A lot of people were blaming the US for the delay in getting the equipment out to search site. Then there was a question of why the company waited so long to sound the alarm
Perhaps in both cases it is because they knew what really had happened...and all of this was for show.
Of course, on the slight chance the Navy was wrong and they were really alive then it would have been a far worse PR problem that they died because of inaction
Part of the delay was that the sub company staff waited for eight hours until notifying anyone outside the group that they lost contact with this thing and until 11 Monday morning or a day afterwards to tell the Coast Guard about it. Maybe if they had some 50 year old Navy vets on their staff this thing could have been resolved sooner.
The only equipment needed was a skiff with a wreath to toss.
I will suggest that the problem is interturf bureaucratic dithering.
The coast Guard had the lead and the Coast Guard is Department of Homeland Securtiry. The implosion is said to be heard by the Military or the Department of Defense.
The event happened in international waters.
Perhaps the State Department thus became involved.
Dithering bureaucrats just could not act instantaneously
I’m sorry, but stupidity can and should hurt. I don’t blame the navy one bit here, these people were private individuals doing stupid things at great risk. The cost of a rescue mission in international waters for a for-profit business that wasn’t approved or inspected shouldn’t be the highest priority for them.
IMHO
Exactly. Imagine if the Navy said, "We heard a boom. They're dead. No reason to check it out." The public would've torn them up!
At any rate, of course the Navy was going to arrive on-scene. They have an interest in recovering what's left of the submersible for at the very least, scientific analysis of the debris.