30 years ago they would have absolutely heard it and triangulated it's position within minutes.
There is not the same threat now and I am not sure our undersea listening program is as robust as it once was.
Oceangate Titan
- Thread starter jviss
- Start date
There is not the same threat now and I am not sure our undersea listening program is as robust as it once was.
Likely heard and processed.....not so sure on "..passed the information to the Coast Guard..". Canadian Orions were flying search missions...guess nobody bothered to tell them....
Here's a link to one of the articles:
www.militarytimes.com
US Coast Guard says Titan submersible imploded near Titanic wreckage
The Coast Guard will continue searching near the Titanic for more clues about what happened to the Titan.
www.militarytimes.com
Here's another article:
Missing Titanic submersible live updates: Navy likely detected implosion sound Sunday (msn.com)
Missing Titanic submersible live updates: Navy likely detected implosion sound Sunday (msn.com)
Okay, there was the rich pakistani and his son, who I guess could be called "innocents", but the other 3 passengers had all made similar descents before. The experienced skipper, of course, then the 77 year old guy who a famous explorer and wasn't the 5th passenger the owner of the company that builds the sub? ( don't quote me on any of this
) Anyway, James Cameron has no problem saying they were like the crew of the Titanic, too damn cocky..... which I find a bit insensitive to the familes of the victims. But.... heck... he's an expert... having made over a dozen dives to the real titanic....
Remember when the Challenger exploded?.... O-rings... of alll things... You just never know... never ever.
I was in the submarine service, but we never felt in danger....you trust the boat and the crew around you.
) Anyway, James Cameron has no problem saying they were like the crew of the Titanic, too damn cocky..... which I find a bit insensitive to the familes of the victims. But.... heck... he's an expert... having made over a dozen dives to the real titanic....Remember when the Challenger exploded?.... O-rings... of alll things... You just never know... never ever.
I was in the submarine service, but we never felt in danger....you trust the boat and the crew around you.
The NASA chiefs knew about the problem with the o-rings. They were warned as well against launching in the cold temperatures of that winter morning in Florida. Were told that the problematic o-rings could fail to seat properly; had evidence of prior breaches. People in charge with the big heads do not want to hear from their underlings or critics otherwise that something they want to do might not, probably will not, work out, etc. The big difference with Titan versus Challenger is that the person in charge disregarding the warnings of experts and people with technical knowledge was actually in the vessel, not watching from afar in safety.
Last edited:
There is really no comparison between Titan and the Mir submersibles that Cameron used.Titan was an experiment in a relatively low cost way to access the deep sea for tourism. Similar to Virgin Galactic’s attempt to get tourists into space, or nearly, at relatively low cost. Mir 1, Mir 2, and Alvin are serious submersibles designed to do work at great depths, and are supported by governments. Their dive operations are well planned, especially for Alvin; not “off-the-cuff” runs out to a site 400 n.mi. offshore for a quickie 4-km-deep dive in a minimal weather window, etc. I doubt one needs much actual dive experience to recommend greater caution forTitan operations. I know, being somewhat harsh.
Last edited:
You're not being harsh, you're right, and it's actually worse than you characterize it. The company, OceanGate, and the CEO, were cavalier regarding safety and integrity of the craft, and dismissive of numerous cautions in this regard, from industry experts and internal engineers. They dismissed an employee who raised safety concerns, who must certainly feel vindicated, albeit bitter-sweetly, at this point. I recommend watching James Cameron's interview on this.
Okay, there was the rich pakistani and his son, who I guess could be called "innocents", but the other 3 passengers had all made similar descents before. The experienced skipper, of course, then the 77 year old guy who a famous explorer and wasn't the 5th passenger the owner of the company that builds the sub? ( don't quote me on any of this
Remember when the Challenger exploded?.... O-rings... of alll things... You just never know... never ever.
I was in the submarine service, but we never felt in danger....you trust the boat and the crew around you.
The O rings were a known and a perceived acceptable risk. They had leaked many times before and had not been an issue until they launched after an abnormally cold night.
When the swiss cheese lines up right it'll bite you in the ass everytime.
It was predicable.
Key Dates
1974 - Morton-Thiokol awarded contract to build solid rocket boosters.
1976 - NASA accepts Morton-Thiokol's booster design.
1977 - Morton-Thiokol discovers joint rotation problem.
November 1981 - O-ring erosion discovered after second shuttle flight.
January 24, 1985 - shuttle flight that exhibited the worst O ring blow-by.
July 1985 - Thiokol orders new steel billets for new field joint design.
August 19, 1985 - NASA LevelI management briefed on booster problem.
January 27, 1986 - night teleconference to discuss effects of cold temperature on booster performance.
January 28, 1986 - Challenger explodes 72 seconds after liftoff.
Many complaints about lack of media attention to the Greek migrant boat disaster in Europe while a similar number of reporters we're present at the sub disappearance. On the face of it it makes sense to me because the cliffhanger sells more news and we have seen similar attention when a climber goes missing in a snowstorm on Everest for days. Where would we be if we didn't continue to hope for the best possible outcome until the last possible moment. By the way I'm thinking that if the Navy knew precisely the time and size of the implosion and the exact point that the debris landed on the bottom they would not be passing that information on, except in general.
They did. The acoustics were picked up on Sunday about the time comms were lost with Titan.
From what I read this morning, not only did the Oceangate Titan lose communications, but it also lost navigation at the same time, which would invalidate my hypoxia theory. It was also reported that the US Navy did indeed hear the implosion, yet the search continued for days afterward. Curiouser and curiouser.
I don't think it's so curious. The implosion detected by the US Navy is not definitive without a debris field or other confirmation, so keep up hope and look!
Exactly what was reported on the evening news just now. The families were informed of the acoustic detection, but the search continued until definitive evidence (the debris field) was found.
Unlikely they knew "...exact point that the debris landed on the bottom....". More likely they detected the implosion acoustic energy release, classified the transient, and had a geographic line along which the release could have taken place. If that line passed close to the Titanic wreck, one could infer that would be a place to look. Hard to know just what happened.
Well, sorry I offered such an offensive analogy.
I'm guilty of just repeating a commentator's offhand comment. Damn, what's wrong with me? Anyway, I sincerely hope folks here realize these "disaster" discussions are literally meaningless. Nothing gets solved, no consensus is ever reached, nor validated. To my knowledge, and please correct me if I am wrong, No investigative or governing body has called SBO to say "I say there, old chaps, you've got some pretty novel ideas, I believe you boys are on to something!" It harkens back to a statement one of our long gone regulars made years ago, he likened this chat room to a bunch of fishermen (or golfers, heh, heh) sitting around in the tavern after their outing, telling their tall tales, never letting the truth get in the way of a good story. 
Geez.... I can't for the life of me remember his name. some of you old timers..... maybe toss out some names... he lived in the chesapeake area. Loved to talk about cooking meals on the boat... lots of cool recipes, methods etc....he was very active here, always rambling on, got sick and sold his boat years ago.... c'mon now help a brother out
Not sure I agree. The Navy was using a top-secret system, and given what we know about seismic survey technology, which has been around for nearly 70 years, I surmise the Navy utilizes some kind of underwater listening array which can locate noises in 3 dimensions.