Built with shit from Home Depot, controlled with a literal Logitech game controller, construction pipes as ballast... holy fuck, why would anybody agree to go 3.7km below the surface of the ocean in that deathtrap?

Wow, that is super sketchy. Now I am not at all surprised this happened. Hope that company has a shit ton of insurance.

Why did they name it Titan??

I think they’re advertising the depth limit of the recovery vehicle, not claiming that the wreck is actually at 20,000 feet.

It might be best practice to use a vessel rated for considerably deeper than you actually go, in case of some problem in the hull?

Maybe they're concerned that it no-clipped through the sea bottom and wound up deeper than the Titanic's current location?

It goes to prove that billionaires are just as gullible as the rest of the people, all they had was just money and assets, it doesn't grant them wisdom or intelligence.

Why do that when you can cut costs, and how would it be possible for them not to ensure their safety? I don't think they cut costs like the clients, I don't think they would put lites at risk just for the sake of some extra dollars to the pocket of the CEO. /s

this is a very weird first comment to make and the subsequent comments neither look productive nor particularly on topic. let's save the thirsting for rich people blood for a topic where it's more warranted folks, please and thanks.

I'm sorry but saying you'd enjoy watching someone die under any circumstances is disgusting.

Regardless of one's opinion the super rich, the thing also has crew that are just there because they're paid to operate the thing, I doubt they make enough to buy tickets for this kind of thing themselves.

https://newrepublic.com/post/173802/missing-titanic-sub-faced-lawsuit-depths-safely-travel-oceangate

This adds to the picture of utter recklessness.

At the meeting Lochridge discovered why he had been denied access to the viewport information from the Engineering department—the viewport at the forward of the submersible was only built to a certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate intended to take passengers down to depths of 4,000 meters. Lochridge learned that the viewport manufacturer would only certify to a depth of 1,300 meters due to experimental design of the viewport supplied by OceanGate, which was out of the Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy (“PVHO”) standards. OceanGate refused to pay for the manufacturer to build a viewport that would meet the required depth of 4,000 meters.

I particularly like the part where this specific submersible can't ever be opened from the inside, because it gets bolted shut from outside.

Gabe Newell, yes the owner of Valve/Steam, has an ocean research organization that owns a submarine designed to dive down to 10km, to some of the deepest parts of the ocean.

To be fair, even if no vehicle that could rescue it from the bottom is available, that doesn't mean that there is no use in a rescue mission if they don't know where the sub is. For instance, it could have surfaced but had it's communications lost, in which case they'd still need rescue, because based on a CBS video of the sub in question shared elsewhere on the thread, the thing doesn't actually have a hatch and just has the front taken off and then bolted back on afterwards to let people in and out, and obviously is going to be airtight given it's a sub and all.

Now they probably have a new submersible to munch on...

I am hopeful, but not necessarily optimistic...if it lost power and descended below crush depth, no amount of life support is bringing them back.