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This is one of my worst nightmares.... I hope they can find this and the people inside survive.
"A submersible craft used to take people to see the wreck of the Titanic has gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean with its crew on board, sparking a major search and rescue operation.
Tour firm OceanGate, which runs $250,000-a-seat expeditions to the wreck, said it was exploring all options to get the crew back safely.
It said government agencies and deep sea firms were helping the operation.
The Titanic sank in 1912 and lies some 3,800m (12,500ft) beneath the waves.
The missing craft is believed to be OceanGate's Titan submersible, a truck-sized sub that holds five people and usually dives with a four-day supply of oxygen.
It is not known when contact with the craft was lost.
"Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families," OceanGate said in a statement." " Source
If a submersible like that one does not bob to the surface, then something has gone very wrong. There would be no way to rescue anyone even if they were able to go down and see it.
Submersibles are kept at "shirt sleeve" atmosphere, meaning the crew is not in a pressurized environment. In event of power failure ballast is dropped and it bobs up like a cork - the crew can then open the hatch.
To my knowledge no one has ever been rescued from 12,000 feet.
The bigger nightmare will be if they don't end up finding it at all. Ugh. This one just really gets me, as I have an intense fear of the open ocean. Just thinking about it makes me queasy. I can't imagine what those people are/have been going through. :::shudder:::
If a submersible like that one does not bob to the surface, then something has gone very wrong. There would be no way to rescue anyone even if they were able to go down and see it.
Submersibles are kept at "shirt sleeve" atmosphere, meaning the crew is not in a pressurized environment. In event of power failure ballast is dropped and it bobs up like a cork - the crew can then open the hatch.
To my knowledge no one has ever been rescued from 12,000 feet.
What are the possible reasons its been lost? How does it get back up to the surface normally?
What are the possible reasons its been lost? How does it get back up to the surface normally?
A normal submersible takes on enough water in its tanks so that it gradually sinks. Then when they want up, they pump the water out.
Ballast is typically held in place by an electromagnet so that if power is lost the ballast will drop. But there are lots of arrangements - and lots of submersibles.
If the hull failed for some reason death would occur in microseconds. The compression of incoming water raises the heat of the atmosphere to diesel-engine levels. It does not squirt like you see in movies; it just goes goes BANG!
Military submarines have compartments that can be sealed off from each other. This little sub did not.
When I was riding submarines in the Navy, I was internally freaked out about something like this happening, even if I knew the odds of that happening were slim. We were underway as well when news of the Argentinian submarine being lost, which certainly didn't help: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_San_Juan_(S-42)
People have been rescued from depths lower than 1,500 feet before, so rescue here can't be ruled out (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue...20Celtic%20Sea.). Still, a lot will come down to how quickly they can pinpoint where the missing submersible is, the state of the submersible (and oxygen supply), the depth of the submersible, etc.
I hope that things turn out ok.
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