Race to find Titanic tourist submarine with British billionaire and four others aboard that has vanished

Right from the start, I was dumbfounded how 5 people could squeeze themself into a small sub, and go that deep down into the ocean. I would be so claustrophobic, I would literally lose my mind. It was so tragic that they all lost their lives doing something so dangerous.
 

The boy's paternal aunt said he did not want to go and was quite apprehensive about it, but did so to appease his father who was so excited about it; plus they'd be spending Fathers Day together. His aunt said throughout this ordeal it's been difficult to breathe!
 
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OneEyedDiva said:
The boy's paternal aunt said he did not want to go and was quite apprehensive about it, but did so to appease his father who was so excited about it; plus they'd be spending Fathers Day together. His aunf said throughout this ordeal it's been difficult to breathe!
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A family friend has dismissed the aunt's comments and said that the son was every bit as adventurous as his father and was excited about the trip.

I am a bit wary about the aunt as, she was estranged from the family for quite a number of years and, as her comments threw quite a bit of shade at her now deceased brother, it is difficult to understand why she would have disclosed this, even if it were true?
 

Trish said:
A family friend has dismissed the aunt's comments and said that the son was every bit as adventurous as his father and was excited about the trip.
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I wondered about this as soon as I heard it... to come out (and it was immediately) and say the 19 year old was terrified, didn't want to go, etc. just hours after they died sounded quite strange to me coming from a family member.
 
Just goes to show how again and again the reporting in the Media can be very wrong.

Every paper reported that the 19 year old was terrified and only went on the trip to make his father hapy, for fathers' day...


Not True.. his mother Christine, has given an Interview saying SHE was the one supposed to go with her husband, but her son really wanted to go, and was planning to make a world record , doing his rubik's cube in 12 seconds at the deepest part of the ocean...

Mrs Dawood revealed that she had planned to go with her husband to view the Titanic wreck in the OceanGate sub, but that their trip was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.

'Then I stepped back and gave them space to set [Suleman] up, because he really wanted to go,' she said.

'I was really happy for them because both of them, they really wanted to do that for a very long time.'

Mrs Dawood shared how she and Alina hugged and joked with Shahzada and Suleman before the pair entered the submersible.

Suleman, a student at Strathclyde University, had taken his Rubik's Cube on the trip as he hoped to break the world record for solving the puzzle at the greatest depth, she revealed.

'He said: "I'm going to solve the Rubik's Cube 3,700 meters below sea [level] at the Titanic,"' Mrs Dawood recalled.

Her son, she said, was practical and intellectual, and wouldn't go anywhere without his Rubik's Cube - which he taught himself to solve in just 12 seconds.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...victims-reveals-originally-doomed-vessel.html
 
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James Cameron made the statement that it was a misuse of carbon fiber. Apparently carbon fiber is strong under tension, but weak under compression. ref. carbon fiber strength So, if the pressure had been inside instead of outside it may have held. But, with the pressure on the outside much of the strength was just from the epoxy layers. Epoxy tends to be brittle. Flexing from repeated dives could cause cracks that would grow and eventually cause failure.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
@hollydolly Apparently the media was wrong and so was I with my assumption that his mother didn't want him to go!

James Cameron said they most likely knew they were in trouble even though the implosion happened quickly. That must've been terrifying.
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Oh Diva, I hope he was wrong too...I want to think that they knew nothing at all.. that the implosion was instantaneous..
 
JustDave said:
I don't think we can know what they experienced. The sudden death theory is comforting, but we don't know for sure.
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No we can’t know for sure but we certainly can speculate , after watching that video in post #333, that the pressure from being that far underwater, would instantaneously blow them up. It’s what the professionals in this field agree on and I definitely want to think they are right and know what they are talking about.
 
Me, I wouldn't go into that thing for free! However, I guess the rich have their problems with boredom so I can't blame them for wanting to get a new, but very expensive, high!

Update today, June 27: Read an article somewhere that a lot of people agree with me. Seems that there is a lot more sympathetic feelings for poor people drowning crossing the ocean looking for a better life than for 5 overly rich and bored people seeking some sort of adventure or a new "high". Couldn't agree more!
 
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PeppermintPatty said:
Me too. He explained that really well and I had no idea what type of pressure was down that far. He gave examples of pounds of pressure per so many feet and the impact of each. He seemed to know exactly what he was talking about.
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As he pointed out: I knew about stress fractures in airplanes, and knew that the body of an airplane won't last forever, but I never thought about water pressure and stress factors that weaken a submersible over time. It comes down to unavoidable eventual failure, and while carbon fiber has been around for years, we still don't know everything about it.

I talked to a boat builder in Maine 50 years ago, and mentioned that fiberglass hulls would surely outlast wood, as fiberglass was indestructible (barring a collision with a rock or something like that). He built hulls out of wood, so I disregarded him when he replied, "We don't know that yet." He wasn't defensive, he was just stating a seldom considered fact. Low and behold, 20 years later he was proven right when we learned that over time, fiberglass in water will blister, and the blisters grow and grow like hull rot. They can be repaired of course but only if you catch them soon enough, and repair costs are phenomenally high.

Carbon fiber is at a point now where fiber glass was back then. We don't know enough about it to know how it's going to stand up in extreme conditions.
 
JustDave said:
As he pointed out: I knew about stress fractures in airplanes, and knew that the body of an airplane won't last forever, but I never thought about water pressure and stress factors that weaken a submersible over time. It comes down to unavoidable eventual failure, and while carbon fiber has been around for years, we still don't know everything about it.

I talked to a boat builder in Maine 50 years ago, and mentioned that fiberglass hulls would surely outlast wood, as fiberglass was indestructible (barring a collision with a rock or something like that). He built hulls out of wood, so I disregarded him when he replied, "We don't know that yet." He wasn't defensive, he was just stating a seldom considered fact. Low and behold, 20 years later he was proven right when we learned that over time, fiberglass in water will blister, and the blisters grow and grow like hull rot. They can be repaired of course but only if you catch them soon enough, and repair costs are phenomenally high.

Carbon fiber is at a point now where fiber glass was back then. We don't know enough about it to know how it's going to stand up in extreme conditions.
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I agree with you completely.
There was a video showing how carbon fibre is made which was very interesting. It was saying how it’s a very good material to use but not meant to withstand the pressure of the sea. With planes, they are inspected every so many years to check for cracks and possible flaws from wear and tear etc. Unfortunately there is no tested standard for these submersibles. According to others, the carbon fibre material on the outside of it became extra rigid from the previous dives and with no standard checking, these rigid areas became vulnerable to cracks which is what caused the implosion. It’s too bad that this company didn’t have any type of safety inspection done by a third party, not related to the owners. A huge problem with privately owned experimental submersibles.
 
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JustDave said:
I talked to a boat builder in Maine 50 years ago, and mentioned that fiberglass hulls would surely outlast wood, as fiberglass was indestructible (barring a collision with a rock or something like that). He built hulls out of wood, so I disregarded him when he replied, "We don't know that yet." He wasn't defensive, he was just stating a seldom considered fact. Low and behold, 20 years later he was proven right when we learned that over time, fiberglass in water will blister, and the blisters grow and grow like hull rot. They can be repaired of course but only if you catch them soon enough, and repair costs are phenomenally high.

Carbon fiber is at a point now where fiber glass was back then. We don't know enough about it to know how it's going to stand up in extreme conditions.
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Good point! We are still at the start of the carbon fiber learning curve.

Sold my last boat, in part, because of blisters... who'd have thought.
 
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