James Cameron, a director and deep-sea explorer, highlights design issues with the Titan submersible.
James Cameron, a director and deep-sea explorer, highlights design issues with the Titan submersible.
James Cameron, who directed the 1997 motion picture “Titanic,” has been to the wreckage numerous times.Credit…EPA, via Peter Rae, via Shutterstock
The Oscar-winning “Titanic” director James Cameron remarked on Thursday, “We’ve never had an accident like this.”
Mr. Cameron, a submersible expert, has repeatedly dove to the ship’s rusting hulk and even once dove in a tiny vessel of his own creation to the planet’s deepest abyss.
Mr Cameron described the alleged loss of five life onboard the OceanGate Titan submersible in an interview as being unlike anything anyone active in the field of private ocean exploration had ever experienced.
He said that there had never been a fatality or an explosion at this depth.
When the crushing pressures of the abyss compel a hollow item to violently collapse inward, it results in an implosion in the deep sea. In an interview, Mr. Cameron stated that if the item is large enough to hold five people, “it’s going to be an extremely violent event — like 10 cases of dynamite going off.”
In the Pacific Ocean’s Challenger Deep in 2012, Mr. Cameron created and operated an experimental submersible. Mr. Cameron did not request safety certification for the ship from nautical organisations that offer similar services to several businesses.
Because the craft was experimental and its goal was scientific, “We did that knowingly,” Mr. Cameron added. “I would never design a vehicle to carry passengers without certification,” the designer said.
Mr. Cameron harshly criticised Stockton Rush, the chief executive of OceanGate who operated the submersible when it vanished on Sunday, for never obtaining a safety certification for his tourist-oriented vessel. He pointed out that Rush had described certification as a barrier to creativity.
Mr. Cameron responded, “In principle, I agree. “But you can’t take that stance when you’re putting paying customers into your submersible — when you have innocent guests who trust you and your statements,” a critic said of the submersible operator.
Mr. Cameron mentioned the Titan submersible’s use of carbon-fiber composites as a design flaw and potential warning to its occupants. Due to their significantly lower weight than steel or aluminium yet being tougher and more rigid pound for pound, the materials are extensively used in the aircraft sector.
A carbon-fiber composite has “no strength in compression,” according to Mr. Cameron, which is a concern because this is what happens as an underwater vehicle descends even further into the depths and is subjected to intense increases in water pressure. It is not intended for what it is.
The business, he continued, utilised sensors in the Titan’s hull to evaluate the condition of the carbon-fiber composite hull. OceanGate highlighted the sensors in their marketing materials as a cutting-edge component for “hull health monitoring.” An academic specialist stated at the beginning of the year that the technology gives the pilot “enough time to arrest the descent and safely return to surface.”
Mr. Cameron, on the other hand, disagreed with the company and referred to it as “a warning system” to alert the submersible’s pilot if “the hull is getting ready to implode.”
The sensor network on the sub’s hull, according to Mr. Cameron, is a poor attempt to fix an inherently defective design.
With regard to the network of hull sensors, he stated, “It’s not like a light coming on when the oil in your car is low.” “This is unique.”
