipment available to go to the depths to retrieve it.
 
Spur's Addiction said:
Sounds like banging is every 30 minutes. Like they are trying to signal from inside the sub. Still a long shot to find them. And if they did, it sounds like there is no equipment available to go to the depths to retrieve it.
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Is there any kind of ballast on that sub? :oops:
 
JimG said:
Is there any kind of ballast on that sub? :oops:
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From the article I posted earlier:

"You steer this sub with an Xbox game controller, some of the ballast is abandoned construction pipes," Pogue told the BBC.
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I assume they simply jettison the weight of the pipes instead of blowing out water from any ballast tanks.
 
Doesn't there still have be a controlled ascent to allow the pressure to equalize in a way that prevents the people inside from getting the bends (air bubbles in the bloodstream)?

That sub only has one compartment. If there are actually banging sounds, that means the hull was not compromised. Rapid flooding from the high water pressure would have drowned every one onboard very quickly early on if that was the case.

To me, it sounds like they continued their mission without working communications equipment and maybe are tapping the hull on their way back up to the surface in case their ship was worried about them.
 
I wonder how long a full descent down to the wreckage site and an ascent back up to the surface from it usually takes?
 
A Canadian P-3 Orion ASW aircraft is dropping sonobuoys to help locate the missing sub. Sonobuoys determine range and bearing, and maybe depth if the sub and sonobuoy depths match up, but sound waves refract (bend) in water varying by pressure, temperature, and salinity.

So a sonobuoy gets it close enough for an ASW acoustic homing torpedo to locate and destroy a hostile submarine.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVJ1VJjmgs8

The device in the video is called a noisemaker that is used to simulate an actual submarine for training purposes.

Locating the missing sub is one thing, but I don't think there is a way to actually get it to the surface once it's found. JMO
 
Military subs have had rescue hatches since the early days and the U. S. Navy actually had successful rescues back then using special rescue diving bells that attached to the special hatches.

This video describes it pretty well.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSGZWeGhOew

The mini-sub's access hatch is on the end of the sub, though, and there is not enough flat surface area for a rescue sub to attach to that would form a seal.
 
kingofnerf said:
Doesn't there still have be a controlled ascent to allow the pressure to equalize in a way that prevents the people inside from getting the bends (air bubbles in the bloodstream)?
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That's for divers. Being in an enclosed sub that is more or less atmospheric pressure, that should not be an issue. Unless the hull is breached, but in that case they are toast anyway.

kingofnerf said:
Locating the missing sub is one thing, but I don't think there is a way to actually get it to the surface once it's found. JMO
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I agree.
 
The sub (which is basically a pod) is attached to some kind of launch and recovery platform -- that platform has ballast tanks
 
kingofnerf said:
I wonder how long a full descent down to the wreckage site and an ascent back up to the surface from it usually takes?
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The submersible has done about 25 trips to the Titanic over the past three year. It takes about 2-1/2 hours to descend and the same to ascend, plus Titanic viewing time...total trip time, 10-12 hours.
 
JimG said:
So it's possible this will never be found in our lifetime.
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I think so. It's most likely at the bottom of the ocean somewhere. And will be even harder to find then the Titanic (And that took like 10 years to find.) I don't think there is much hope to rescue these people alive. Miracles do happen, but chances are extremely thin at this point.

This will add to Titanic Lore.
 
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