Mick Clifford: Two tragedies speak to the world we live in

This week, as I and half the world were fixated on the extensive and expensive search in the north Atlantic, another search was taking place in the waters south of Greece

OceanGate Expeditions' submersible vessel named Titan, which was used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic. Five people died on board the Titan in a 'catastrophic implosion'.

How was your week? For most of it, me and half the world were transfixed by the five people who were missing on an expedition to the Titanic. It is one of those stories that lodges in the global imagination, full of dread and hope, concern, and fascination.

We have been here before in recent years, me and half the world. In 2010, thirty-three miners were trapped 2,300 feet underground for more than two months. All of them were eventually lifted to safety, the marrow of the earth giving them back up to life, a resurrection from what seemed like certain death. Then in 2018 there were the twelve members of a Thai junior football team, aged between eleven and sixteen, and their 24-year-old coach, all lost to flooded caves with little prospect of survival. But they were found, perched on a rock just above the floodwaters. The world watched on as rescue teams ascended on the mouth of the cave from all over the world to make this a fairytale ending to a potential tragedy of terrible proportions. The only black mark on the whole story was that one of the rescuers died, but even that resonated with ancient values, one man sacrificing his life so that children may have a chance to grow.