[axman88]

IF it was the CF tube, 5000 psi worming thru from outside to inside via a epoxy matrix crack could explain the implosion.

HP water propagating thru a cracked matrix could rapidly hydraulic chunks of CF off, weakening the structure. At a critical point the process rapidly accelerates and "bang". A saltwater mist inside the pressure hull at those pressures wouldn't give much reaction time. 

I watched a U-Tube wherein James Cameron, (who has been deeper than 35,000 ft, solo), said the he heard from his deep diving community friends, that the Titan's support ship received data that Titan's crew had dropped their dive weights shortly before losing contact with the sub.  He suggested that this meant they had heard something that made them change their minds about descending.

He says the info he got from his contacts, the fact that the support ship had lost contact with the tracking module, which is in a separate pressure hull, simultaneous with loss of communication with the main hull, plus the fact that a "bang" was picked up by sonabuoys, plus the weight drop info. indicated to him, before monday even dawned, that the eventual outcome was inevitable.  Of course, we didn't hear about any of this until the hard evidence was found.

It seems to be against human nature to admit the worse truths, while hope has any plausibility, no matter the financial cost.

[Casanova]

Certainly there would be no coverage if it was 5 guys with 100$ on their account, how many died on the Greek ship a week ago or so? How many in that Ukrainian conflict so far? Nobody is reporting, nobody wants to actually know until it hits their rats ars.

...globo oligarchs connected everyone to an wire account than pulled the cash out of everything and said "let's wait for a miracle".

[AzCal Retred]

Just another set of folks with money, playing with submersibles instead of space ships. The Navy (i.e. the Electric Boat Company...) has an interest in finding out the failure mechanism. As do the other submersible folks, but they aren't the guys with the cash, that's the Pentagon. It also makes a good training exercise for the "rescue" ship.

The Navy wasn't forthcoming about SOSUS data until the CinC cleared it. CF has weight & internal volume advantages for deep submersibles IF you can tame it. An unmanned deep-exploration autonomous vehicle would not make the news if it imploded, but probably good to know why it did so if you are using CF yourself in a similar application.

The rest of it ( media frenzy) was another case of life imitating art.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_in_the_Hole_(1951_film) ( aka "The Big Carnival")

People generally like to hear about rich folks problems, makes your own situation seem less pressing, knowing even the wealthy have issues. Old films from the Depression Era really played this up. That Greek tragedy that played out last week as you point out would have gotten more coverage if it wasn't just the hoi polloi drowning.

[GlennF]

There is a lot of stuff kicking about talking about the duty life of carbon fibre and how it can delaminate over time under pressure.

By all accounts the duty cycle of that vessel should have been two dives before retirement.

[AzCal Retred]

At a two 5,000 PSI duty cycles per build the cost per ticket would likely have gone up. 

Maybe they could sell the used 5" thick x 20 foot long CF shells to Bezos or Musk to build a space station with. 14.7 PSID is a lot easier to deal with than 5,000 PSID, and a 5" thick CF shell might have at least some micrometeorite shield value.

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."

[Casanova]

Anyone knows the diameter of that thing?

An one week long search just to find it more or less at the exact last coordinates before it stopped transmitting any signals. Wow.

[Richard230]

Anyone knows the diameter of that thing?

An one week long search just to find it more or less at the exact last coordinates before it stopped transmitting any signals. Wow.

I heard that it was about the size of a mini-van in the crew compartment. It could barely hold 5 people on its flat floor. No seats, heating or any other passenger accommodations. 

[AzCal Retred]

The sub was fairly neutrally buoyant until the ballast was jettisoned, then it was ascending. Apparently the central tube was found in two chunks and one end cap found as well. Seems like a CF failure best explains the implosion. It was a few thousand feet from the bottom when it went. Currents and "hydrodynamic drift" account for the parts scatter. One medical man said there would be no remains due to the violence of the implosion.

[Casanova]

I heard that it was about the size of a mini-van in the crew compartment. It could barely hold 5 people on its flat floor. No seats, heating or any other passenger accommodations. 

Without an atleast 65" TV with a Disney+ subscription it's a defitive nogo. Most of the customers who came out of it seem to complain about the rusty balast weights, so maybe a better paint job next time.

[GlennF]

This is the Aussie version, free beer and a BBQ after your dive ...

Doubt it is 4000m capable though.

[Casanova]

Looking good, in  view of current events I would probably skip the dive and go for the beer &  BBQ straight shot...

[Casanova]

The "Invisible Hand of the Marketplace" seems to be hard at work here. Odd that people forking over $250K wouldn't do the due diligence necessary to find out what kind of situation they were getting into. It's not like the info wasn't out there. Status comes at a cost, look at the Everest ascenders. It's only a matter of time before the Space Expeditions have a similar incident. Extremely hostile environments are just that and all tech has limits. Treating it like a trip to Disneyland doesn't help anything.

Missing Titanic submersible live updates: 'Banging' picked up by sonar, source says
The deep-sea vessel submerged on Sunday morning with a 96-hour supply of oxygen.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/live-updates/missing-titanic-tourist-submersible/?id=100224153
The deep-sea vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes after submerging on Sunday morning with a 96-hour oxygen supply. The United States Coast Guard, in coordination with the Canadian Coast Guard and the Canadian Armed Forces, immediately launched a search and rescue operation for the 21-foot sealed craft, named Titan.
The U.S. Coast Guard announced via Twitter early Wednesday that a Canadian aircraft with sonar capabilities had "detected underwater noises in the search area."
Remotely operated vehicle operations (ROV) were then relocated "in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises," according to the Coast Guard.
"Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue," the Coast Guard tweeted.

OceanGate Was Warned of Potential for ‘Catastrophic’ Problems With Titanic Mission
Experts inside and outside the company warned of potential dangers and  urged the company to undergo a certification process.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/20/us/oceangate-titanic-missing-submersible.html
Mr. Lochridge reported in court records that he had urged the company to do so, but that he had been told that OceanGate was “unwilling to pay” for such an assessment. After getting Mr. Lochridge’s report, the company’s leaders held a tense meeting to discuss the situation, according to court documents filed by both sides. The documents came in a lawsuit that OceanGate filed against Mr. Lochridge in 2018, accusing him of sharing confidential information outside the company.
In the documents, Mr. Lochridge reported learning that the viewport that lets passengers see outside the craft was only certified to work in depths of up to 1,300 meters.That is far less than would be necessary for trips to the Titanic, which is nearly 4,000 meters below the ocean’s surface.
“The paying passengers would not be aware, and would not be informed, of this experimental design,” lawyers for Mr. Lochridge wrote in a court filing.
The meeting led OceanGate to fire Mr. Lochridge, according to court documents filed by both sides. OceanGate has said in court records that he was not an engineer, that he refused to accept information from the company’s engineering team and that acoustic monitoring of the hull’s strength was better than the kind of testing that Mr. Lochridge felt was necessary.
That is far less than would be necessary for trips to the Titanic, which is nearly 4,000 meters below the ocean’s surface.
“The paying passengers would not be aware, and would not be informed, of this experimental design,” lawyers for Mr. Lochridge wrote in a court filing.
The meeting led OceanGate to fire Mr. Lochridge, according to court documents filed by both sides. OceanGate has said in court records that he was not an engineer, that he refused to accept information from the company’s engineering team and that acoustic monitoring of the hull’s strength was better than the kind of testing that Mr. Lochridge felt was necessary.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deep_Range

You still have to explain why it's anyone's problem if an rich ars builds himself a plastic submersible and kills himself with it? The passengers signed apparently multiple times a paper that stated the risk of death. Not exactly anyone's problem outside the company...

It was not exactly an mass transportation certified vehicle, which means anyone entering it was self responsible for judging the risk involved. I doubt it was an large commercial success anyway, mere an expensive hobby.

[GlennF]

You still have to explain why it's anyone's problem if an rich ars builds himself a plastic submersible and kills himself with it? The passengers signed apparently multiple times a paper that stated the risk of death. Not exactly anyone's problem outside the company...

It was not exactly an mass transportation certified vehicle, which means anyone entering it was self responsible for judging the risk involved. I doubt it was an large commercial success anyway, mere an expensive hobby.

All well and good EXCEPT for the millions or perhaps tens of millions of public money wasted on the public rescue attempt.

[Casanova]

All well and good EXCEPT for the millions or perhaps tens of millions of public money wasted on the public rescue attempt.

You can guess where the public servants will try to suck the cost for their efforts that no one asked for from.

[tooseevee]

All well and good EXCEPT for the millions or perhaps tens of millions of public money wasted on the public rescue attempt.

      I have no sympathy at all for the squashed people in the submersible. The only difference between them and the not-experienced-enough people who pay $100K* to attempt Everest (or others) is that they didn't jeopardize other people's lives as the Everest wannabees have many, many times.

    * I have no idea what it costs now. Last time I was the least bit interested it was $60,000. The sherpa should be canonized for continuing to put up with these kinds of climbers & losing their lives trying to save them & other climbers who the inexperienced fools & idiots have put in jeopardy.