Too Silent and Too Deep

Running deep and maybe a bit too silently apparently caused two nuclear submarines from the British and French navies to collide in the Atlantic last week. The two navies are silently shrugging it off, while the anti-nuclear crowd is saying that it could have easily been the end of the universe. Both opinions are in improper response.

I'm baffled how it could happen. It's true that these ships constantly prowl in silent mode, meaning that they don't emit sonar because that can also make the ship visible to others, but even if they weren't "pinging", how do these two ships end up occupying the same space at the same time in the vastness of the Atlantic?

I'll be anxious to see if any more details come out on this. Anything much more than this apparent low-speed crash, could have been very serious indeed. I really wonder if a little cat-and-mouse game had been going on, as incredible as that may seem? Remember the scene in "The Hunt for Red October"? I'm also thinking about a recent television special I saw on treasure hunting in the English Channel, and how the French navy had brought one of their patrol frigates to within 150 yards of an American privateer research vessel. A dangerous and unnecessary move, but maybe kind of indicative of some hot-headed navy captain. Definitely not what you want driving a nuclear sub!

Last week, a Russian and an American satellite collided in high-earth orbit. That is at least as improbable as this sub accident. Space is much, much bigger and emptier, but I read that there are also popular paths or orbits for certain types of communication satellites of this sort. So maybe the chances for these two accidents are about the same.

I guess, things are getting kind of crowded on the planet when things are "accidentally" crashing in the middle of the ocean and in space, unless there's more to it than what we know now. Interesting.