The sub went missing while carrying five people to the wreckage of the Titanic.

50 points

Apparently the debris found was “a landing frame and rear cover from the submersible”. So it sounds like they didn’t have to suffer slowly.

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27 points

I’m surprised by the amount of people who thought they would die from running out of oxygen in 96 hours or whatever it was. At that depth the tiniest structural failure and that sardine can is going to blow into pieces, including the occupants.

They were dead days ago when they first went missing.
A few innocent people are the victims of one conman’s dream of selling titanic tours.

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19 points

At that depth the tiniest structural failure and that sardine can is going to blow into pieces

The opposite of blowing up, actually.

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17 points

Not sure I’d call him a con man, if he believed in it himself. He was on the ship, if I heard right.

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19 points

So he conned himself. A common thing for grifters when their schemes aren’t actually that smart.

(but at least he got that jawbreaker)

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14 points

He was conning himself too. He was too excited to be doing something that he didn’t care to listen to warnings or heed regulations. He wanted to be a trailblazer, but his eyes were bigger than his plate, if you will.

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10 points

Yes, there has been successful trips that he’s taken tourists down to the titanic and back. However, his track record isn’t rock solid. His original design wasn’t rated for the depths he was going. It wasn’t until a whistleblower came out (which he retaliated against by firing btw) that the submersible porthole was redesigned. Who knows if the “redesign” was actually rated for the depths he was travelling. All we know is that he “replaced” it.

This is the same person that said safety regulations stifle innovation. Yeah, regulations might slow down innovation but you know… they’re intended to keep people alive. The Titan wasn’t certified by any governing body to travel to the depths it was going.

He didn’t fully disclose to his travelers what they were getting themselves into. People say they had to sign a waiver. There’s a waiver I got to sign to a eat spicy chicken sandwich at a local restaurant joint. I got to sign a waiver to park my car in a parking lot. You think 100% of people actually read them? It’s just like software terms and conditions. Scroll to the bottom and accept.

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7 points

The possibility that was haunting me was that the Titan might have surfaced but couldn’t communicate its location, so the passengers were just bobbing along, trapped and running out of oxygen, while searchers simply didn’t find them in time.

I guess the other nightmare would’ve been if the Titan got caught on something deep underwater and couldn’t surface or communicate even though the submersible was intact.

As it was, I assume/hope they didn’t know what was about to happen and didn’t suffer.

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1 point

It is definitely some nightmare fuel for sure!

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16 points

Source? I’m really curious to see what they found.

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49 points

Honestly the best case scenario for all involved is the hull shattering and instantly killing them all.

Practically every other outcome is a slow death knowing you’re going to die but can’t do anything about it.

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6 points

I mean I’m pretty many, many scenarios involving surviving would have been better.

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48 points
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good. hopefully the media can stop pushing this nonsense 24/7. i wonder if the families will pay for the millions of dollars wasted in searching for these selfish idiots? who knowingly signed up for this death trap?

at least emergency services in my area charge idiots for rescues. fuck around in the White mountains and you can end up paying six figures or more for a rescue. which is as it should be. they don’t however, charge for legitimate rescues.

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61 points

This complete and utter lack of compassion is something I’d expect to see on Reddit. How unfortunate this mindset seems to have tagged along in the migration. Show some damn humanity.

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36 points

The complete and utter lack of understanding as to why people may react in the way the person you’re replying to boggles my mind. Are you willfully ignorant of how destructive billionaires can be on society? Are you completely neglecting how negligent the CEO of this diving company was about their own safety?

Instead of wagging your finger from your pedestal, spend some time understanding why so many people share this type of reaction.

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48 points

Personally, I’m proud of having more empathy and humanity than a billionaire.

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36 points

lol bro. You don’t have to like the rich class to have basic human empathy for other people

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5 points

There was a single billionaire on that sub. Just one. There were two businessmen, one with his son, and a well known diver. It wasn’t a sub full of billionaires. Certainly they were all wealthy, no question there. But your reaction can only be “Good, they deserved it” if you think the deaths of the others (including the 19 year-old, who had no control over what family he was born into) are worth the death of the billionaire.

It’s a response fundamentally lacking in empathy. You’re asking us to have empathy for the person who isn’t displaying empathy.

Sure, he cut a lot of safety corners. This is the epitome of “fuck around and find out”. It’s even ironic.

But we can still have empathy. Being stupid about it doesn’t mean that they didn’t leave families behind.

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3 points

people tend to have endless empathy for those that they worship. and total disregard for anyone else.

it’s bootlicking of tragedy.

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2 points

@smokinjoe @Girlparts @Turkey_Titty_city @EnderWi99in This is what Internet White Knighting looks like.

Ender’s heart is in the right place, but his head is up his ass.

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23 points

Agreed, and the fact that the hateful parent comment is still sitting at the top of the thread also makes me concerned for kbin’s ranking algorithm.

At the moment it has 28 “upvotes” and 51 “downvotes,” which on reddit would have it buried and hidden at the bottom. Here it’s remained the top comment since the article was posted.

Possibly because it has three “boosts”? I don’t understand the difference between boosts and votes. But this site is going to have to do something about it, because normal people are going to run from this place if this kind of sociopathic content is elevated here.

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8 points

From what I’ve read, on kbin boost is upvote, upvote is “favorite”, and downvote does nothing but put a number there. At least that’s what’s happening for now, it may be a bug or will be changed in the future.

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4 points

Agreed. I was really enjoying the lack of reddit-style constant negativity permeating the tops of threads for a while, but seems like every day it’s been getting worse.

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1 point

you mean the same ‘normal people’ who ruined reddit by turning into a place where no dissent and disagreement is tolerated and just want to look at pictures of cute cats to ‘cultivate positivity’?

not everyone wants to live in ‘curated’ world. some normal people like a variety of opinions and perspectives, and don’t see the work through the lens of kindergarten classroom rules.

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9 points

I have zero compassion for people who claim any safety measures taken are ridiculous, pay extraoridinary amounts of money to do something stupid, and potentially cause the death of a young kid.

And then waste extraordinary resources in public funding to “fix” it.

Hope these families get charged for every dollar.

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4 points
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exactly. these people are a blight on society. why should so many resources be wasted on their egos just because they have fat bank accounts?

sadly too many people are bootlickers who think the wealthy and their awful lifestyles are something to be worshipped. i would wager most of the empathy pushers here have zero empathy for the migrants on the boats… because those people had no wealth.

sad truth is we live in a world where your moral worth or empathy worth is directly tied to your financial worth. a few rich people dying is a tragedy to dwell on, hundreds of poor people dying is not worth a thought.

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2 points

It’s not some exclusively Reddit behaviour - it’s just that much common, unfortunately.

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1 point

the complete disregard of human beings who don’t have tons of financial wealth and the worship and waste of those who do, that is something you think is positive?

you simple don’t regard the poor as human. a very common perspective.

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30 points
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“good” “selfish idiots”

Such disregard for life is unjustifiable and inexcusable - I don’t know what values you aspire to live by, but celebrating death or wishing punitive suffering on anyone is certain to perpetuate harm.

It’s tragic that people died regardless of the lives they lead. I have no love for the ultra wealthy, and this event overshadowing the capsized migrant boat highlights our collective hypocrisy, but celebrating death & suffering is a self-destructive and socially regressive action that I hope fewer people do. Instead of directing your ire towards the individuals who died I hope that you and other readers direct that frustration towards the systemic failures those individuals embodied, and I hope you find a way use that anger for constructive action towards a better world.

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2 points

oh ok. so we should just make everyone immortal forever then.

think through what you are saying and you might realize the absurdity of it.

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17 points
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They signed a waiver, so when the sub went missing, that shoulda been the end of it. Because you can’t argue with a waiver.

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32 points

Liability waiver are not the end all, be all of legal action. If the company was negligent that is not going to be covered in the waiver. There are also other caveats that may be relevant to if the waiver is valid and enforceable. I’d be curious about which jusisdiction’s laws apply.

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17 points

Not only can you absolutely argue with a waiver (and I’m sure the families will), but that’s only an agreement between the company and the customer, not the customer and the governmental agencies involved in the rescue.

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48 points

Since I heard about this whole fiasco I’m more and more dumbfounded.

There was this guy, who invented a way to dive for cheap (he listens to the carbon, and if there is a suspicious sound then he quickly comes back to the surface), complaining about the regulations which were holding submarines back. He fired the whistleblower who made reports about the danger of the equipment. He was fired and escorted outside.

Make him a meme, let’s call him the “I told you so” guy. Surely he will be invited in TV shows about this whole affair.

The equipment, a game console controller? Seriously? Gaming equipment is simple: It’s about 3% return policy. Depends on the brand. The people who swear that game controllers are safe are among the 97% who never had a return. They are the people who answers “mine works” on a forum when someone ask why his controller failed. If your game controller is broken, the service is : we send you a new one under 48 hours.

--> This service policy doesn’t work at 3800m under the water, folks! This is not the right equipment. What kind of person bets the life of 4 people on gaming equipment?? We all know why he did it, because he hates regulations and he hates paying a premium on redundant equipment. He is in for the money, nothing else. So let’s cut the costs on the hardware, let’s not listen to anyone and let’s not purchase the product of the engineers who designed equipment specially with these constraints in mind.

From time to time there is always a guy who pops-up and believes that regulations are made by people with too much free time in their hands.

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51 points

The game controller thing gets meme’d to death, but I don’t think people focus on the right thing.

Xbox controllers are also used by the US Navy, among other branches of the military.

These are GOOD pieces of engineering, and they’re tested by millions of users under pretty strenuous conditions. However, the controller the Oceangate was using was some shitty-ass third-party controller that you can get for peanuts off Amazon.

THAT, IMO, is the issue that this piece of equipment illustrates. A solid Xbox Series S controller is $60 on Amazon, and you’re telling me you had to go for cheaper?

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18 points

I don’t think the fact that the controller was wireless gets highlighted enough. Bluetooth devices have a hard time working above sea level and you’re expecting it to work 3800m below the surface. Delusional.

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15 points

BT devices got problems only when water is in between anetna1 and antena2. It does not matter at what altitude the devices are, just what is inbetween them.

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12 points

OK. Explain why they would have more trouble working at that depth.

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2 points

Does higher air pressure affect Bluetooth signals?

Also, buy better Bluetooth devices, I haven’t had to deal with disconnections with quality modern gear outside of battery issues. My first run steam controller hasn’t given me any issues with wireless connections while playing, and all of my headphones stay connected to the proper device even when I’m stupid far away (like, I left my phone in the car and I didn’t notice any drop in quality until after I entered the store).

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12 points

Also, backups: the controller doesn’t bother me that much UNLESS they had no redundancies for it failing plus checklists. I.E. controller battery dies, use second controller, use wired controller, use control screen, etc. And backup mechanical linkages for critical stuff. I don’t know the details but if they lacked these things, then they are (were) definitely morons.

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10 points
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For what it’s worth, in one of the old videos the CEO did, he mentioned that they kept two or three of the controllers on board. I think the stuff about game controllers and RV gear is overblown and almost certainly not what caused the problem. The bigger issue to me is the fact that they picked “exotic” materials for the pressure vessel (which while strong, are more brittle and fail more dramatically than steel), didn’t get them properly tested or certified, and if they somehow had been found adrift, put no engineering effort into escape or communication in an emergency.

Though thinking about it, I guess the game controller thing is relevant, at least to the extent it points at a pennywise and pound-foolish operation trying to value-engineer a business to go to the bottom of the god-damn ocean. Carbon fiber and tungsten sound amazing, until you realize that a big part of using them was to create a vessel big enough for 5 that was also small and light enough that it could be toted aboard any ship they could rent, and would then be set free from its launch sled by dudes undoing bungee cords.

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9 points
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The military uses them for autonomous vehicles. There is no risk of loss of life involved if they fail. They also aren’t the only control mechanism.

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5 points
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The guy wasn’t a military. The guy doesn’t like regulations and military is all about regulations.

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5 points

The navy uses wired controllers to operate periscopes, not wireless ones, and not for anything mission critical. Although I think I remember reading some military drones are or were at one point using controllers because they’re easy to train people on, but those are unmanned.

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3 points

Sure they use “Xbox controllers,” the difference in build quality between an authentic Xbox controller and most 3rd party controllers is pretty noticeable.

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1 point

I have the wired version of the controller they used. It’s Mad Catz level garbage.

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23 points

The man had zero respect for the blood those regulations have been written in.

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4 points
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Make him a meme

Well in this case.

The front really did fall off.

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1 point

Everyone is focusing on the controller, which I don’t think was the issue here. Also they had spare controllers.

The issue is the hull was made out of fucking fiberglass and titanium. This was the first dive since it had gone through a repair. Some tiny imperfection in that fiberglass, under thousands of pounds of pressure, and you’re fucked.

This is why real submarines are made out of steel.

On the plus side, it was probably a very quick death.

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33 points

Crazy. I wanted to check to see if there had been any updates and I was going to check Reddit because I thought I was more likely to find info quickly there. But I decided that I couldn’t have seen it on Kbin first if I didn’t give Kbin the chance and check it first and here is the exact info I was looking for at the very top of the first page of my Kbin app.

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2 points

This is how we become the front page of the internet – it’s not gonna be instant, but keep posting and understand with content here first and slowly but surely we’ll be the place to be

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