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Notes -
Forgive me if somebody else has already posted about this. What’s going on with that submarine that tried to tour the titanic wreckage?
Is it a stupid idea in the first place? Is there any chance they’ll be rescued?
I’ve been fascinated by the fact that even the richest among us are only surviving because Mother Earth decided not to crush them today. Seems like these people just had their luck run out, and maybe made a really stupid decision?
I have this question too because the press has this morbid countdown timer "until the air runs out", but the fact that the sub vanished from communications 2 hours into the dive surely suggests that the hull imploded and they've been dead since Sunday, right?
If it was merely the communications equipment that failed, the sub would have surfaced just fine. If it was sinking or had suffered some non-fatal flaw but still had communications equipment, they'd have sent a mayday or relayed some issues. Apparently they had many backup systems that should have surfaced the sub even in the event of an oxygen issue or all the crew being incapacitated.
The reasonable conclusion is that the sub imploded and they're all dead. Hope I'm wrong and they're rescued, but if they're not I hope I'm right, since spending four days in a tin can awaiting likely certain death sounds pretty awful.
It sounds like their communications failing was a semi-regular occurance (YIL that they've been doing this since last year, and took David Pogue down there at some point) -- to the point where they may not have aborted the mission 'just' for that.
The problem with surfacing later is that if their comms have failed, it's possible that they are bobbing somewhere in the North Atlantic and nobody can find them -- compounded by the fact that the sub is bolted closed from the outside, so they can't even open the hatch and set off a flare or whatnot.
It's faint hope; they are probably crushed -- but the fact that they've been going down there semi-routinely makes me think this is less likely than when I thought it was a maiden voyage or something.
The fact that they don't have backup comms or a way of signalling for rescue from the surface makes me think that they are even dumber than I'd thought yesterday though -- which raises the chance that some other dumb thing bit them in the ass.
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