#submersable

[prokopetz]

"Private submarine carrying several billionaire tourists goes missing while surveying the wreckage of the Titanic."

Well, it had to happen eventually. This is where big-ticket extreme tourism and shooting untrained assholes into space and such was always going to lead – frankly, it's surprising that it took this long for a major incident to crop up.

"One of the missing passengers is the president and CEO of the company that owns and operates the submarine."

Huh. Well, points for putting his money where his mouth is, I guess. I wonder if–

"The missing CEO's name is Stockton Rush."

Oh, bullshit. That's not a real person – that's the name of a guy who builds an inexplicably 1950s-themed underwater theme park and then gets eaten by a shark in a cautionary tale about the perils of libertarianism. That's the name of a guy who carries off an oceanfront real estate scam that somehow ends with Superman fighting a telepathic squid. Fucking "Stockton Rush". Unbelievable.

[secondbeatsongs]

source

[chaoticdesertdweller]

[residentshitcunt]

This is just a reminder to everyone out there who gets annoyed by safety laws. They exist for a reason, and if you don't want to follow them at least make sure to have the decency to only hurt yourself.

[lestatslestits]

I think what fucks me up the most is that each passenger paid at least $250,000 to be in that submersible. And ultimately, as billionaires, that’s like. A percentage of a percent of a percentage of their wealth. It’s like a trip to Starbucks for people like me. There is not a single person in my life whose existence would not be monumentally changed for the better in ways they probably can’t even imagine by having $250,000 accessible to them. And these dudes handed it over to go die in the ocean in a tin can piloted by a video game controller in some kind of fucked up deep sea Major Tom situation

[prideprejudce]

the symbolism of billionaires willingly paying some greedy tech bro 250k to go sit in his backyard shed built tin-can submarine to find a sunk mass grave site of over a thousand people (many whom died solely due to being poor or third class passengers) only to become missing and likely lost at sea themselves is the type of karma you usually never get to see play out so perfectly

[buggbuzz]

this is a bit heavyhanded but shhhhh shhhh

[toaarcan]

I’m finding it really hard to view the Titanic submersible nonsense with appropriate gravity because goddamn this was the most avoidably stupid way to die we’ve seen in a while.

Oh it's an untethered, van-sized tube, steered by an off-brand PS3 controller, that navigates via text messages from the mothership, the texts are transmitted by Musky’s satellites, and it has no hatch, instead being bolted together around the occupants from the outside. The CEO of the company considers “safety” an obstacle, and the vehicle is unregulated and unapproved, so you have to sign a waiver that mentions death three times in the first page to board it. Every single one of those points is a reason to not board the thing.

And to top it off, these dipshits decide to name their ACME-ass submersible the Titan, and take it to the most legendary monument to Man’s Hubris on the planet, 3.7 kilometres into the abyss. Like there’s tempting fate, and then there’s this horseshit.

These MFs paid $250000 for a Darwin Award and a starring role in “Worst ways to die” Youtube videos for decades to come.

Don’t weep for the stupid, you’ll be crying all day.

[ausetkmt]

Five people on OceanGate's Titan submersible died when it imploded in June.

The sub was on an expedition to the Titanic wreckage, which sits nearly 13,000 feet below the ocean surface, when it lost communications with its support ship an hour and 45 minutes into the trip. 

US Coast Guard officials said the sub probably suffered a "catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber."

In the weeks following the incident, multiple reports appeared detailing significant concerns that had surrounded the sub long before its fateful final journey — many of which passengers may have been unaware. 

Here's seven reasons why we now know going on the Titan sub was a very bad idea.

1. The Titan sub was not certified by regulatory bodies 

Former OceanGate consultant Rob McCallum warned CEO Stockton Rush in 2018 that he was putting passengers in danger and urged him not to carry out expeditions until the sub was proven to be safe.

"Until a sub is classed, tested and proven it should not be used for commercial deep dive operations," McCallum told Rush in an email reviewed by Insider.

OceanGate said in an archived blog post that getting the Titan classed would be a lengthy process, which could stifle innovation.

"Bringing an outside entity up to speed on every innovation before it is put into real-world testing is anathema to rapid innovation," OceanGate said in the 2019 post.

2. The sub only reached the depth of the Titanic on 13 out of 90 dives

The Titan submersible had successfully reached the depth of the Titanic wreck on "as few as 13" out of 90 dives, according to OceanGate's four-page liability waiver, which also describes the sub as "experimental" three times.

3. OceanGate's approach to engineering was "ad hoc" 

McCallum told Insider in June that OceanGate's engineering approach was "ultimately inappropriate." The former consultant said the differences between OceanGate and other submersible operators' engineering standards were "profound".

"Comparing Titan to the commercial fleet is the same as comparing a home-built go-kart with a Formula 1 car," he said. 

4. An expert heard a "defect" in 2019

Karl Stanley, a submersible expert who was a friend of Stockton Rush, told NewsNation he heard "cracking" sounds when he went on the sub in April 2019 and emailed Rush about his concerns.

"What we heard, in my opinion … sounded like a flaw/defect in one area being acted on by the tremendous pressures and being crushed/damaged," Stanley told Rush in emails seen by CNN.

5. OceanGate's liability waiver mentions death numerous times

The waiver, signed by a prospective passenger, lists all the ways people could be at risk of harm and mentions "death" three times on the first page. 

The risks of death stated in the document include from "extreme pressure," "unpredictable" conditions, from boarding "small vessels and other equipment," or any other failure of the sub.

It also included being exposed to high-pressure gasses, pure oxygen servicing, and high-voltage electrical systems.

6. Titan failed a test dive in 2021

It failed a test dive in 2021 because its thrusters stopped working, Brian Weed, a former passenger, told Insider

He added that it was stuck underwater for more than two hours and never made it deeper than 100 feet.

Tests on the sub also found that its carbon-fiber hull "showed signs of cyclic fatigue" at lower depths, according to GeekWire. 

7. Inadequate "quality control and safety" protocols 

OceanGate's former director of marine operations, David Lochridge, sued the company in 2018 after he raised a number of red flags over the sub.

He warned the company's management about inadequate "quality control and safety" protocols and said he had major concerns about the lack of testing on the hull.

Lochridge claimed in the lawsuit he was then fired and accused of breach of contract. The case was reportedly settled out of court in November 2018. 

OceanGate did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours. 

[theonlydrewboo]

Sad but true.

[icy-moons]

genuinely my favorite exchange to come out of recent events

[rosewind2007]

[chaoticace22]

i'm back on my bullshit hope it's okay

[itznarcotic]

[prideprejudce]

people saying that users aren’t being compassionate enough towards the billionaires stuck in the death coffin at the bottom of the ocean and calling us “ghouls” for bringing up the absolute absurdity of the entire situation and it’s like……of course no one ever deserves to die by suffocation or freezing to death and it’s a hope that by some miracle that these people are found and somehow saved. however people are aloud to point out the irony of how our current wealth gap is so high that there are people who are able to spend 250k, an amount that most people don’t see in their entire lives, like it’s a movie ticket. except instead of seeing a movie they are entering a death chamber to the bottom of the ocean so they can gawk at the mass grave of over a thousand people

“the CEO of the company tricked them and he’s the real capitalist villain while the other passengers are blameless” I agree that the CEO (who is also stuck in the submarine with them) is as grimy as they come and cut corners in order to make as much money as possible. that’s a given. but as we are seeing now, most people who have never even stepped foot in the ocean their entire lives could see that this was a disaster waiting to happen. you don’t have to be a maritime expert to see that. the submersible has no emergency beacon, is controlled by an off brand game controller, made from parts from a camp store, navigated by texts from above, is bolted in from the outside, and has a contract that passengers sign that mentions “death” three times on the front page. most people couldn’t be paid to step foot in it - and these people paid 250k to go to the bottom of the ocean in it

once again, no one is relishing at people dying stuck in an essentially gutted out minivan at the bottom of the ocean. especially when one passenger is 19 and the other is a legitimate titanic researcher. but people are allowed to be mad that thousands upon thousands of dollars of taxpayer money and resources are being used to try and literally pluck these people out of the ocean and save them from a grave that they literally helped dig themselves into without a care in the world. they are the 1% who can put themselves in peril as much as they please and spend money and waste resources like it’s water but will always expect to be saved from the brink of death by us regular folk so they can call themselves an “adventurer” at their next luncheon