Good Morning,
From the moment the Titan sub with 5 people on board, was reported missing on Sunday, the chances of a successful search and rescue seemed as distant as the 2 miles of dark deep ocean depth leading to the wreck of the Titanic.
Submarines don’t go missing, unless they have suffered catastrophic hull failure, or other serious complications, such as getting tangled up in something like the wreckage of the Titanic.
The U.S. Coast Guard said yesterday there were some possible banging sounds heard by a Canadian patrol aircraft looking for the sub, but the sounds were inconclusive.
There is a reason that sub carried emergency oxygen for some 96 hours, because it’s makers, including the head of Ocean Gate Stockton Rush who was piloting the craft knew well at those depths rescue is at the minimum a long shot requiring days not hours.
There is a lot of evidence now that even former senior executives of Ocean Gate felt the sub was too high risk to carry passengers, but Rush had sold out seats for the promise of seeing the Titanic wreck at 250 thousand dollars a pop, and because the dive was in international waters there seems to be no regulation of an expedition, even a deadly one.
The other four passengers are Hamish Harding, a British businessman and explorer; a British-Pakistani businessman, Shahzada Dawood, and his teenage son Suleman, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet a French maritime expert.
By the way, Stockton Rush’ wife Wendy is the great-great-granddaughter of Isidor and Ida Straus, two first-class passengers who were aboard the Titanic when it went down in 1912.
As I write this at 6:30am Thursday, we are 4 days into this drama.
That’s 4 days of terror, if there were people alive at all, after the Titan went missing Sunday. That’s 4 days of freezing temperatures and little food and thinning oxygen.
And it’s 4 days of dwindling hope knowing they might not be found. And that even if they are located, retrieving that sub will take another half a day or day, when there isn’t enough oxygen to last through today.
Other News…
-An explosion in a design school in Paris killed several people and wounded 2 dozen more. Cause? Gas explosion was suspected but not confirmed.
-Violence is beginning to spiral out of control between Israel and Palestinians, and in the latest tit-for-tat bloodshed Israel used a drone to strike to eliminate a so called terror cell. The drone strike comes days after Israel used an attack helicopter to fire on Palestinians in Jenin. Palestinians have used roadside bombs to cripple Israeli patrols, making the West Bank suddenly appear to be more like Israels occupation of South Lebanon, and raising questions of Irans arming of Palestinian militants.
-Ukrainian forces have carried out a missile strike on a bridge connecting Ukraine’s Kherson region and Crimea. The strike used British supplied Storm Shadow missiles say Russian officials who are warning Ukraine against strike Crimea, despite Ukraine’s long standing pledge to retake that peninsula.
Have a good day everyone!
Dana