“Bathyscaphes work for wear and tear”: tourist submarines sink on average once every 5 years

In light of the tragedy that broke out with the Titan submersible on the underwater route to the wreckage of the legendary Titanic, it became curious and alarming, but how many submarines plunge into the abyss with tourists on board? And do they get in trouble?

A study of tourist offers shows that for many years tourists have been invited to underwater walks in bathyscaphes in Egypt, Turkey, Thailand, the Canary Islands, the Crimea and many other seaside resorts. There are also newcomers to this tourism business – in Vietnam on the island of Hon Che, a submarine with 24 tourists on board for the first time plunged to a depth of 100 m last year, at a cost of $60 for an adult and $40 for a child.

In the Balaklava Bay of Sevastopol, a tourist bathyscaphe for 4 people, including the captain, appeared relatively recently, but immediately became popular with tourists, despite the price of 2,500 rubles per dive.

Diving to the bottom of Lake Baikal in a bathyscaphe is considered dangerous due to bottom faults, so there is no mass tourism on submarines, but there is an individual one for VIPs. The bottom of the great Russian lake has already been seen with their own eyes from the porthole of the domestic underwater bathyscaphe “Mir” by Russian President Vladimir Putin, American director James Cameron and a number of other famous people. And the tourism industry promises to soon open underwater excursions for everyone to strengthen domestic tourism.

In the Egyptian resorts, the bathyscaphe is a familiar and favorite entertainment, where children are easily taken. Egyptian tourist submarines can accommodate up to 30 people, the price of a trip is $40-60. To be afraid of any of the tourists and does not come to mind.

– Depends on the depth of the dive and the characteristics of the reservoir, – answers the question of how safe it is the instructor in “wreck diving” (diving to the wreckage of sunken ships) Andrey Polev. – For divers, this is the best entertainment, we have an extensive list of the most interesting places for “wrecking”. But the most curious wreckage, unfortunately, lies in places that are the most difficult to dive. In Egypt, near the famous Blue Hall (Blue Hole, the place where many divers died). In Indonesia, in the Bermuda region, in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii – in general, a lot. But only very experienced divers with a techno level certificate are allowed to dive to them. And it’s still dangerous. As for tourist bathyscaphees, far from resorts on the high seas, organized tourists, of course, are not immersed. But there are desperate “dummies” with private bathyscaphes, no one has the right to forbid them. It is difficult to dive yourself, you need to be trained and have good health, and in the bathyscaphe it seems to many safe and easy, everything will be done by the captain.

– And often troubles happen to them?

– Happens. A few years ago, for example, a submarine sank in the Atlantic, which its owner built himself, such a fan. True, he was saved. But his companion died.

– Why did it sink? And who in such cases saves?

– Sunk due to technical problems. I want to note that if the bathyscaphe is private and not insured, and the owner, God forbid, died with the boat, no one will conduct a technical examination, this is too expensive an event. But who saves is a good question. The military all over the world has worked it out, but still, as we know, disasters happen. By the way, according to statistics, it is military or scientific submarines that most often die, from which research is being conducted, which, however, is natural – there are much more of them than tourist ones. But with tourists, usually the same problem as with other entertainment for holidaymakers. No one expects trouble, so there are no special rescue teams and equipment. And while they are called, precious time is wasted. Usually, the reasons for the crash of a submarine are not reported to the general public – not only in order not to frighten, but this is also a bad omen. Who dives knows. Therefore, officially it is always an “accident” like a collision with a whale (a reef, iceberg, another bathyscaphe, etc.) or a “human factor” (the captain became ill, etc.). But in fact, although I don’t want to scare anyone, most often these are technical problems of the boat itself. So be careful, especially at popular resorts where bathyscaphes are worn out, and no one knows how often they are MOT. Most likely not often, as it is expensive, like everything related to underwater craft.

Help “MK”:

Over the past 15 years, tourist bathyscaphes have crashed 5 times.

1. In 2007, the tourist submersible “Lusian” sank in Hurghada (Egypt), killing two people.

2. In 2011, the tourist submersible “Titanic” sank in Thailand, killing eleven people.

3. In 2014, the tourist bathyscaphe “Luna” crashed in the Crimea, several people were injured.

4. In 2019, the Voyager tourist submersible sank in Spain, injuring several people.

5. In 2020, the tourist submersible “Orka” crashed in Turkey, injuring several people.