General News Thread

Debris have been " confirmed " to be from missing sub.

Well they certainly got a genuine Titanic experience. Probably a bit more realistic than they expected.

An interesting video. This fella is the sort of "50 year old White guy" the OceanGate CEO didn't want working for him.

Can we now assume that this now becomes a recovery operation that needs to be successful as quickly as possible?

^Let me repeat the words used by the US Coast Guard to describe what happened.

"Catastrophic Implosion"

The crew most likely died instantly although they may have had warning that something was going badly wrong as Bob Ballard & James Cameron have said they have information that they'd dropped ballast and were attempting to surface.

The pressure hull was Carbon Fibre so may well have shattered into countless small pieces and god knows what state the bodies will be in if there's anything recognisable to be found. The only recoverable items will be the larger metal parts that have already been located and possibly some larger pieces of carbon fibre.

Of course it's a recovery operation. There's nobody to rescue!

It gets worse...


The carbon fibre used to build the pressure hull was acquired at a significant discount after Boeing deemed it was past is shelf life for use in Aircraft Construction.

Boeing, NASA and the University of Washington have all denied OceanGate's claims that they were involved in building the Sub.

(23-06-2023 16:28 )Tumble_Drier Wrote:  It gets worse...


The carbon fibre used to build the pressure hull was acquired at a significant discount after Boeing deemed it was past is shelf life for use in Aircraft Construction.

Boeing, NASA and the University of Washington have all denied OceanGate's claims that they were involved in building the Sub.

And gets even more worse. BBC are reporting a leading specialist of deep water exploration told Stockton Rush around (co founder of Oceangate & died in this tragedy) 5 yrs ago that basically the Titan shouldn't be used until it's been certified, tested & proven.

Stockton replied saying he took this as a personal insult & sent his lawyers after this person

(23-06-2023 16:28 )Tumble_Drier Wrote:  It gets worse...


The carbon fibre used to build the pressure hull was acquired at a significant discount after Boeing deemed it was past is shelf life for use in Aircraft Construction.

Boeing, NASA and the University of Washington have all denied OceanGate's claims that they were involved in building the Sub.

Carbon Fibre has a use by date?

Googled it, and yeah apparently it does, exposed (to the elements) carbon fiber that isn't protected against UV exposure degrades over time, which is why I suppose it's main use was weight saving internal parts etc, but I think some of those probably need replaced over time/use. So if this was some old crappy stuff they bought used or was just laying around and it wasn't fully protected (it wasn't certified, so doubt it was protected correctly), then it was only a matter of time until it failed.
I assume bikes, cars etc that are exposed carbon fiber are also fully UV protected via paint and various coatings or are made differently, so may not degrade much at all.
Thing I read was that degrading carbon fiber lasts between five and ten years, but you would think fully protected stuff would last almost a lifetime without issue.

(23-06-2023 18:41 )dundeered Wrote:  

(23-06-2023 16:28 )Tumble_Drier Wrote:  It gets worse...


The carbon fibre used to build the pressure hull was acquired at a significant discount after Boeing deemed it was past is shelf life for use in Aircraft Construction.

Boeing, NASA and the University of Washington have all denied OceanGate's claims that they were involved in building the Sub.

Carbon Fibre has a use by date?

A company like Boeing will certainly have a "use by" date on the raw materials used to make it. Whether it's still usable after that date is way beyond my knowledge but would any sane person get in that sub if they knew the most important part was made from Boeing's cast offs?