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?

  • Blue
    link
    fedilink
    752 years ago

    Just imagine, these idiots spend 250k to sit in a iron tube controlled by a cheap offbrand playstation controller but won’t spend any of their money to improve the world. Only satisfying their own ego and greed. I can’t feel sorry for them, best I can do is hope that they imploded so they didn’t have to suffer too long.

    • @jkure2
      link
      442 years ago

      It’s more than a little ironic they [presumably] died in an accident caused by cutting corners on regulations and safety by saying things like “certifications cost too much time and money, we shouldn’t have to train someone just to convince them that this is safe”, as well as doing things like firing safety personnel when they object to the submersible’s worthiness.

      I saw someone call it the ‘minimim viable submersible’ and I’ve never heard a better description as someone who spends all day working on minimum-viable-product style projects

        • @jkure2
          link
          162 years ago

          You fuckin know it lmao I was just reading on Twitter how they’re sending up a c-130 and some special military submersible to help with the search. Who’s paying for that? 🤷🏻‍♂️

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            82 years ago

            Taxpayers, of course 😶 Meanwhile the EU turns a blind eye to people drowning in crappy boats escaping crappy places to get to a better country.

          • @JeffCraig
            link
            72 years ago

            Tax payers already paid for the damn thing… We might as well get some use out of it.

            • @TechnoBabble
              link
              4
              edit-2
              2 years ago

              And it’s pretty excellent training for future search and rescue missions.

              That’s one of the major benefits the military gets out of this sort of operation.

              Lessons learned in this scenario may later save the lives of submariners, even if the billionaires aren’t so lucky.

      • @bl4ckblooc
        link
        302 years ago

        It’s very ironic that the wealthiest man in Pakistan and his son are going to die in a submarine when 100;s of Pakistanis just drowned trying to seek refuge from the country theses men exploited.

      • @Restaldt
        link
        62 years ago

        “This submersible has not been tested or approved and may cause death”

        “wHeRe dO I sIgN???”

    • @T156
      link
      40
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      To be fair, there’s nothing wrong with using a controller to control things, off-brand or otherwise.

      Both industry and the military use off-the-shelf game controllers for things, because they’re easy to obtain, ergonomic and relatively intuitive.

      Although using a wireless one that was infamous for having dropout issues, without some backup mechanism that could also be used to control the submersible was probably something of a mistake. At minimum, you’d expect that they would use one that was wired, just in case someone forgot to charge the batteries before hand, and/or didn’t bring a spare.

      • @hurp_mcderp
        link
        5
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Sure, but not for something as safety critical as the primary way to control it. There’s just so many failure modes. Imagine if one of the sticks pots failed and made them spin uncontrollably. Regardless, they had IIRC six different independent fail-safes to force them to surface. So I’m sure they put some more thought into it than people are giving them credit for.

    • HuddaBudda
      link
      fedilink
      392 years ago

      I’m not going to diss on Logitech, they make some good reliable controllers. I would place them bottom on the list of things that probably broke.

      That being said. I can understand why someone from the outside sees a plastic controller and wonder why they didn’t go with the more expensive plastic controller. But in the end, they both have the same parts. I would also find it VERY strange that there wouldn’t be a backup controller.

      Though it is hard to take pity on the situation when one has to consider. That 250k a ticket is more then 20 single mothers working 2 jobs, so they can feed their kids, so this dude can go see the titanic… in person… Because video documentaries of every angle of the titanic in 4k resolution don’t exist in 2023 apparently.

      • Spaceman Spiff
        link
        fedilink
        8
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        I would also find it VERY strange that there wouldn’t be a backup controller.

        I find a lot of people don’t have a mindset of considering how things could go wrong. It usually works, and it’s always worked so far for them, therefore it will always work going forward. Plus, it’s just so convenient.

        For example, there are people who use their phone as their car key. They simply don’t think about what happens if their phone is lost/stolen, damaged, or even just out of battery. They may or may not learn a lesson when they get burned by it.

      • @psycho_driver
        link
        32 years ago

        Backup controller but somebody forgot to bring the extra batteries.

    • Very_Bad_Janet
      link
      fedilink
      -22 years ago

      I’m not really in the business of defending billionaires but I think at least one of them, the guy who brought his son, was involved with charities:

      "He works with his family’s Dawood Foundation, as well as the SETI Institute - a California-based research organisation which searches for extra-terrestrial life.

      “Shahzada is also a supporter of two charities founded by King Charles - the British Asian Trust and the Prince’s Trust International.”

      https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65955554

      He sounds (sounded) like a good person… I do find it interesting that the other billionaires don’t have any mentions of charitable works in articles I’ve read in them.

      • Maeve
        link
        fedilink
        152 years ago

        If people were willing to pay taxes and work toward equitability, charities for the poor wouldn’t be necessary.

        • @psycho_driver
          link
          10
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          Yep. I just want these fuckers to pay their fair share in taxes and to stop using their wealth to influence politics.

      • @TechnoBabble
        link
        132 years ago

        Every billionaire uses charities.

        They’re a way to exert control over the money that would normally go to taxes, and be up to the government to spend.

        It’s not inherently bad, but charity is not quite the saving grace of billionaires that many make it out to be.