Titanic sub crew may have known about impending disaster

The crew of the Titan submarine which imploded in the Atlantic Ocean may have known about the impending disaster according to James Cameron. Speaking to Good Morning America about the

tragedy, which took the lives of all five crew members on board, the Hollywood director and adventurer spoke about what he thought may have happened. As well as discussing what could have

potentially failed on the submersible and other faults with its design, including the controversial viewing window and the hull itself, Mr Cameron also said the crew might have known

disaster was afoot. Mr Cameron, who made his name as a film director and explorer of the deep, was part of a group which had advanced knowledge of some details before they were made public.

In the past, the director has been outspoken about both the Titan and the company behind it, OceanGate. Mr Cameron said: “It’s our belief we understand from inside the community that they

had dropped their ascent weights and were coming up, trying to manage an emergency.” While this has not been confirmed, it is believed by some that the dropping of the ascent weights would

mean the crew, led by OceanGate founder Stockton Rush, knew something was up and was resurfacing. The weights on the Titan are used to drag it to the bottom of the ocean; when the crew want

to ascend, they are dropped so the sub can rise gradually to the surface. During his interview, Mr Cameron also criticised the structure and build of the Titan which had diverged from other

submersibles in both shape and construction. Whilst most submersibles of the kind that dive to the Titanic are made of steel or Titanium and are spherical in shape, the Titan was made of

carbon fibre with titanium caps at either end. The reason why most subs are spherical is so the pressure is evenly around the hull. Some experts have said the fact that Titan’s hull was

cylindrical means there was more pressure exerted on the vessel and more unevenly. Mr Cameron said: “There are three potential failure points and the investigation hopefully can localise it

down to exactly what happened.” One of the potential failure points of the Titan is thought to have been the viewport, which reportedly wasn’t designed to be used at the depth the sub was

operating at. Mr Cameron said: “The viewport at the front was an acrylic viewport. I’m told it was rated to less depth than they were diving to, which is one point. “They also had two glass

spheres on the sub, small glass spheres for flotation, which is a bad idea. “If I had to put money down on what the finding will be, the Achilles heel of the sub was the composite cylinder

that was the main hull that the people were inside. “There were two titanium end caps on each end. They are relatively intact on the sea floor. But that carbon fibre composite cylinder is

now just in very small pieces. It's all rammed into one of the hemispheres.” Mr Cameron added that it was “pretty clear that's what failed” and explained how the pressure cycles

would have impacted the hull. He said that the constant pressurising and depressurising forces on the carbon fibre would have had a cumulative effect over the course of its 10 dives. The

effect of these pressure cycles would have been to create cracks and weaknesses in the material, making it more likely to break. The reason why traditional submersibles use steel and

titanium is that they can go through multiple pressure cycles before developing weaknesses.