this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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For those who are unaware: A couple billionaires, a pilot, and one of the billionaires' son are currently stuck inside an extremely tiny sub a couple thousand meters under the sea (inside of the sub with the guys above).

They were supposed to dive down to the titanic, but lost connection about halfway down. They've been missing for the past 48 hours, and have 2 days until the oxygen in the sub runs out. Do you think they'll make it?

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[–] Almostarctic 125 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The 5 submariners chances of being rescued are very slim at this point but much much higher than the 500 migrants still missing off the coast of Greece who took to the waters not for a joy ride but to escape war and seek a better life.

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[–] quantum_mechanic 93 points 1 year ago (15 children)

No, nor do I think they should be. There will be millions of wasted taxpayer dollars wasted on trying to recover rich people's dead bodies. They signed a waiver and knew what they were getting into. There's nothing to be learned from whatever happened, since the company was clearly negligent. Let them rest on the ocean floor beside the other rich assholes.

[–] WhoRoger 41 points 1 year ago (7 children)

That's a bit harsh. If there's anything that works in modern society pretty reliably regardless of status, it's search and rescue. Sunk subs can also be an environmental hazard.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's kinda poetic for them to go down next to the titanic, itself a story of complacency and excess/opulance.

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[–] stewsters 90 points 1 year ago (9 children)

I suspect they imploded.

These super deep subs are traditionally not reused very long, because the stress of the water pressing and then releasing weakens them. The more compression-decompression cycles they take the faster they degrade.

From all the reports, they got a lot of reports of issues that they ignored. I read that one of the reporters who saw it found it to be very jury rigged together. Apparently it was not certified in any way.

Even if they did survive and the ballast worked correctly, they would surface quickly (decompression sickness?) and cannot open the hatch from the inside. The thing doesn't float above the water, so its going to be a pain to find. Also they didn't paint it bright orange with blinking lights, its white, gray, and blue.

Overall, a lot of poor decisions and ignoring advice lead to disaster.

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[–] bemenaker 83 points 1 year ago (21 children)
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[–] nightscout 78 points 1 year ago (13 children)

Highly doubt it. I've been watching coverage and it seems pretty unlikely they will be found before their oxygen runs out (assuming they are even still alive and haven't died as a result of an implosion).

What irks me with all the coverage, however, is that no one is pointing out the potential harm to all the people involved in trying to rescue these people. The Coast Guard and other outfits undertaking the rescue attempts are put in danger the whole time they are out there. And of course there's the cost involved as well.

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[–] [email protected] 75 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Just imagine, these idiots spend 250k to sit in a iron tube controlled by a cheap offbrand playstation controller but won't spend any of their money to improve the world. Only satisfying their own ego and greed. I can't feel sorry for them, best I can do is hope that they imploded so they didn't have to suffer too long.

[–] jkure2 44 points 1 year ago (5 children)

It's more than a little ironic they [presumably] died in an accident caused by cutting corners on regulations and safety by saying things like "certifications cost too much time and money, we shouldn't have to train someone just to convince them that this is safe", as well as doing things like firing safety personnel when they object to the submersible's worthiness.

I saw someone call it the 'minimim viable submersible' and I've never heard a better description as someone who spends all day working on minimum-viable-product style projects

[–] cedarmesa 35 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)
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[–] T156 40 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

To be fair, there's nothing wrong with using a controller to control things, off-brand or otherwise.

Both industry and the military use off-the-shelf game controllers for things, because they're easy to obtain, ergonomic and relatively intuitive.

Although using a wireless one that was infamous for having dropout issues, without some backup mechanism that could also be used to control the submersible was probably something of a mistake. At minimum, you'd expect that they would use one that was wired, just in case someone forgot to charge the batteries before hand, and/or didn't bring a spare.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm not going to diss on Logitech, they make some good reliable controllers. I would place them bottom on the list of things that probably broke.

That being said. I can understand why someone from the outside sees a plastic controller and wonder why they didn't go with the more expensive plastic controller. But in the end, they both have the same parts. I would also find it VERY strange that there wouldn't be a backup controller.

Though it is hard to take pity on the situation when one has to consider. That 250k a ticket is more then 20 single mothers working 2 jobs, so they can feed their kids, so this dude can go see the titanic..... in person.... Because video documentaries of every angle of the titanic in 4k resolution don't exist in 2023 apparently.

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[–] hydra 65 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sadly I don't think so. This incident was absolutely preventable. Someone warned them about this and they got fired. A makeshift vessel that wasn't inspected/certified, immersed to almost 3 times the rated depth, controlled by a wireless Logitech gamepad from 2010 with no redundancy and only 96 hours of oxygen. I really really hope for a last minute miracle though...

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[–] xaxl 65 points 1 year ago

These billionaires just bought themselves something money can't buy, a footnote on a Wikipedia page somewhere that their deaths were loosely related to the Titanic.

Given that every billionaire has blood and suffering on their hands in at least ab abstract fashion and it's hard to feel sorry for them too.

[–] GONADS125 61 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

Seeing the construction of the submersible, I would not have rode in it... As soon as the inventer said "I got these from, uh, camper world.." I would be scurrying the hell out of that thing...

Apparently the acrylic viewing window was not rated for that depth, and the body of the submersible is constructed from carbon fiber... That whole rig seems sketchy as hell to me...

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 year ago (5 children)

A swedish submarine officer put it bluntly in an interview today, and i paraphrase: "most likely it developed a crack and instantly decompressed like a crushed soda can"

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago (22 children)

I'm a bit confused that this is receiving so much attention. What's so special about this case compared to all the other cases of people being lost at sea every year, besides them being rich?

[–] linearchaos 71 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Honestly, this case is somewhat extraordinary, in a deeply disturbing way.

First there was this amazing quote from the CEO who is missing on the craft right now

"You know, at some point, safety is just pure waste," Rush told CBS' David Pogue during an episode of his "Unsung Science" podcast. "I mean, if you just want to be safe, don't get out of bed, don't get in your car, don't do anything. At some point, you're going to take some risk, and it really is a risk-reward question."

Second, aside from being made from questionable experimental materials, the sub was being controlled by an old, off brand xbox controller. There were numerous design and safety issues that were known at the time of departure. They kinda just did whatever in the F they wanted to. It's a millionaire game of Fuck Around and Find Out and they're not used to finding out.

Third, the damage waiver

The disclaimer, read out by CBS correspondent David Pogue, read: “This experimental submersible vessel has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma, or death.”

A nervous-looking Pogue makes a face and says, “Where do I sign?” in the footage recorded when he went on the $250,000 (£195,000) trip to see the Titanic at the end of last year.

I get that it's just some rich idiots (and one of their kids) crossing the river styx, but it's not very often you see such amazing disregard for basic safety.

[–] Cynosure 33 points 1 year ago (18 children)

I don't get why the Logitech controller is so focused on. I get that it's probably not the right controller due to it's age and wireless only nature but COTS parts are often more reliable than in-house ones. The lack of certification as you mentioned is a much larger issue.

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[–] T156 48 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't think that this is the right question for this community, but I'm not optimistic on their rescue.

Even under ideal conditions, the ocean is enormous, and even with all things going well, finding a properly-equipped submarine that wants to be found, can be a bit like a needle in a haystack, at least according to people with more naval experience than I.

I hope that they would be rescued, since suffocating to death in a metal tube that's sealed from the outside seems like rather a horrid way to go, but at the same time, the submersible that is lost was not particularly well equipped. The control system was a wireless game controller which was infamous for having dropout issues. Using controllers is fine and all, since they're often used in commercial and military applications due to their intuitiveness and better ergonomics (plus the manufacturer doesn't have to design and build a new one from scratch), but using one that was infamous for having connection problems was rather tempting fate.

The lost submersible also didn't have anything like an emergency beacon that could be used to locate them, and it was sealed from outside. Even if they managed to resurface, anyone aboard would still be trapped within the tube, unable to get out.

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[–] Donjuanme 45 points 1 year ago (4 children)

A couple things are potentially different from how op laid them out. (From my understanding)

The vessel was designed to automatically begin resurfacing after a set period of time underwater, even without pilot input, so it might not be very deep at all. The problem is it doesn't sit very high in the water and is very hard to see.

They don't necessarily have 2 days of oxygen left, those were calculated values, and there may be other gaseous build ups that impair the totally oxygen supplies.

I hope it was over quickly for them, I don't know how you could resurface that type of vessel without breaking it. I hope we will find evidence and be able to piece together what happened, but I suspect it'll just be lost at sea. I don't think there's any conspiracy up keep evidence away from the public, I think most people underestimate how difficult it is to find 4 cubic meters inside a 10 cubic kilometer area, hell that would be hard without that area being covered in water.

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[–] HenloHowl 44 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I mean, I hope they survive but I'm not holding my breath.

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[–] Double_A 43 points 1 year ago (10 children)

No. Chances are high that that submarine just imploded in a millisecond and they just instantly died. Why else would it stop sending pings and completely dissappear otherwise?

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[–] ritswd 40 points 1 year ago (4 children)

My understanding is that chances are slim to none. I understand that whatever malfunction happened that cut the contact, has some likelihood to have been a much greater malfunction than just radio, and that they’ve quite possibly already been dead a while.

And even if not, my understanding is that they’re scanning a massive swath of sea and it’s very much a needle-in-a-haystack situation. I wouldn’t be surprised if the only reason such an unlikely operation is taking place, is because the people involved can afford it.

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[–] beijingb33f 39 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Unlikely. Even if they could find the sub, safely raising it or somehow docking with it would take too long. They’re almost out of oxygen, so that thing is a sarcophagus at this point.

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[–] sternail 39 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Do you mean imploding? Because if they didn’t implode, being stuck in a sub for days, slowly waiting to suffocate, ist fucking horrible.

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[–] jacktherippah 38 points 1 year ago

I don't like millionaires/billionaires but I wouldn't wish that kind of harrowing ordeal on anyone. I hope they survive somehow.

[–] Noedel 36 points 1 year ago (6 children)

It really depends on how they went. Sudden implosion of the hull, quick and easy.

Floating around for days until your air runs out, wondering if someone will find you... Not so much.

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[–] nomadjoanne 33 points 1 year ago

Normally I wouldn't sympathize with billionaires, but what a horrible way to die! Sadly I don't think they'll be rescued.

Certainly it is possible that they surfaced once they lost connection though... Even so, the search areas are huge

[–] WaxiestSteam69 31 points 1 year ago (2 children)

At this point, I'd be surprised if they were ever found. Assuming the sub is still intact and not wondering aimlessly, the sheer size of the search area makes it difficult to find the sub.

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