Elvis is in the mix and JFK too 
If it were just entanglement there would still be comms. It could be both loss of all electrical power and entanglement but the reported timing of loss of comms doesn’t coincide with projected arrival on the wreck. Propulsion and lighting power must be separate from comms, life support, and emergency equipment so comms should not have been affected. There is a lot to this that doesn’t make a lot of sense but then again, the boat was not classed so all bets are off. I haven’t heard the NPR report or read anything by OceanGate but some dissolving release is far from an emergency dropweight system. We used magnesium links to a retrieval buoy and line cannister attached to the hull when unmanned drop testing our subs to rated depth. If I recall correctly they would release after a few days abut there is no way anyone would consider that type of release an acceptable emergency system.
There is a lot of WTF going on. Apparently the builder “knew better” and ignored all class requirements and did things his own way.
I don’t like the metal to carbon fiber hatch, that would scare me off.
NFW would I get into a sub with no way out either, class requires a hatch you can open from inside. I have only been on two subs in my life and neither one involved being locked in.
Rumors around that the plexiglass hatch was not rated for the depth.
Supposedly there are multiple ways to drop various weight and not all need power, so it seems unlikely they are just stuck with no way to surface, but maybe all this redundancy is BS or none of it was tested or who knows what?
If they are alive and banging on the hull with no comms, not sure what to think? The logical conclusion would be multiple equipment failure, they can’t talk/text and they can’t surface. Maybe they ARE on the surface somewhere, but would banging be heard then?
If they were on the surface bobbing around somewhere then surely, surely, they would have some sort of EPIRB or EPIRB type signaling/locating device.
These two statements seem to complement each other, but that’s apparently lost on the author…almost as if class designs are actually effective:
Classing may be effective at filtering out unsatisfactory designers and builders, but the established standards do little to weed out subpar vessel operators - because classing agencies only focus on validating the physical vessel.
The vast majority of marine (and aviation) accidents are a result of operator error, not mechanical failure.
Also, I’m not a sub guy but the earning and maintenance of my former vessel’s (and company’s) DoC would like a word with the statement that class does “not ensure that operators adhere to proper operating procedures and decision-making processes”.
Just now I can trace 4 ships in the zone (45º North, 51º West) supposedly searching for TITAN submarine, i.e.: TERRY FOX, HORIZON ARCTIC, ANN HARVEY and finally Spanish warship ALBORAN, all sailing within TITANIC wreck vicinities.
Some miracle expected finally!
Anyone know why the sub is WHITE instead of orange or red? Finding anything white in whitecaps is about impossible.
They can’t get out. No EPIRB I know of is designed to survive being 12,000 feet underwater, so that would seem to count out tying one to the outside of the thing.
EPIRB usually is thrown manually o hydrostatically after submerged. These conditions does not match submarine characteristics I think.
Skandi Vinland (she has operated in Canada since new);
The pipelay vessel Deep Ocean is also on location:
Deep Ocean has two ROVs and a AHC Crane rated at 150 m.t. SWL, both capable of operating in up to 3000 m. WD, so not able to reach to the depth of 3800 m. (unless upgraded from NB specs)
Pictures of the search fleet has emerged:
There is no “class design”, IACS members are not design bureaus. There are two major groups that set standards, ASME has standards for “human occupied pressure vessels” and the Marine Technology Society has a submersible committee comprised of long standing and very experienced scientific and engineering members. ABS and DNV refer to those groups for advice on standards and rules.
No need for an EPIRB, we used pingers that are rated for up to 20,000 feet or full ocean depth. Pingers are the devices used to locate VDRs, aircraft CVRs and FDRs. They are a standard piece of manned submersible safety equipment. Don’t ask me why Titan apparently lacks one.
We used them to locate and recover practice torpedoes that were always fitted to them. They are cheap, as are the directional hydrophones used to home on them.
From https://www.corrosionpedia.com/galvanic-corrosion-of-metals-connected-to-carbon-fiber-reinforced-polymers/2/1556:
“…commercially pure titanium and its alloys are completely resistant to galvanic corrosion when they are coupled with carbon composites.”
I was not worries about that so much as it takes good engineering to attach things to carbon fiber and if the titanium expands and contracts just a little bit differently, that is a lot of stress on that attachment point(s).
The joint is primarily in longitudinal compression while the titanium band acts like a ring stiffener at the polymer joint. Could be wrong but that’s how I see it.
If you want more information you can go to the source, the people who designed that hull and the one that reached the bottom of the Marianas trench:
Like I said, good engineering. This outfit doesn’t seem to be about that from what I have been reading.
Spencer did the design, engineering, and fabrication of the hull. The submersible fitting out, testing, and operation is on OceanGate. Don’t equate the two phases. Read the article. Do some research of your own.
Most of what you have been reading is click bait posted by clueless people who know nothing about the industry or technology or are ex Navy submarine captains who think everything that submerges is or should be a nuke boat with a crew of 150.
A couple of hideous omissions here on the part of Ocean Gate
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why was no hydroacoustic pinger fitter to the submersible so it can be tracked and located?
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why does the mothership not have an ROV aboard to dive on the submersible if disabled or stranded on the bottom?
My money however is that viewport on the vehicle failed, but if it was fitted with a beacon then we would not be forced to endure all this bloody nonsense from the idiotic media.
Fair point.
Just a side note – my dad designed the deep(ish) diver USS Dolphin, AGSS-555 in the mid-60s. Decommissioned '07, now a museum ship in San Diego. 3000 ft (unclassified).