If one tries to fight the laws of physics, in the end, physics always wins. Two titanium end caps somehow secured to a carbon fiber tube… all hidden under a white shell… I am no expert in submersible design, but I would have passed a free ride in such contraption especially knowing it has been exposed to 500 atmospheres of pressure repeatedly. Not everyone would have been so suspicious.
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I’ve never understood why local governments don’t file reimbursement requests with insurance companies. Not only for ambulance and rescue, but also if a car knocks down a light pole. (Some localities also use private ambulance services which do charge insurance companies, so a public ambulance service could do the same.) Yet, they choose not to.
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I am not advocating or criticizing the realities of a societal construct of economic system so no need to “welcome” me. I was challenging your statement suggesting that finite resources are accessible and distributed equally throughout our society.
Yes welcome to a capitalistic society where this isn’t the case well beyond CC as you assert. No judgement just reality.
You now at least seem to be acknowledging that reality versus your prior comment to the contrary.
In addition to the physics stresses, the metallurgy – bonding carbon fiber to titanium – is not a simple thing to do. They are different compounds and heat/cool/react to stress differently, which weakens teh bonds.
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Nope. There is baseline that should be expected by all. In emergency rooms the baseline is you will be seen. At sea, the baseline has historically been that rescue is always tried.
But, nice try.
Yep typical base line multinational search with typical resources, media coverage and discussion on CC.
Or perhaps a bit more than a base line response but nice try.
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I really like the second line:
“But for crews, the only concern is saving lives”
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Precisely. Not an easy thing to do.
In some states that might not be permitted. In NYS per-example, until last year there had been rules that says volunteer departments can’t bill for ambulance service.
In others the underlying reason might be that they are “tax funded” (e.g., the volunteer departments might (wo)man the rigs, but the equipment is purchased and maintained by the municipalities.
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I’m fairly certain that the expectation was primarily to rescue them at the surface, if at all - short of entanglement at the bottom or structural failure, that’s where the vessel would have been expected.
You just reinforced my point. The local – in this case, state – politicians choose not to bill auto insurance companies for transport to the hospitals.
I understand, but the local/state politicians still choose not to bill a 3rd party for reimbursement, to help offset the costs of the rig and the labor to run it.
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For survivors at sea, time is of the essence. It is normal, and completely their mission, for the CG to deploy all available air and sea-based resources to cover as much surface area as possible in a very short window of time.
You don’t initially know that a task is futile - so you always err on the side of potential survivors.
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Agreed crews save lives and captains and politicians allocate disproportionate resources to the wealthy. As you said welcome to capitalism.
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We could at least acknowledge that this involves a massive redistribution of wealth; tax money collected from average income taxpayers who could never afford this tour to be distributed via rescue for the welfare of 5 superwealthy individuals who could have and should have known better. Quite regressive actually.
Not surprisingly, this was not Rush’s first reckless act. He was arrested in college for drunk driving resulting from his car hitting a train in the station.
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I heard on NPR on my way home that this incident happened on international waters, where regulations just are not easy to implement or administer.
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This I would agree with. That’s also why I am saying there should be regulation of these activities and appropriate fees, especially where these “tours” are held open to the public.
I don’t think we can say that there were 5 individuals who could have or should have known better. At most, IMO, it was Mr. Rush and Mr. Nargeolet. The other three, AFAIK, were not experts in deep-sea expeditions, although I think Mr. Harding had participated in other deep-sea expeditions.
I don’t disagree with the sentiments, but I think regulating safety before the fact and charging a fee to do so would be the way to go.
Perhaps, also, there could be specific legal provisions for compensation back to the government for the rescue after it occurred. But that’s a hindsight issue.
Precisely, but that can be overcome by international treaties among several countries.
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Here the ambulance ride is billed, and medicare pays if that’s your insurance. You call 911, the ambulance comes from the fire house (with the fire truck) and you get taken to the hospital of THEIR choice. You can make a request, but if they don’t want to take you to where you want to go, you go where they say.
I know the billing goes through insurance as my father had several ambulance rides and I did the bills.
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So he was a Princeton educated aerospace engineer, whose car hit a train and died on a submarine surveying a boat. Not sure where I was going with this but…
Since there is no way to get 100% of the countries to sign, the explorers will just raise their flag on a non-signing country. (No different than Cruise lines today flagging their ships a the lowest regulatory country that they can find.)
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If only John Candy were still around… there could be a sequel:
Subs, Trains, and Automobiles
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