rational fear of submersibles

[bcm119]

As the global gawking over the lost Titan sub comes to a tragic end, I am left wondering how a company can take passengers on a vehicle to such a dangerous environment with seemingly so few regulations applying, compared to other forms of transportation. Is it because the activity took place in international waters, or do the waivers the passengers signed relieve them of any liability, or is it just a blind spot in regulatory laws? I feel like this story may add to a growing need for laws that protect the general public from those who feel the need to "move fast and break things", the new phrase for getting rich quick at the expense of everyone else.

[rwsaunders]

When you’re dropping $250K on high stakes adventure and entertainment, the rules and regulations that apply to the “little people” don’t apply to you. Anyone here think that the amount of resources expended to locate the sub and passengers, would have been directed towards recovering the average Jane and Joe in a faltering sailboat?

[72gmc]

Big game hunting in the abyss.

[echappist]

When you’re dropping $250K on high stakes adventure and entertainment, the rules and regulations that apply to the “little people” don’t apply to you. Anyone here think that the amount of resources expended to locate the sub and passengers, would have been directed towards recovering the average Jane and Joe in a faltering sailboat?

I hope the governments involved go after the tour company and the estates of the travelers and recoup the cost of time and resources spent. Of course it won't happen...

[randonneur]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/20/u...bmersible.html

Because the Titan is loaded onto a Canadian ship and then dropped into the North Atlantic near the Titanic, he said, it does not need to register with a country, fly a flag or follow rules that apply to many other vessels.

“It’s kind of like a boat on the back of a trailer,” Mr. Mercogliano said. “The police will ensure the trailer meets the requirements to be on the road, but they really won’t do a boat inspection.”

I suspect there's going to be some litigation around this...

OceanGate’s director of marine operations, David Lochridge, started working on a report around that time, according to court documents, ultimately producing a scathing document in which he said the craft needed more testing and stressed “the potential dangers to passengers of the Titan as the submersible reached extreme depths.”

[72gmc]

This activity is risky enough ... there's no need to add a craft made of red flags.

[sk_tle]

I've seen some youtube videos of famous mexican travel vlogger Alan Estrada one or two years ago, who went for one of those previous Titanic missions. Everything screamed kind of amateur just from being on the boat so that would have put me some huge red flags. But once you are on the boat and you see the first people come down and back, you probably dismiss those red flags and still go because it becomes a chance of a lifetime to see something with your own eyes.