Except this isn't a regular US Navy sub. It's made to go down to the depth of the Titanic.
This question comes up regarding rescue and salvage.
It would be easier to rescue and salvage people from Mt. Everest. But, it isn't done. The are frozen corpses all along the route ... many there for decades.
In other news: a 33-year old guy fell 4000 feet to his death at the Grand Canyon the other day. What are the odds he was taking a selfie while teetering over the edge and fell?
When people are asking about tracking it, surely those devices don't work at those depths, otherwise it would have one?
Or was it just some kind of private outfit dressed up to be responsible whereas in fact it was not? I can't see them getting insurance without the relevant safety items, so I presume it just doesn't function like that. Something like GPS gets blocked by buildings let alone that volume of water. I would have thought they have to use some kind of radar but even with that... ugh.
I very much hope that there is a good outcome for this.
This is what I don't understand. They say the text system went down part way. Does this always happen - or was it some kind of technical failure? Will do some more reading.
Search consists of efforts on the surface and I quote from a CNN report about 5 hours ago:
"Search efforts: The effort is incorporating aircraft, sonar buoys and "sonar on the ship that is out there to listen for any sounds that we can detect in the water column," Mauger said. The Polar Prince is also assisting with the search, a co-owner said. The Canadian Armed Forces and the US Coast Guard have deployed aircraft to the remote area of the North Atlantic.
What's next: The Coast Guard said its priority is locating the vessel. If crews do find the vessel in the water, then rescue plans will be formed, Mauger said. At that point, the Coast Guard will reach out to the US Navy, the Canadian Armed Forces and private industry partners to assess what "underwater rescue capability might be available," Mauger said."
The Polar Prince is the ship the submersible launches from.
This is what I don't understand. They say the text system went down part way. Does this always happen - or was it some kind of technical failure? Will do some more reading.
No, the fact that they lost communication 1 hour and 45 minutes into the descent is what triggered the whole emergency situation. It is not supposed to lose contact.
OK, thank you seattle prattle! I wasn't sure if there was always a point at which it lost contact.
Apparently no GPS onboard the submersible. They navigate via text messaging with the dispatch ship above. The fact that they have lost contact is dire. Experts are not optimistic about its rescue.
Currently three ships on the surface aiding in the search.
Yeah I read about the USBL system but I didn't know if it had limitations (and also whether the news even reported it accurately, as sometimes these articles have misinterpretations). I hope that they find them. It's really horrible :(.
OK, thank you seattle prattle! I wasn't sure if there was always a point at which it lost contact.
Apparently no GPS onboard the submersible. They navigate via text messaging with the dispatch ship above. The fact that they have lost contact is dire. Experts are not optimistic about its rescue.
Currently three ships on the surface aiding in the search.
Losing contact isn't the main problem. The main problem is that they don't seem to have a way of rescuing them unless the sub somehow manages to surface.