| ▲ | pseudolus 8 hours ago |
| There's a fascinating and redacted interview with an "anonymous" subject about the disaster. To say the least it's an unsuccessful attempt to hide the identity of the individual: "Q. So how did you get yourself started into submersible operations? A. Well, I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic. When I set down the path to make that film, the first thing that I did was arrange to be introduced to the head of the submersible program at the P.P. Shirshov Institute in Moscow, a guy named..." https://media.defense.gov/2025/Sep/17/2003800984/-1/-1/0/CG-... |
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| ▲ | cloudbonsai 6 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Among the interviews, one with the former engineering director
was the most eye-opening for me. https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket/Document/docBLOB?ID=17236880&Fi... It appears that all the engineers -- system designer, material
engineer and structural analyst -- thought that OceanGate CEO was going to
kill himself: If you ever find <name-of-the-engineer>, he’s not going
to have a whole lot of nice to say. He was very frustrated
with the company. (...) And I understand why. He thought
Stockton was going to kill himself.
And the director himself declined to dive on Titan when asked: Now, the question is, why wouldn’t the engineer get inside
his own vehicle? It was because of what I felt -- and I have a
background in Navy diving in EOD operations. I knew firsthand
that the operations group was not the right group for that role,
and I told him as much, that I don’t trust operations and who he
has there.
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| ▲ | bambax 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | The number of stupid decisions that went in the design and construction of the Titan is astonishing. One of my favorites was that, after putting on the carbon fiber around the tube, they would sand imperfections to make the surface perfectly smooth, severing layers in the process! It shouldn't require an engineering degree from MIT to recognize this as ill-advised. | | |
| ▲ | lazide 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Even without that, the material is just wrong. It’s strong in tension, not so much compression. Tends towards sudden brittle fractures. Doesn’t like impacts, as it tends to have issues with delaminating. It’s just not what you ever want as a sub hull. It’s dumb. And weight is not even a huge issue for a sub! | | |
| ▲ | bambax 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Yes, using carbon fiber was also a very bad decision; it was known for a very long time that it was only good for single-use sub, because after the first dive it was too damaged to continue. In 2014, Virgin Oceanic, which had similar plans with similar technology, closed shop because it didn't make economic sense to build a new sub for each dive. But weight is absolutely an issue; the basic and tried-and-true metal sphere design allows for only three people. Since size and thickness grow exponentially, making a sphere for more than three people becomes more and more difficult. And it should also be possible to lift the vehicle with a crane. But if you want to carry paying passengers (like Oceangate did), having only two per dive is very limiting. That's why they went with a tube design, and carbon fiber to limit weight. But it couldn't work, and it didn't. | | |
| ▲ | schiffern an hour ago | parent [-] | | >size and thickness grow exponentially
It's a [reverse] pressure vessel, so it follows pressure vessel scaling. Mass scaling is linear with internal volume. | | |
| ▲ | FabHK 38 minutes ago | parent [-] | | It’s funny how “literally” often means “figuratively” now, and “exponentially” means “polynomially”. |
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| ▲ | idontwantthis 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I read that the pilot was also basically suicidal. His wife had died, and he was completely fine with the danger because he would die doing what he loved, and he didn't really want to live anymore. | | |
| ▲ | djmips 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | Wasn't the pilot Stockton Rush? His wife was alive. Who are you referring to? I tried to check your claim but I couldn't verify it. | | |
| ▲ | nagaiaida 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | they're talking about nargeolet > Wreck expert Paul-Henri "P.H." Nargeolet, who was also onboard, told me he wasn't worried about what would happen if the structure of the Titan itself were damaged when at the bottom of the ocean. "Under that pressure, you'd be dead before you knew there was a problem." He said it with a smile. (as recounted by Arnie Weissmann, in Travel Weekly article published June 22, 2023) | | | |
| ▲ | netsharc 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | There was only one other crew member in that vessel (well, actual crew and not paper "mission specialist"). He was an older gentleman, and it's quite common for older people to have lost their spouse. Was that so hard to figure out? | | |
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| ▲ | vlovich123 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Let’s hear from L Simpson. No, that’s too specific. Let’s hear from Lisa S. |
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| ▲ | vlovich123 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | Took me forever to find the actual quote - ChatGPT and Gemini kept trying to gaslight me that it’s not a real quote or that Willie said it to Bart until I gave the exact quote (at which point normal search engines were fine): > A certain agitator, for privacy's sake, let's call her Lisa S. No, that's too obvious, let's say L. Simpson. Lisa the Vegetarian | | |
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| ▲ | bambax 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Cameron did several TV interviews about the Titan, why would they redact his name? He didn't mince his words either; he was extremely critical of the whole thing before and after the disaster. |
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| ▲ | bmurray7jhu 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| "I think the most dangerous part of our whole operation was these young software engineers puking over the railing in a high sea." |
