UPDATE: Titanic tour sub ticket price drops

Christina Randall, 6/20; BBC News, A Current Affair, WSJ, 6/20/23; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

(WQ) Do people know what an implosion is? Most do not. It is an explosion. Why? When the pressure outside is greater and a crack forms, the pressurized space collapsing with tremendous force. So forceful is the collapse, the implosion, that it immediately causes an explosion. Try it. Take a fluorescent bulb or better an old TV tube. Set up a high-speed camera. Then make a crack in it with, say, a baseball bat. Now play the tape back in slow motion. See how the tube draws in then immediately, with explosive force, shoots out? That is an implosion, which triggers an explosion. So what happened at the bottom of the sea or below the water at some as yet unknown depth? The pressure outside the submersible capsule got too great. At the bottom, where the Titanic sits, the depth is 4,000 feet. And the pressure is 6,000 lbs. per square inch. That means that one inch of the sub is bearing the weight of two SUVs, and this is true for every inch of the sub. When it cracks -- and it was bound to crack because it was only built to withstand pressure to a depth of 1,300 feet, according to reports coming in. The sub had been used multiple time, each time pressurizing and decompressing it, which would apparently weaken the structure. It would, therefore, not take much to instantaneously cave in and immediately obliterate the contents as the sub descended. It was doomed. And the view from it is bad, very bad, with just one small hole at the tip for everyone to look out of, no seats, and nothing to do but get claustrophobia and cold, in the dark and praying to get through it. Now they've been reborn. Will anyone else be taking the tour?

UPDATE: Five missing after Titanic sub "Titan" disappears in Atlantic Ocean | OceanGate

(Christina Randall) June 20, 2023. As a search and rescue mission continues for a private submersible that went missing while on an expedition to explore the wreckage of the Titanic, more is emerging about its five passengers. Among the confirmed passengers are British businessman Hamish Harding; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son, Suleman; and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet. Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate, the company that operates the vessel, is also inside it, the BBC reports. OceanGate billed this trip as an opportunity to "become one of the few to see the Titanic with your own eyes." The company said the fee for securing a seat on the vessel was $250,000.00 (a quarter million U.S. dollars), according to its website. The trip was billed as more than mere tourism, however. OceanGate notes that each of its dives has a scientific purpose. More from CBS News: cbsnews.com/news/who-is-o...

Missing Titanic sub has 40 hours of oxygen left says US Coast Guard

(BBC News) June 20, 2023. A tourist experimental submersible (not actual submarine) that went missing on a visit to the wreck of the Titanic with five people on board has just 40 hours of air left, the U.S. Coastguard says.

The search to locate the small, deep-diving vessel is ongoing after it lost contact while diving near the wreckage of the Titanic.

The research vessel Polar Prince lost contact with the crew of the Titan sub an hour and 45 minutes into its dive.

Tour firm OceanGate said it was exploring all options [including discounted prices for future voyages to the bottom of the sea?] to get the crew back safely.

Government agencies have joined the rescue operation. #Titanic #Titan #BBCNews

COMMENTARY

Tectonic plates deep underwater

Gallows humor is the worst humor, but sometimes it's the only thing for a tragic situation -- a helpless tragedy as people are dying, and the whole world is helpless to save them. That's capitalism, that's freedom, that's adventure. Climbing Mt. Everest (or the possibly taller K2) involves risks, real risks. That's the thrill, that's the accomplishment Should free agents like OceanGate be stopped because daredevils died? An airline was taken down and the bodies of the deceased never recovered; therefore, we must all stop flying commercially. It's too dangerous! We need regulations, a nanny state, restriction. Let's join forces to end travel by sea, submarine, and airplane. We need to walk and take trains. Wait, no, trains are too dangerous. Just look at Ohio and India. It's foot traffic and bikes, but all bikes must have training wheels attached, and everyone must from now on wear safety helmets. Can ya imagine? So the only question left is, Might they find Osama bin Laden's fake corpse down there? How about that diamond? And how much of a discount are we talking about? It was $250,000.00 a ticket before. Half-price now?