A descendant of Titanic survivors said history had come "full circle" as the search for the missing submersible five bore uncanny similarities to the 1912 tragedy.
Shelley Binder's great-grandmother Leah Aks and her baby - Ms Binder's great-uncle - F Phillip Aks both survived the sinking after getting separated in the panic.
But Shelley said she was struck by the news of the missing Titan submersible which disappeared on Sunday near the Titanic wreck and is now understood to have imploded, killing all five men on board.
British billionaire Hamish Harding, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Paul-Henri Nargeolet and businessman Shahzada Dawood along with son Suleman are all confirmed to have died on the voyage.
Retired music professor Shelley - an avid Titanic historian since looking into her ancestors' story - said she could not stop thinking about the tragedy and what the five and their loved ones must have been going through.
"I guess what struck me, oddly, was the similarities between the Titanic and what my great-grandmother must've felt, and what these people must've felt," Ms Binder told The US Sun.
Mrs Aks went from the "highest high" to "fighting desperately for her life" within days aboard the luxury liner.
Ms Binder said the Titan's disappearance was "an eerily similar situation" to the plight her family went through, saying: "They would've been unimaginably excited about stepping into the somewhat unknown, only in short order to be faced with a terrifying and excruciating experience and fighting for their lives."
"And it's all happening in the exact same place [...] and it suddenly occurred to me that this was history reliving itself."
Experts holding a conference on Thursday said debris had been found on the ocean floor around 1,600ft from the Titanic wreck which was consistent with the submersible imploding.
It would mean all five died instantaneously without any time to register what was happening, with officials unable to confirm if any of their remains could be found.
The implosion likely occurred days ago within minutes of the mothership losing contact with Titan on Sunday morning.
Leah Aks was just 18 and a new mother when she boarded the Titanic with her 10-month-old son on its maiden voyage to New York in April 1912.
The young mother was a Polish immigrant venturing across the Pond to meet her husband, Sam Aks, where it was hoped they'd find a better life.
Mr Aks had left three months earlier on another ship, the Cymric, but tragically, Leah's family urged her to wait and board the doomed liner instead - believing hype that it was "unsinkable".
In what must have been unimaginable terror, Mrs Aks became separated from her son in the panic that ensued as Titanic hit an iceberg in the early hours of April 15, and boarded a lifeboat believing him to be dead.
It later transpired the toddler had been rescued by another woman, and was reunited with his mother aboard rescue ship the Carpathia.
The mum and son were among 712 survivors of the disaster which ultimately killed 1,496 people who were predominantly higher class passengers.
Among those were Madeleine Astor - wife of millionaire John Jacob Astor who was killed - who gave a scarf to Leah to keep her warm.
Poor Leah suffered emotional trauma in the disaster, and spent 11 months in hospital upon arriving in the States following a "nervous collapse".
