James Cameron Calls the Tragedy of the Titanic and Titan Begins with an Unheeded Warning

Collapsed Ships. (Wikimedia Commons/NOAA/Institute for Exploration/University of Rhode Island)

JAKARTA - Famous Hollywood film director and part of the submersible community James Cameron is concerned about the tragedy that happened to Titan, highlighting the safety factor and already had an inkling the first time the manned submersible was reported to have lost contact.

Having experienced 33 dives to the site of the wreckage of the Titanic, Cameron said he had predicted the disaster that killed all five Titan passengers a few days earlier.

Cameron said he was on the ship when Titan was first reported missing and only found out about it on Monday. When he learned that Titan had lost navigation and communication at the same time, he immediately suspected disaster had occurred.

"I sensed what had happened. The submarine's electronics failed and its communications systems failed and its tracking transponder failed all together - the submarine was lost," he told the BBC, as quoted on June 23.

"This past week has felt like a running nightmare, with people running around talking about banging noises and talking about oxygen and all that stuff," he said.

"I know the sub is just below depth and its last known position. That's where they found it," he continued.

Cameron was a deep-sea explorer in the 1990s, while researching and making the Oscar-winning blockbuster "Titanic", and co-owner of the company Triton Submarines which makes submersibles for research and tourism.

He is part of the submersible community, or Manned Underwater Vehicle (MUV) industry. When he heard the buzz that OceanGate Inc. was building a deepwater submarine with a carbon fiber composite and titanium hull, Cameron said he was sceptical.

James Cameron. (Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore)

"I think it's a horrible idea. I wish I spoke up, but I presume someone is smarter than me, you know, because I've never experimented with that technology, but it sounds bad on its face," Cameron told Reuters via Zoom.

The cause of Titan's explosion has yet to be determined, but Cameron thinks critics were right in warning about the carbon fiber and titanium hull would allow delamination and microscopic water ingress, leading to progressive failure over time.

Other industry experts and employees who reported violations in 2018 criticized OceanGate for choosing not to seek certification and operating as a test vessel.

OceanGate has not responded to questions about its decision to release certification from third parties, such as the American Bureau of Shipping or Europe's DNV.

In its announcement, the US Coast Guard suspected that Titan exploded and its wreckage was found near the Titanic.

The US Navy's covert acoustic system recorded "an anomaly consistent with an explosion or explosion in the vicinity of where the Titan submarine was operating when communications were lost," the Navy told the Wall Street Journal.

Cameron said his sources reported similar information and suspect it exploded at the time the carrier Titan lost communication with and tracking of the submarine one hour and 45 minutes after the mission began.

"We got confirmation within an hour, that there had been a loud bang at the same time that sub communications was lost. Loud bang on hydrophone. Loss of transponder. Loss of communication. I know what happened. The sub exploded," Cameron said.

Cameron said the industry standard is to make pressure vessel hulls from adjacent materials such as steel, titanium, ceramic or acrylic, which are better for carrying out the tests.

"We celebrate innovation, don't we? But you shouldn't use an experimental vehicle for a paying passenger who isn't a deep sea engineer," Cameron said.

Cameron said the Titanic and Titan tragedies were preceded by warnings that were not heeded. In the case of the Titanic, the ship's captain sped across the Atlantic on a moonless night, despite being warned about the iceberg.

"And it happened again, in the same place. Now there is one shipwreck lying next to another shipwreck for the same reason," he concluded.