A search-and-rescue operation is currently underway after a tourist submersible carrying five people went missing during a dive mission to the Titanic shipwreck. The submersible, called Titan and owned by OceanGate Expeditions, disappeared off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Experts estimate that the crew, including a British billionaire adventurer and a father and son from Pakistan, may run out of oxygen by Thursday afternoon.
Three possible scenarios are being considered:
Scenario 1: Titan is floating on the surface and waiting to be found. However, this is becoming less likely as time passes. Typically, submersibles like Titan have mechanisms to bring them back to the surface automatically if something goes wrong.
Scenario 2: There has been a catastrophic failure, such as a leak, power failure, or an electrical short circuit causing a fire. If the pressure hull of the submersible was breached, it could lead to a rapid and catastrophic implosion, leaving little chance of survival.
Scenario 3: Titan has become tangled in the wreckage of the Titanic, which is located about 12,500 feet underwater. This is a challenging situation as rescue from the ocean floor is difficult due to the depth and the debris surrounding the wreck.
While I hope everyone makes it out alive, we need to go look at ourselves as a society and think about the stuff that we do. Do we think it’s okay for people to pay $250k to go down 12,500 feet to go see where 1,500 people died? To me, that just doesn’t seem like a good idea. Personally, the ocean as a whole is a no-go for me. Every fish uses that body of water as a toilet and that is something I cannot get out of my head.
Here is another thing, this is how the submersible was being controlled.