Hollywood Director James Cameron likens submersible tragedy to the sinking of the Titanic

The Titan submersible saga came to a tragic conclusion as the sub ran out of its 96-hour oxygen supply, according to the US Coast Guard. The submersible first went missing on Sunday morning when it lost contact with the support ship after about an hour and 45 minutes after submerging.

The submersible went missing on a deep expedition tour of the Titanic wreckage. And now, the Renowned Hollywood director James Cameron, who directed the iconic movie, weighed in on the tragedy.

Titanic Director weighs in on Titan tragedy

Cameron, who directed the Oscar-winning blockbuster "Titanic," told ABC News that he noticed parallels between the Titan disaster and the 1912 sinking of the British passenger liner.

Cameron said, "I'm struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain wcas repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship, and yet, he steamed up full speed into an ice field on a moonless night. And many people died as a result and for us very similar tragedy where warnings went unheeded to take place at the same exact site."

James Cameron shocked by submersible's construction

The Hollywood director is a submersible designer himself and has previously designed vessels that are capable of diving to depths up to three times deeper than the wreckage of the Titanic. Cameron said that the carbon fibre construction of the Titan was "fundamentally flawed."

Cameron himself has embarked on 33 deep-sea dives to visit the area where the Titanic rests. The director was shocked how the modern-day tragedy unfolded considering the amount of diving that occurs with no incident.

Cameron also highlighted the importance of the global safety standard for submersibles and how OpenGate, the company that built the Titan, ignored these "gold standards" for safety despite prior warnings. Cameron also highlighted that no major incident had ever occurred with submersibles since some accidents in the 1960s.

Why submersible tragedy draws similarities to Titanic sinking

He also highlighted how OpenGate CEO Stockton Rush, who was also aboard the Titan, repeatedly ignored warnings about the submersible's faulty construction and cut several corners to keep costs down. Rush was also warned about the dangers of using an unregulated vessel for deep sea diving.

James Cameron said, "The (Titanic) captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship, and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night and many people died as a result." He noted that it was "quite surreal" how similar warnings went unheeded by CEO Rush. In the case of the Titanic, scientists have also cast blame on over 3 million rivets that held the hull's steel plates together.

According to a History Channel documentary scientists examined rivets brought up from the wreckage of the Titanic and found them to contain a high concentration of slag, a smelting residue that can make metal split apart, which may have been responsible for weakening the part of the Titanic's hull that collided with the iceberg, causing it to break apart on impact.

In the rush to locate the five-man submersible, search and rescue teams found outer parts of the Titan near the Titanic wreckage sit. OpenGate, the company responsible for the expedition, said that all five passengers were dead. The US Coast Guard noted that it was still too early to confirm when the Titan imploded.

Source