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Yeah, the article is light on details. We don't know if they sank or if they're adrift on the surface somewhere after some failure. If they experienced an emer

Yeah, the article is light on details. We don't know if they sank or if they're adrift on the surface somewhere after some failure. If they experienced an emergency underwater and were not able to surface, I'd fear for the absolute worst. People can survive in sunken submarines long enough to be rescued, but those are typically large submarines with multiple rooms that they can seal themselves off in. I doubt a tourist submarine, or really any submarine going to this depth, has multiple compartments. Many military submarines have a test depth of around ~1,500ft or less & a crush depth of around ~2,500ft or less. Titanic sits at 12,500ft. It takes specialized subs to get to this depth, and they're typically very small, one cramped compartment, vessels. Even if they sank but did not suffer a leak, it's unlikely there would an air supply long enough to support a rescue. If they sank, a rescue seems very unlikely. Nonetheless, I hope for the best.

lode 3y ago
> I doubt a tourist submarine, or really any submarine going to this depth, has multiple compartments Indeed, from their website: https://web.archive.org/web/20230613051805/https://oceangateexpeditions.com/tour/titanic-expedition/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230613051805/https://oceangate... "Is there a bathroom on the sub? There is a small toilet located in Titan’s front dome – it doubles as the best seat in the house. When the toilet is in use, we install a privacy curtain between the dome and the main compartment and turn the music up loud."
lb1lf 3y ago
If the sub was designed like a few other deep-sea craft I've looked at, they'd have positive buoyancy and weights to overcome this; the idea being that having to blow ballast tanks at 400 bar pressure differential is rather inconvenient and failure prone. Instead, the weights (attached with electromagnets) are simply jettisoned when it is time to recover to the surface and off you go. The upside to such a simple system, of course, is that it is exceedingly reliable and fail safe. Provided you do not suffer a hull implosion, of course.
- rsaxvc 3y ago
  Yes, that sounds a lot better. From: https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/06/19/heres-what-we-know-about-oceangates-sub-that-tours-titanic-using-1-button/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/06/19/he... "Pogue also shows the vessel uses construction pipes as ballast." I'm having trouble finding the interview video, but dropping ballast involves the crew and passengers rocking the vessel to drop the pipes off the side.
  - AustinDev 3y ago
    Interesting. If they were resting on the bottom. Could you even rock hard enough to drop the ballasts? Although even if they can get to the surface if they have now power how the hell do you find them? It's not like they'll be float on the surface they'd likely be just below the surface.
    - waste_monk 3y ago
      Apparently most "narco submarines" are spotted visually from the air, and those are camouflaged to blend in with the ocean and produce minimal wake, so I would imagine spotting the missing (non-camouflaged) sub at barely-submerged depth would be trivial (as long as it hasn't drifted to far from the last known position) [1]. I saw one of the news articles about this event mention there is a P-8 Poseidon sub-hunting aircraft assisting the search effort, and I would imagine it has a very nice set of optical sensors, thermal cameras, sonobouys, etc. and would have no issues finding the missing sub if it were near surface level ... I don't believe the P-8 has magnetic field sensors but I believe older sub-hunting aircraft had them, which could also be a means of locating the sub. Unfortunately (and I hope I am wrong) I suspect the vessel is drifting in deep water or stuck on the sea floor - if it were shallow they'd have probably found it already. [1] I found this photo on Reddit of what is apparently a partially-submerged Italian navy submarine photographed from a P-3 Orion on a training exercise - I was surprised how good the visibility is https://i.redd.it/eb68q4j1pnt71.jpg https://i.redd.it/eb68q4j1pnt71.jpg commentary: https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/q8u9te/an_active_submarine_spotted_from_the_air_during_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/q8u9te/a...

lode 3y ago

> I doubt a tourist submarine, or really any submarine going to this depth, has multiple compartments Indeed, from their website: https://web.archive.org/web/20230613051805/https://oceangateexpeditions.com/tour/titanic-expedition/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230613051805/https://oceangate... "Is there a bathroom on the sub? There is a small toilet located in Titan’s front dome – it doubles as the best seat in the house. When the toilet is in use, we install a privacy curtain between the dome and the main compartment and turn the music up loud."

lb1lf 3y ago

If the sub was designed like a few other deep-sea craft I've looked at, they'd have positive buoyancy and weights to overcome this; the idea being that having to blow ballast tanks at 400 bar pressure differential is rather inconvenient and failure prone. Instead, the weights (attached with electromagnets) are simply jettisoned when it is time to recover to the surface and off you go. The upside to such a simple system, of course, is that it is exceedingly reliable and fail safe. Provided you do not suffer a hull implosion, of course.

rsaxvc 3y ago
Yes, that sounds a lot better. From: https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/06/19/heres-what-we-know-about-oceangates-sub-that-tours-titanic-using-1-button/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/06/19/he... "Pogue also shows the vessel uses construction pipes as ballast." I'm having trouble finding the interview video, but dropping ballast involves the crew and passengers rocking the vessel to drop the pipes off the side.
- AustinDev 3y ago
  Interesting. If they were resting on the bottom. Could you even rock hard enough to drop the ballasts? Although even if they can get to the surface if they have now power how the hell do you find them? It's not like they'll be float on the surface they'd likely be just below the surface.
  - waste_monk 3y ago
    Apparently most "narco submarines" are spotted visually from the air, and those are camouflaged to blend in with the ocean and produce minimal wake, so I would imagine spotting the missing (non-camouflaged) sub at barely-submerged depth would be trivial (as long as it hasn't drifted to far from the last known position) [1]. I saw one of the news articles about this event mention there is a P-8 Poseidon sub-hunting aircraft assisting the search effort, and I would imagine it has a very nice set of optical sensors, thermal cameras, sonobouys, etc. and would have no issues finding the missing sub if it were near surface level ... I don't believe the P-8 has magnetic field sensors but I believe older sub-hunting aircraft had them, which could also be a means of locating the sub. Unfortunately (and I hope I am wrong) I suspect the vessel is drifting in deep water or stuck on the sea floor - if it were shallow they'd have probably found it already. [1] I found this photo on Reddit of what is apparently a partially-submerged Italian navy submarine photographed from a P-3 Orion on a training exercise - I was surprised how good the visibility is https://i.redd.it/eb68q4j1pnt71.jpg https://i.redd.it/eb68q4j1pnt71.jpg commentary: https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/q8u9te/an_active_submarine_spotted_from_the_air_during_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/q8u9te/a...