Search team hears 'banging' sounds where the missing submersible disappeared

boing
1

Originally published at: Search team hears 'banging' sounds where the missing submersible disappeared | Boing Boing

…

4 Likes
2

Someone is using the game controller to play a FPS?

3 Likes
3

Bioshock?

6 Likes
4

I keep thinking how this is a metaphor, rich people paying for the “privilege” of an experience that leads to an unsustainable environment. Not saying that they deserve to die, but the million in fares that went for this “vacation” could have been better spent.

4 Likes
5

I think the lesson here is that we tend to think of Billionaires as geniuses or something, and many of them think they too are above and beyond the average person, and that they can’t really fail. Their hubris leads to them creating a craft that isn’t up to the dangerous task. And three other people full of themselves are convinced a fellow rich person couldn’t possibly build something that isn’t safe, and happy to climb aboard. (not faulting the 19 year old, most 19 year olds don’t know shit about fuck, and I am sure trusted his dad’s assessment.)

14 Likes
6

I wonder if the remote controlled submersible can drag a lonnnggg cable down to pull them up even?

I’m sure there are logistical and technical challenges with this…

3 Likes
7

The news that they might still be alive makes me sad. Not because I want anyone to die, but because I seriously doubt that it will be possible to mount a rescue operation at depth in the time remaining. A quick, even instantaneous death due to hull failure seems preferable to spending your last five days in a cramped steel tube, watching the clock tick down and waiting in vain for rescue.

Fingers still crossed for a last-minute miracle, but I’m not optimistic.

22 Likes
8

And the irony of them doing so to see the wreck of the unsinkable Titanic makes it a bit sharper.

11 Likes
9

At least it has a lower carbon impact than all those rich people taking jaunts into space, I guess.

9 Likes
10

Richard Garriot is the same man who created the Ultima Series of games back in the 80s

6 Likes
11

Billionaires or not, they’re all still people who have families back on shore, waiting for news.

9 Likes
12

Except for the one who brought his family with him.

4 Likes
13

This is very heartening news to read. From my understanding, it is 30 min of banging every 4 hours which is irregularly regular (?) enough to indicate potential human activity. I sure hope this leads to them before their time runs out.

1 Like
14

From what I’ve been reading, unless something seriously weird happened, it’s not the sub. Which means they’ll probably spend even more time and resources tracking this down to find out it was something else.

(Meanwhile I’m disheartened that a ship loaded with migrants capsized in the Mediterranean, with 500 people missing, and it didn’t get even a tenth of the attention or resources this is…)

I read that there were seven different mechanisms to release the ballast and rise to the surface, so if that didn’t happen, seven different things would have had to go wrong simultaneously to prevent it. Seems pretty unlikely. (Although this is, of course, assuming that all those options were working to begin with, and they weren’t sending half-broken subs down…)

8 Likes
15

There’s one team that say they can do it

It is in possession of a remotely operated vessel that is able to pull up submersibles from as deep as 5,000 meters, Bretton Hunchak, former president of RMS Titanic, Inc, which collaborated with Magellan in last summer’s project, told The Telegraph.

5 Likes
16

If they’re stuck somewhere (wedged or under an overhang) only one thing needs to have gone wrong: getting into a situation where losing ballast alone can’t get them to the surface (possibly combined with a loss of steering power)

3 Likes
17

They might also be bobbing around on the surface and not communicating. It is a very large ocean.

3 Likes
18

Why doesn’t this thing have an EPIRB?

I realize it might not work when submerged, but if they’re able to resurface, it seems it would be useful.

5 Likes
19

I’m sure, given what we’ve learned about OceanGate’s CEO and his attitude towards safety, the question, “Why doesn’t this thing have [insert safety feature here]?” has a lot of things that could go in the brackets, at least one of which led to the current situation.

11 Likes
20

I was wondering the same thing and then I remembered that they can’t leave the sub to use one (and the usual hydrostatic release doesn’t make sense on a submarine obvs). But then I thought that it might actually work through the carbon fibre hull?

2 Likes