Titan Submersible.

By now most should know being rich doesn't mean you have intelligence or common-sense and it is absolutely amazing how out-of-touch some of them act. Experiencing the Titanic thousands of meters below the surface is just asking for trouble and even more so in a haphazardly put together vehicle. Perhaps with the exception of the son, the rest were risk takers and quite honestly, shouldn't one have outgrown such a thing especially as they aged and matured?

Very true.

At this point in my life I've realized there are two kinds of people: risk-takers, and those that are not risk-takers.

There are people who drink and think they can drive home, then there are people who say "Nah, 10-dollar cab ride is cheaper than a DUI."

However, there are good arguments to being a risk-taker as well. Unique experiences and good payoffs beings rewards for risk-taking.

I just think if you are a risk-taker, you need to temper that with rational thinking, and avoid situations where your passions might override your brain.

The problem here however is these people are wealthy, which adds either a layer of delusion. Either that, or these are the kinds of people that have failed upwards: that is to say, they have enough money to afford making mistakes that they romanticize mistake-making without actually learning from it, and because they have money they simply keep making mistakes and ignoring the lesson.

They see the mistake as the thing to glorify, not the lesson learned from it. Firing voices of reason from your company and surrounding one's self with yes-men doesn't help, either.

With that said: getting in what is essentially a very expensive, self-built, do-it-yourself type of submersible and going into an environment that is arguably more dangerous than or as dangerous as the vacuum of outer space is just an obscene risk to take and I personally don't understand it.

Like I said: Titanic fever 😂😢

So I've read OceanGate marketed their submarine tours as having collaborative support in design from University of Washington Department of Applied Physics, Boeing, and NASA. All have come out to flat out deny any involvement with OceanGate.

And I've read that the passengers all had to sign waivers, but given they signed up for the commercial tours under false pretenses, I think this waiver isn't going to hold up.

just read they recovered a bit of the debris from the wreck along with some presumed now 2-D remains of the passengers... crazy

I saw a clip of the front being lifted out of water I think. Window was missing I think.

Dome looked intact. Wonder if it was the window as wasn't it rated only for like 1,400 feet or something?

As for bodies, I'd be amazed if any remains remained. The inside of the sub, due to the air being superheated due to the rapid implosion, reached temperatures close to the sun.

And quickly cooled down due to the cold water?

the physics of that is pretty bonkers. like what happens when you take 50 cubic ft of air and squash it down to .2 cubic ft in 10ms

Watching various podcasts from professionals the window was only certified for 1300 feet there lies the issue. If your taking down paying customers you have to take the submersible through all the tests and be sure your taking there life's seriously. It seemed the CEO just brushed things off and took a chance that can't happen again.

Not sure, but I’d imagine such an immense act of energy would incinerate anything in just as fast, regardless of the cold water quickly rushing in afterwards. The temperature of the sun, you’d burn up instantaneously. I don’t think we can really comprehend the violence of such action as a rapid implosion under such immense pressure.

If anything, if they didn’t burn up I’d bet their remains are not much more than microscopic paste. I’d be astonished if they found arms or torsos or any remains whatsoever. Those people were (mercifully) obliterated before they could perceive it.

I must say I would love to see a nice explanation and simulation of what actually happens to the body under such pressures.

Carbon fiber hull wasn't a good idea either.

yup. heard the expression of their bodies stopping being biology and just being physics.

hard to perceive anything when you're just molecules.

Anyone interested in some background of the CEO and the company, and the poor beliefs and practices (or lack of) that led to this catastrophe, should check out the "Behind the Bastards" podcast episodes on this guy.

A bit tasteless, but I believe he made this episode quickly to point out "Wait, no, this guy is essentially a murderer. We shouldn't be reserved in our criticism of libertarianism simply because of a tragedy".

Episode 1

Episode 2

It's one of my favorite podcasts.

Titanic was the sequel.

Thanks for those, they were interesting listens.

The host (and guests) can be a little much at times since they skew waaaaay left, but lots of good information in them. And they're always good for a laugh, albeit with some dark humor.

I think Obama really said it well, and I appreciate him calling society at large on their bullshit: the news is covering a few rich people dying in a submarine, but a ship with hundreds of immigrants capsizes (likely from European coastguard causing it to flounder) and it barely makes news.

I wonder how people feel about that comment? It's more critical I think of news media and what our society values (rich people) than I think it is of people in general, but it's still a good observation.

@mrbojangles25: Oh, for sure. Some people are more disposable than others, unfortunately.

The big difference is that this type of stuff happens to the vulnerable all the time. It isn't news. This is a case in which the protections of the wealthy failed which is far more rare.

The concern isn't that one is reported more. It's that we allow it to happen more. Enough that it's common and accepted.

"I can't think of many more terrifying ways to die than sitting in cramped pitch black box waiting to suffocate."

Well good news! They may have briefly known something was wrong, but they died faster than their pain receptors could have communicated what was going on. There are few times where, "they never felt a thing" are true. This is one of those times. The sub was destroyed in approximately 30ms. Pain requires at least 100ms to reach and register in the brain. They quite literally felt nothing. Arguably one of the best ways to go, tbh.

Though the optic nerve is a bit faster, they would have been able to get a couple brief images in as the eyes transfer images to the brain in about 13ms. So 2-3 images. Not enough time to realize what happened of course, aaaaand thennnn...pink mist.

@adrian1480: Yeah, the physics and forces at play are truly awe inspiring.