Titanic filmmaker James Cameron has criticized the Titan submarine makers for taking passengers to the depths
TITANIC filmmaker James Cameron has slammed the makers of the doomed tourist submarine ‘Titan’ for taking passengers to the depths.
Cameron – also the head of a dive boat company – said others in the industry had raised concerns about his vessel with tour operator OceanGate.
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He said he was skeptical of the company building the 22-foot submarine with a carbon-fiber and titanium hull amid concerns it has led to cracking and water intrusion.
Titanic fanatic Cameron made 30 dives to the wreck and made the 2003 documentary Ghosts of the Abyss about an expedition with the late actor Bill Paxton.
Cameron said it was “only a matter of time” before such a tragedy happened.
During his visits to the shipwreck, he had used a ceramic submarine as it is more resistant to underwater pressure.
The 68-year-old Canadian, who directed the hit 1997 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, said of Titan’s design, “I thought it was a terrible idea.
“I wish I’d spoken up, but I assumed someone was smarter than me, you know, because I’ve never experimented with this technology, but it just sounded bad.”
He added: “Some of the top players in the deep diving community even wrote letters to the company saying that what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers and that it needed to be certified and so on.”
In a 2021 video, OceanGate boss Stockton Rush, who died in the implosion, can be seen saying he “broke rules” to make the trips possible.
He says: “The carbon fiber and the titanium, there is a rule, you can’t do that, I did that.”
Yesterday, Cameron said on US television: “The weakest link, if I had to rely on the results, was the composite cylinder, the main shell that the people were in.”
