5 ms·

I think the migrant boat disaster is horrible. But I was more interested in this missing sub because it was a bit mysterious what happened to it initially. Then

I think the migrant boat disaster is horrible. But I was more interested in this missing sub because it was a bit mysterious what happened to it initially. Then it all comes out how badly built it is, how it's a death trap, etc. It's just more interesting personally. It doesn't mean it's worse than the migrant boat, it's just more interesting and I'd rather read about it. Mysterious cases always get more traction on social media too. There was an instance in the UK where a woman went missing near a river. People were speculating for weeks about what had happened. They would travel to the location and try and be detectives. It's was insane. People said it was because she was a white woman, but I don't think it's that. It's just the mystery of not knowing what happened and a body not being found straight away after divers searched the area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Nicola_Bulley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Nicola_Bulley Same goes for the sub. It's not because it was full of billionaires. It was because it was from a company infamous for cutting corners and people wanting confirmation that it did in fact implode. It also just boggles the mind why people who are so wealthy would get in something so shoddily put together. They have the money to fund a whole expedition like James Cameron did, but they'd rather increase the risk of death by an order of magnitude.

jl6 3y ago
The contrasting coverage is IMHO largely due to the novelty of the situation, and nothing to do with any moral judgement on the victims. Tragically, migrant boat disasters are common.
- bluescrn 3y ago
  It was also the 'ticking clock' factor of the limited oxygen, a countdown of a few days, giving hope for a heroic rescue. People can't survive for long in cold seas. By the time a migrant boat disaster makes the news, hopes of finding survivors may already have faded.
  - tremon 3y ago
    The Mediterranean Sea isn't particularly cold this time of year, are you confusing the locations of the two incidents?
itake 3y ago
Do you have any details about why it was a death trap? I watched one video that complained about off the shelf parts being used, but the two examples was an RV light (not safety related) and the gaming controller (which they had multiple back ups). They also claimed to have been reviewed by Boeing and University of Washington. There was 7 different mechanisms that could force a return. Some of those were purely mechanical. Clearly the sub wasn’t safe enough, but I’m not seeing anything that makes it obviously badly built.
- ryanthemadone 3y ago
  This flying lady doctor had lots to say on this https://twitter.com/LadyDoctorSays/status/1671700989429297152 https://twitter.com/LadyDoctorSays/status/167170098942929715...
- cma 3y ago
  The whistleblower said they used flammable interior materials. Were the Camper World lights inflammable to the standards of submarines?
- Philip-J-Fry 3y ago
  Using off the shelf components is probably the best thing they did. You don't want to reinvent the wheel if you can help it. I don't know why the game controller is a sticking point for most of social media. It's funny to think of a vehicle being piloted by one, but they really are designed to be used for thousands of hours. Game controllers have been used in all sorts of military applications. The issue as far as I have read is that the hull was made of carbon fibre. There hasn't been any submersible that has reached those depths before made of that material. The effect continued pressurization/depressurization had on the carbon fibre wasn't understood. Composite materials are so much more complicated to model and understand. There was no non-destructive testing to see what effect the repeated cycles had on the hull, no way of knowing whether cracks could form beneath the surface. The failure mode at depth is catastrophic, there's no room for error. Someone pointed all this out to them and was fired https://newrepublic.com/post/173802/missing-titanic-sub-faced-lawsuit-depths-safely-travel-oceangate https://newrepublic.com/post/173802/missing-titanic-sub-face.... https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/21/us/titan-sub-safety-oceangate-employees/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/21/us/titan-sub-safety-ocean... In response to them knowing the sub wasn't fit for purpose they opted to install a "real time health monitoring system" which acoustically checked the integrity of the hull. But it's pointless. By the time any acoustic monitoring system picked something up it would be too late, because carbon fibre just shatters into a million pieces. It's not like Steel where it can gradually fatigue, it's crack BOOM dead. Using carbon fibre for the hull is like rolling your own crypto. Maybe you can get it to work but unless you properly scrutinize it there is most likely fundamental flaws in your implementation and it's just better to use tried and true methods. In the sub world that tried and true method is just thick steel.

jl6 3y ago

The contrasting coverage is IMHO largely due to the novelty of the situation, and nothing to do with any moral judgement on the victims. Tragically, migrant boat disasters are common.

bluescrn 3y ago
It was also the 'ticking clock' factor of the limited oxygen, a countdown of a few days, giving hope for a heroic rescue. People can't survive for long in cold seas. By the time a migrant boat disaster makes the news, hopes of finding survivors may already have faded.
- tremon 3y ago
  The Mediterranean Sea isn't particularly cold this time of year, are you confusing the locations of the two incidents?

itake 3y ago

Do you have any details about why it was a death trap? I watched one video that complained about off the shelf parts being used, but the two examples was an RV light (not safety related) and the gaming controller (which they had multiple back ups). They also claimed to have been reviewed by Boeing and University of Washington. There was 7 different mechanisms that could force a return. Some of those were purely mechanical. Clearly the sub wasn’t safe enough, but I’m not seeing anything that makes it obviously badly built.

ryanthemadone 3y ago
This flying lady doctor had lots to say on this https://twitter.com/LadyDoctorSays/status/1671700989429297152 https://twitter.com/LadyDoctorSays/status/167170098942929715...
cma 3y ago
The whistleblower said they used flammable interior materials. Were the Camper World lights inflammable to the standards of submarines?
Philip-J-Fry 3y ago
Using off the shelf components is probably the best thing they did. You don't want to reinvent the wheel if you can help it. I don't know why the game controller is a sticking point for most of social media. It's funny to think of a vehicle being piloted by one, but they really are designed to be used for thousands of hours. Game controllers have been used in all sorts of military applications. The issue as far as I have read is that the hull was made of carbon fibre. There hasn't been any submersible that has reached those depths before made of that material. The effect continued pressurization/depressurization had on the carbon fibre wasn't understood. Composite materials are so much more complicated to model and understand. There was no non-destructive testing to see what effect the repeated cycles had on the hull, no way of knowing whether cracks could form beneath the surface. The failure mode at depth is catastrophic, there's no room for error. Someone pointed all this out to them and was fired https://newrepublic.com/post/173802/missing-titanic-sub-faced-lawsuit-depths-safely-travel-oceangate https://newrepublic.com/post/173802/missing-titanic-sub-face.... https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/21/us/titan-sub-safety-oceangate-employees/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/21/us/titan-sub-safety-ocean... In response to them knowing the sub wasn't fit for purpose they opted to install a "real time health monitoring system" which acoustically checked the integrity of the hull. But it's pointless. By the time any acoustic monitoring system picked something up it would be too late, because carbon fibre just shatters into a million pieces. It's not like Steel where it can gradually fatigue, it's crack BOOM dead. Using carbon fibre for the hull is like rolling your own crypto. Maybe you can get it to work but unless you properly scrutinize it there is most likely fundamental flaws in your implementation and it's just better to use tried and true methods. In the sub world that tried and true method is just thick steel.