Submarine with five passengers on board, operated by OceanGate Inc. Lost off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, near the wreck of the Titanic. The race against time is on to locate the submarine and its occupants.
as US Coast GuardThe submarine set off on Sunday morning during a tourist expedition to see the wreck of the Titanic. No other details have been leaked yet. The operators lost contact about an hour and forty-five minutes into the start of the dive. It is currently unknown if the submarine is lost on the surface of the water, floating on the waves, or resting on the ocean floor.
Rescuers are considering all options. A US Coast Guard C-130 long-range patrol aircraft is currently searching for the submarine, and the Halifax Rescue Coordination Center is “assisting with a P-8 Poseidon” that is equipped with underwater detection capabilities.
This scenario is the nightmare of coast guards around the world.
With the advent of the global market for extreme tourist expeditions into the marine realm, with the aim of taking tourists to the polar ice caps, the sea floor, or other unique and isolated places, the Coast Guard has been concerned about the fact that adventure tourism has made headway from government regulations. Moreover, professionals in the field have not considered how to deal with catastrophic incidents in areas where government assistance is unlikely.
While the Coast Guard can support searches on the surface, most governments have little to offer missing sailors if they are trapped underwater.
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In the United States, the decline in submarine rescue capabilities has been dramatic. in 1960, American Navy Nine underwater rescue vessels and two underwater rescue tugs. Today, this service does not have a single underwater rescue ship.
The US Coast Guard, the agency responsible for US marine rescue missions, does not have an underwater rescue capability. Submarine rescue is now a highly privatized activity and routinely has to work alongside the growing and disorganized fleet of civilian submarine operators.
Underwater rescues are complex and time consuming operations
If the missing submarine is stuck at the bottom of the sea, the outlook is bleak. Submarine rescues are complex and dangerous operations, and with the demise of the US fleet of submarine rescue vessels, the first task, getting to the search area, is often the most difficult.
It takes time to ask for what little help is available. In 2017, to help Argentina to locate the submarine San Juan(S-42) Missing, then missing, the elite US submarine evacuation and rescue team was slow to deploy.
The American rescue team initially struggled to organize the eight voyages needed to bring about 365 tons of material to Argentina. The first transport plane landed 43 hours after it was activated, and 77 hours later. Then, lacking a dedicated ship, the team chartered a “ship of opportunity”, but it took four days to dismantle the ship’s aft bulkhead and another twelve hours to load the equipment aboard.
Only then did the team manage to reach the search area. In the present situation, the relief had not left the dock the submarine’s reserves would have been depleted.
Even if rescuers did arrive, few platforms could operate in the depths Titanic. Private sector resources can be a last resort. there American Navy Rescue and assistance teams are largely privatized and have little to offer to save lives. The last U.S. underwater search and rescue vehicles, the only two Pigeon-class vehicles (ASR 21), were retired from the fleet in the mid-1990s and scrapped in 2009, for the first time, and then in 2012, for the second time.
There are only two general rescue vessels left in the US inventory, and they lack the specialized capabilities needed to rescue from the Titanic’s vast depths.
Private sector professionals such as James Fisher and Sons plc can do a better job in certain circumstances. They are able to act quickly. In 2022, the company has demonstrated that it can load the NATO Undersea Rescue System (NSRS) onto a ship and have it operational within 18 hours. With the war in Ukraine sidelining several large Antonov An-124 aircraft carriers, the company recently demonstrated that the NSRS can be flown on a US C-5 Super Galaxy aircraft. However, again, even if they did gain access to the site, they might not have much to offer at such depths.
Whatever the outcome of the case, this type of incident is likely to happen again in the future. As civilian underwater activities increase, governments should begin a discussion about how private sector professionals can supplement missing government capabilities, or whether governments should replenish well-established underwater rescue capabilities. date in order to better monitor civilian underwater activities and provide assistance in the event of a problem.
High-risk cruise tourism organizations may need to close down and reduce their risks
If Russia, the United States, NATO and other countries can work together to standardize life-saving equipment and sometimes coordinate marine rescue activities, then civilian authorities should be forced to work together to regulate the growing fleet of private civilian submarines and submarines geared toward adventure tourism.
Maritime regulators would be fully able to require operators of tourist-oriented “exploration” or “research” submarines to use standard life-saving devices, similar to those already approved aboard military submarines, and to order operators to put in place government-approved rescue plans, with assets ready to arrive ahead of time. Long life-sustaining systems are at risk of collapse.
clearly, Seabed Not a place for amateurs. It is a hostile and unforgiving environment, with little room for error. Tourists looking for an emotional charge or an adrenaline rush certainly have the right to risk their lives, but since such sponsors may be ill-equipped to assess risk, the government, if called upon to support search and rescue operations when things go wrong, could step forward to award these “rescuers” Good chance of survival.
Organizing the world’s expanding civilian submarine fleet can help ensure private and commercial submarine operators are doing the right thing to minimize risk, by adding safety features and maintaining contingency plans that go beyond simply delivering disaster to the nearest or most efficient shore. Protect.
Translated article from the American magazine Forbes – Author: Craig Hooper
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