Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

https://beehaw.org/post/643421

Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way - Beehaw

No talk of passengers, so at the very least one person is missing, but up to 5. Also they have no other submersible that can reach that depth. From an insurance stance, that sounds like a massive liability risk to undertake, not to mention it’s just unwise.
So, in the live feed the BBC has going, there's a post suggesting that a group of explorers were apparently on board based on one of them's Facebook feed, so it's safe to say they probably had the full passenger set on there.
Which means they gross $750,000 per 8 hour trip. They should have a recovery vessel at those prices.
One of the other posts in the feed makes it sound like they only do it a handful of times a year, and that cost is covering a multi-day excursion since they have to wait for conditions to be right. Still, no excuse to not have contingencies, but I think their take gets eaten into a fair bit more than the raw math would suggest.
I wager they don’t have a recovery vessel because they have people sign contracts only allowing arbitration.

I wouldn't be surprised. But, I suspect there's also a factor of just implausibility. Apparently, the main vessel they use is "experimental", so it may just literally be impossible to have a recovery vessel without being a literal government.

My money's on this being the result of someone ignoring the "hey, these are not good conditions" warnings.

Not just 'experimental'. This thing looks like something you'd find on a backyard engineering website. Some of it's functionality is accessed with an offbrand video game controller.

CBS interview featuring the submersible.

A visit to RMS Titanic

YouTube
And their navigation is dependent on text messages from the support ship they charter. Oh, dear.
The bit with the contract starts @2:40. At least you can't say they didn't know what they were getting into. Still an awful way to go, if it did implode at depth, at least it'd be quick.

I think I’d rather implode and go instantly, than be floating on the surface for 4 days and unable to get out while slowly suffocating.

Neither is my idea of a good time…

Can they not open a hatch if it's on the surface?

Water would be a problem still, but not suffocation, if so.

Nope, the ends are bolted on from the outside before they depart.

The CBS guy read aloud part of the thing he had to sign when he rode on it.

And the video is horrifying on so many levels…

"Everything else can fail. Your thrusters can go, your lights can go and you'll be safe."***********
Really a stretch to call these people 'explorers'. Apparently one of them made their billions hawking private jets. Sucks to be him...
comrade depths of the ocean
Just listened a podcast about the deepest ever submarine rescue. It's pretty much all hands on deck worldwide when a submarine goes missing. Atleast then it was

Those are some dead rich folks

edit: you'd have to be suicidal to ride in this thing, look at this vid

https://twitter.com/FnpMarieOH/status/1670931677013524487

This thing failing had to be completely inevitable. I can't imagine a universe where it didn't eventually happen, and now multiple countries need to waste millions of dollars trying to find this thing and risk the lives of multiple rescuers.
Has elon musk called anyone a pedo yet?
He's gotta wait for one of his real users to post it to twitter
I mean, I thought the thumbnail was a Fleshlight.
We need c/nottheonion for stuff like this...
I need them to find the submersible for my own mental sake. The list of phobias that this is checking off is too much. Claustrophobia, thalassophobia, mazeophobia..