For those who are unaware: A couple billionaires, a pilot, and one of the billionaires’ son are currently stuck inside an extremely tiny sub a couple thousand meters under the sea (inside of the sub with the guys above).
They were supposed to dive down to the titanic, but lost connection about halfway down. They’ve been missing for the past 48 hours, and have 2 days until the oxygen in the sub runs out. Do you think they’ll make it?
My understanding is that chances are slim to none. I understand that whatever malfunction happened that cut the contact, has some likelihood to have been a much greater malfunction than just radio, and that they’ve quite possibly already been dead a while.
And even if not, my understanding is that they’re scanning a massive swath of sea and it’s very much a needle-in-a-haystack situation. I wouldn’t be surprised if the only reason such an unlikely operation is taking place, is because the people involved can afford it.
Hell, there’s often great difficulty finding divers inside of a finite cave. Water is one of the few things that can truly make you dissapear.
A lot of people imagine underwater sonar to be the way that it is in movies. It’s been a while, but IIRC, underwater sonar is full of many shapes and blobs. Many things look like other things even at a depth of only 500 feet (0.1km). If we use the titanic for reference, the submarine may be sitting at around a depth of 12,500 feet (3.8km).
Even for a depth of 500 feet (0.1km), you often have to be in a specific area near the object to “read” it properly. If you add random debris, sea life, and the fact that the missing object is a very rounded shape, you’re in for a rough time. It can be easy to miss an entire pickup truck at that smaller depth, and the sub in question isn’t much longer than a pickup truck. Depending on how much debris there is, you may not be able to make out distinct shapes. It could very well be hiding amongst bunch of wreckage.
I don’t like the thought of people dying like that, but I would be amazed if they succeeded in bringing everyone back alive. Not the way I would want to go.
Thanks for explaining all that. Definitely not the way I’d want to go either. My best wish for them right now is that they’ve been gone a while and that it was fast, and not a slow, suffocating death.
They didn’t have radio communication. Water is really good at blocking all signals.
My most insightful takeaway is: water is awesome, it allows life and all; but it’s also kind of a jerk.