Breaking News Thread

well they’re a private enterprise, they’ll be on their own to collect the charges on recovery to an American company. I don’t understand how :canada: would be on the hook for a recovery in international waters.

There is no way the FN-owned entity hasn’t picked up at least the risk of some liability. When the lawsuits start flying, and OceanGate sinks below the waves to join its vessel, the Miawpukek firm is going to be the last defendant left standing. If you believe they have done due diligence on their insurance coverage and legal structure, but none at all on the dodgy submersible and the company they appear to share assets with…well, maybe.

So, if a judgement is entered against Miawpukek HMS that collapses that company, the limited partnership structure that is undoubtedly there is going to be tested hard. What do you think the Crown does if an attempt is made to seize all assets of the largest employer in a small FN, maybe even the bank accounts if they have done a crap job of the legal structure? If I was the lawyer on the other side, most of my tactics at this stage would be engineered to bringing the Crown to the settlement table. There isn’t going to be anyone else to pay any judgements.

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at some point, the taxpayer needs to stop being the fall guy for stupidity on behalf of corporations. Maybe then the end consumer will stop taking needless, stupid risks if there’s no golden safety net at the bottom of the free fall.

FN takes a risk on such a venture, then they should be forced to sell off some of their land holdings to compensate for their own mistakes.

Yeah…that’s not going to happen. This playbook is not new.

From the Guardian just now

David Marquet, a retired US Navy captain, said OceanGate may have gone “a little too far” with launching submersible carrying five people to the wreck of the Titanic.

In an interview with the BBC, Marquet said he admired “the innovative spirit” of the company behind the vessel now missing hundreds of miles off the Newfoundland coast.

Sometimes we push the bounds and innovation gets ahead of where regulation is,” he said. He added:

But when you’re putting people down at 13,000ft, the laws of Mother Nature are gonna take over. So I think they might have gone a little too far.

I admire the spirit, but we know from years of safe submarines, what it takes. All the discipline, the rigour of the operational testing, the operational risk mitigation that you have to do to maintain submarine safe."

Well, if the boss has gone down with the ship, everybody just points at him.

If the submersible has integrity issues, it’s trying to hold back over 5k psi.
Any leaks and that pressure will find them

That will be the concern for the view portal not rated for that depth. For the carbon fibre hall, once it starts cracking the entire thing will implode, I doubt there will be time for much of a leak.

It also appears that there is absolutely no provision in the design for a submerged exit. There cannot be many submersibles capable of operating at that depth with the power needed to bring it up to the surface, or into connection with something that can. I presume the US and Russian navies have submarines capable of such an operation, but they may not be able to be on site in anything like the available time.

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None whatsoever.
A pinhole leak will wash out in minutes.
A structural crack and the whole thing will be flattened in seconds.
Probably a more preferable end than being starved of oxygen.

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That carbon fibre hull won’t be as readily detectable as a metal hull, and it is going to splinter, not crumple. Metal will flatten, carbon fibre will shatter.

My Coast Guard friend doesn’t think they will even find it in any state. They have basically built a crude version of a stealth sub, and sent it very deep into remote waters.

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The Americans have a submersible at the site now… It is capable of what is needed for attaching a hitch line, and operating at the depths to be encountered… They just need to find it now :crossed_fingers:

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Some mindblowing stuff in this, cued up at the discussion of the carbon fibre hull.

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An explosion in Paris’ 5th arrondissement.

Bombshell after bombshell in that, followed by numerous red flags.

I’d love to see the design risk assessment on that thing.

And they painted it white, not bright orange. Fools.

Even if it floats to the surface and they’re almost out of air, (if they can) smashing the porthole does no good as it’s below the water line and they’ll go from asphyxia to drowning. Such a poor design. The idea of “It’ll work every time so we don’t need to plan, prepare, design and implement emergency measures” smacks of sheer fucking hubris.

If they’re lucky, they’re bobbing on the surface. If.

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I’ve just read that the CO2 has probably already done for them :0(

Well, they can’t use the CO2 scrubbers and duct tape from the lander…….

I mean it sounds remarkably similar to the attitude taken over the artifact they were wanting to look at.

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I don’t know what or who’s law this falls under but a simple contract of

“You do this at your own risk as it’s made of a playstation, a bucket, some plumbing, a few lights and a carbon fibre tub.” would be good enough in my world. You knew the risks etc.

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A good example, ever rented a jet ski on a beach? Ever read the small print? There’s no point. You either sign and pay or you don’t get 20 minute’s insane madness. Anything goes wrong, you’re fucked. This isn’t Disney.