Janet Street-Porter sparked fury today after sharing her thoughts on the devastating case of the missing Titanic submarine, insinuating that she feels it was a 'selfish' move of the five onboard passengers.
The Loose Women panellist opened today's instalment of the ITV programme by insisting that each of the passengers on board the tourist submarine 'must have known' the risks involved in undertaking such a huge mission to explore the 'graveyard' of the sunken Titanic ship.
The outspoken panellist then claimed that the rescue mission crew are risking their lives to save the 'billionaires' on board the submarine - and they are being paid 'a lot less' to risk it all in order to save what some would call the 'selfish' passengers.
The missing tourist submersible with British billionaire Hamish Harding on board, has a one percent chance of being found and rescued safely, an expert predicted earlier today.
A massive search and rescue operation is currently underway in the mid Atlantic after the tourist submarine went missing during a dive to the sunken Titanic shipwreck on Sunday.
Following Janet's comments on the missing submarine, many Loose Women viewers hit out at the 'insensitivity' of the topic discussed on today's panel.
"Janet has basically just called the missing people 'selfish billionaires'. She couldn't have been less compassionate," one fumed.
"Gosh, hard watch on Loose Women. Imagine those people's families. It doesn't matter now if they are billionaires. Their lives are at high risk. Janet really doesn't know when to shush," another echoed.
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"Omg so much insensitivity on the missing sub," someone else added.
"Not Janet Street-Porter suggesting that those on the missing Titanic mission are selfish," another added.
Contact with the small submarine was lost about an hour and 45 minutes into its dive, and the passengers will only have Oxygen until Thursday at 11am, after which it will run out.
The trip, which is thought to cost £195,000 per head, launched at 4am on Sunday, but communications disappeared less than two hours into the descent to the Titanic wreck site - which sits about 3,800m (12,500ft) below sea level at the bottom of the ocean around 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland but in US waters.
The missing submarine was designed with a 96 hour 'emergency capability', Rear Admiral John Mauger, who is leading the rescue mission, announced at a press conference this evening - meaning there should be enough oxygen in the vessel until around midday on Thursday.
There are fears that the submersible, named Titan, could be stuck in the wreckage of the Titanic that it was diving to explore.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain an expert said that if the submarine has gone down as far as the Titanic, there will only be a one percent chance of the submarine being found.
"The margins of success are very slim indeed," the expert insisted.
"It will likely be a one percent chance of rescue with them being found safe," he added. "If they survive, it will be like a Hollywood movie."
The expedition was OceanGate's third annual voyage to chronicle the deterioration of the iconic ocean liner that struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew.
